Computing and Network Services
Leaving ESF
Graduating, retiring, or leaving SUNY ESF? Take the following steps to prepare for changes in your access to IT Resources and preserve your data.
Outgoing Students and Employees
Checklist
- Transfer ownership of club, committee, or department files and accounts
- Migrate files
- Download unofficial transcript
- Save and migrate e-mail
- Turn on e-mail auto-reply
- Change your e-mail address on external services
- Uninstall/remove ESF licensed software from personal devices
- Download or export Blackboard content
- Download Zoom and Teams recordings
After you leave SUNY ESF, your accounts will be deactivated, and your data will no longer be available to you. Take the following steps to prepare for these changes and preserve your data. For information about your Syracuse University account read the SU IT resource access for inactive affiliations page.
Class of 2026: Your SU account will expire 12 months after graduation. Your ESF account will remain active as long as you regularly access it or until you become employed by ESF at which point your account will be deactivated when you leave employment.
Action Required
Take these steps to preserve your data and accounts. After the date listed, you will not be able to access these accounts.
Take stock of any files, accounts, and e-mail lists you own on behalf of ESF clubs and organizations, committees, or departments. You will need to transfer ownership to a continuing ESF student or employee before your own accounts are deactivated.
If you used your ESF e-mail to register or log on to a non-ESF website or service (ie. social media, linkedin, job applications, etc.), you will need to update your account with a personal e-mail for that site or service. Most services require you to use the registered e-mail to reset your password, so if you do not change your registered e-mail account to something other than your ESF e-mail, you may not be able to recover an account or use the service.
Additionally, for job search purposes, make sure that your e-mail address has been updated on your resume and on any applications you have already submitted so that potential employers will have up to date information on where they can contact you.
Backup any files saved in OneDrive or on campus network space prior to your account being deactivated.
Stored on OneDrive
We recommend on a personal device a personal device, opening a web browser and logging into https://onedrive.live.com with your ESFiD. Once logged in, you can download any files you'd like to keep.
Stored on Network Space
Network storage space is only accessible on campus or off campus through https://vss.esf.edu. It is recommended to copy the files to another cloud storage solution or to a personal computer.
You should begin preserving your ESF account data long before it is set to be deactivated. You have several options to download your data and migrate it to a different e-mail account. Once you have migrated the data, we strongly recommend you open it in its new location to confirm the process has been successful.
Action Recommended
These steps will help make your transition away from ESF easier, but they are not required.
Your ESF e-mail account will be deactivated as indicated above. However, you should turn on an auto-reply and e-mail forwarding a month before this deactivation date to ease the transition away from your ESF e-mail address. Auto-reply and e-mail forwarding will stop working when your account is deactivated. Instructions are available.
ESF licensed software such as Microsoft Office, Adobe, ArcGIS, etc. will stop working after your account is deactivated. For some software, like Microsoft Office and Adobe, you can purchase a personal license to continue accessing the product. Any program you will no longer be able to access can be removed from your personal computer to save space.
Blackboard courses are managed by Syracuse University. To export or download content from Blackboard courses follow the directions on SU Answers.
Teams and Zoom recordings will be inaccessible after your account is deactivated. Follow the directions below to save recordings prior to your account being deactivated.
Teams
Teams recordings are stored in Microsoft Stream. Login with your ESFiD to download recordings.
Zoom
Zoom recordings are stored in Syracuse University's Kaltura system. Learn how to download media from Kaltura.
Complete Timeline of Access Changes
The following changes will occur over the next year. You will be notified when specific due dates are approaching.
Students
Your ESF account will remain active as long as you are using it. This will require you to transition to using the Microsoft Authenticator app for multi-factor authentication.
|
MAY 2026 |
Enable e-mail auto-reply Transition software, services, and job applications to personal e-mail Transfer ownership of files and accounts |
|
MAY 2027 |
SU Account Deactivated |
Faculty and Staff
Emeritus faculty and long-standing staff members may retain some access after retirement. See the No Access Change section below for more information.
|
LAST DAY OF AFFILIATION WITH ESF |
SU and ESF Accounts De-activated |
|
3 MONTHS FROM LAST DAY |
ESF Account license change |
|
12 MONTHS FROM LAST DAY |
ESF Account and all associated data is deleted |
No Access Change
Emeritus faculty and long-standing staff members may retain some access after retirement. The following services and accounts will not be deactivated but your licensing or privileges could change:
- E-mail, Microsoft 365, and OneDrive
- Printing
- Teams
If you have any questions about resources not listed that you wish to retain access to please contact the CNS helpdesk.
Need Additional Help?
Reach out to the Help Desk at https://support.esf.edu | helpdesk@esf.edu | 315-470-6861
Visit us in Baker 317 Mon-Thur 8am-9pm, Fri 8am-4:30pm, Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 11am-9pm