NYU E-mail Addresses & Aliases

• Introduction
• Set or Change Your Personal Address
• Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

An NYU Personal e-mail address is an alternate, usually easy-to-remember address which people can use to send you e-mail messages. For example, say your NetID is aqe123. Your official, permanent NYU e-mail address would then be aqe123@nyu.edu. Your Personal address is also initially set to aqe123@nyu.edu, until you edit it to, say, albert.einstein@nyu.edu. Your Personal address points incoming messages to your official NYU e-mail address, so all your mail is delivered to the same inbox. You can also list this Personal e-mail address in the NYU Directory instead of your default NetID@nyu.edu address. See below for instructions for configuring your Personal address.

ITS recommends that full-time faculty, staff, and administrators set their Personal address to a "business card" alias in the format: firstname.lastname@nyu.edu. To do so, follow the personal e-mail address instructions below.

Departmental Aliases

E-mail aliases are also available for departments. A departmental alias is set up in the format: school or division abbreviation.department name@nyu.edu (e.g., AskITS@nyu.edu). The departmental alias points mail sent to the alias an individual's e-mail address or to those of a group of individuals. It can also send mail to a NYU List. For guidelines and to request a departmental alias, follow the instructions in the NYU Web Guide.

Set or Change Your Personal Address

1. Log into NYUHome.
2. Select the Preferences link in the upper right-hand menu bar of your NYUHome screen.
3. Under the section for YOUR EMAIL, find the option for "Personal address."
4. Click on the Edit link.
5. The personal e-mail address preferences screen will be displayed with your current address choices. Before choosing a Personal address, we encourage you to read the Appropriate Use of E-mail at NYU Policy for important information. Keep in mind that you can only change your Personal address once a year, so be sure to choose one you like, and be careful to spell it correctly. (You will have a chance to confirm your choice.)
6. Once you've decided on a Personal address, type it into the space provided and click the "Submit" button.
7. A pop-up window with a confirmation message will appear. If you're ready to commit to your new address, click the "Confirm" button. If not, click the "Cancel" button.
8. If your Personal address choice is valid, you will receive a confirmation message. If not, you will be asked to go back and choose another address. Keep in mind the Appropriate Use of E-mail at NYU Policy when choosing your new address as certain restrictions apply.

Your new Personal address will be available for use once you receive your confirmation message. After this, e-mail can be sent to you at either your Personal address (e.g., albert.einstein@nyu.edu) or your official NetID address (e.g., aqe123@nyu.edu). In either case, incoming e-mail will be delivered to your one NYU e-mail inbox.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this affect the desktop e-mail program I use?

If you use a desktop e-mail program (such as Thunderbird or Outlook) to check your NYU e-mail, once you have selected a Personal address, you can configure your e-mail program to show your new Personal address as your "From" address. In the example above, you could configure your mail program to use albert.einstein@nyu.edu as your "From" address.

What are the rules when choosing a Personal address?

Personal E-mail Address Governing Policy

A Personal address of your choice can be used with your NYUHome e-mail account in addition to your official address (NetID@nyu.edu).

Your Personal address will appear as your "From" address in outgoing mail messages from Messenger Express, or if you use an e-mail program such as Thunderbird or Outlook, you can configure it to use your Personal e-mail address as your "From" address if you choose.

If you are listed in the NYU Online Directory, your chosen Personal e-mail address will be published as your e-mail address unless you opt to use a different NYU e-mail address instead.

Personal e-mail addresses are available on a first-come, first-serve basis to all NYUHome e-mail account holders. Unless changed by the individual or reclaimed by the University for some reason, a Personal address will remain operational as long as NYU accepts or forwards e-mail for an individual.

University employees are encouraged to select a Personal e-mail address with the format:

• firstname.lastname@nyu.edu

and to consult with their school or department before selecting another format.

Limitations

• Your Personal address should be derived from your name or nickname and cannot be or imply any University-related role.
• You may have only one Personal e-mail address active at any given time.
• You may change your Personal e-mail address only once per year: please be prudent in your selection.
• An address may consist exclusively of lowercase letters, numbers and the period (.). No other characters may be used.
• An address must be at least 4 and no more than 32 characters in length.
• It may not be similar in form to a NYU NetID, which consists of 2-6 alphabetic characters followed by 1-5 digits.
• You may not pick an address that misrepresents yourself or your role at the University.
• Profanities or other offensive words may not be used.
• An address that is no longer in active use may be reassigned to another person after 60 days.
• NYU reserves the right to reclaim any address it may need to use in carrying out the business of the University.

Is my Personal address a new e-mail account? Does picking a Personal address change my NetID?

No, mail sent to your Personal address goes to the same inbox as your NetID address, and your NYU NetID remains unchanged. Your personal e-mail address is just a synonym for your NetID@nyu.edu official address. In other words, albert.q.einstein@nyu.edu is an e-mail "alias" for aqe123@nyu.edu.

What if I don't like the Personal address I chose?

Be careful! You can only change your Personal address once per year. However, at any time you can cancel your Personal address selection, resetting it to your NetID@nyu.edu address. If you do this, mail sent to your former Personal address will no longer be delivered.

What is the difference between a Directory address and a personal e-mail address?

A Directory address is an e-mail address published in the NYU Directory. If you are listed in the directory, then people can find your e-mail address and send you messages. Consequently, your Directory address should be set to the address you wish people to use to send your mail.

Normally, it is best for your personal e-mail address and your Directory address to be the same. However, some people have more than one e-mail account at the university: for example, both an NYUHome account and an e-mail account on a departmental server. In such a case, you might prefer to publish the departmental server address. To accommodate this situation, you have the option of directly setting your Directory address to an NYU e-mail address different from your personal e-mail address.

Note:

All NYU employees are listed in the online directory with their office address, phone number, and e-mail address. In the interest of privacy, students are not listed in the online directory unless they opt in at start.nyu.edu. The online directory is searchable at www.nyu.edu/search.

Page last reviewed: May 29, 2012