Information for staff leavers
Note: This information does not apply to Research Students, who for this purpose are treated as students, and should refer to:
If you are leaving the University, access to IT Services facilities (including email and York Print Plus) will be withdrawn one day after your employment officially ends.
If HR are notified that you are leaving the University after you have left, then IT Services facilities will be withdrawn one day after HR have been notified.
This is in response to the requirements of research funders and auditors, and ensures we can prevent unauthorised access to University data. You will receive an email to warn you one day before your account closes.
The data in your University Google account and your files in your personal filestore (M: and H: drives) will be saved for one year after expiry, to allow it to be reactivated should you return to the University during this time.
This page gives pointers on what to do if you are:
If you have any further queries, please contact IT Services before you leave - ideally at least two weeks before you leave, to give us time to resolve any issues for you.
Leaving the University
Before you leave the University, we advise you to to check the following services and transfer data you need from your account:
NOTE: When transferring data out of your University account you must ensure that any confidential or restricted University data is NOT included.
For details on what the University classifies as confidential or restricted data see: Information classification and handling
Stating leavers should arrange with their department to return any IT equipment they have been provided with.
Personal filestore (M: and H: drives)
If your personal filestore contains files that you will still need after you leave the University, you should take a copy of these before you go. If there are files that other people will need to access after you leave (eg shared documents), make sure that you share copies with them.
Please also see the information on research data below.
Once your IT account expires all email will be rejected, with a notification sent to the sender. Any email forwarding that you've set up will cease to operate. We recommend that you make your contacts aware of your new email address before your account expires. You should unsubscribe from any mailing lists, or update your subscription with your new email address.
York for Life offers all graduates and retired staff a University email address for life, hosted by Google:
- Alumni Offers
Exporting emails from your University account
NOTE: When copying emails out of your University account it is vital that any confidential or restricted University data is not included.
Any information about students (including marks, hand-ins or emails from students) are personal data under GDPR. Within York’s email environment, suitable legal contracts are in place to allow for processing such information. Exporting any data that is considered personal data under GDPR would be a breach of the GDPR and could expose you personally to liability.
Download your data from Google
You can download specific email labels/folders using Google Takeout:
Emails will be downloaded as MBOX files which you may be able to import into another email service (if your chosen email provider supports it).
IT Services are unable to offer assistance importing MBOX files to other email providers, however Google provide links to instructions in the archive_browser.html file included in the download.
Not recommended: Copy your data to another Google account
Google offer a facility to copy emails from your University account to a personal Gmail account.
However, this tool automatically copies all of your emails and does not offer an option to copy a subset of your email. Therefore we do not recommend staff use this method as the risk of confidential or restricted University data being included is too high.
Students can find full details on our student leavers webpage:
Google Drive
Download your data from Google
You can download some or all of your Google Drive data using Google Takeout:
Any Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Slides and Forms will be converted to another format of your choice. Please note that you will lose the revision history and (depending on which format you select) you may also lose comments.
Not recommended: Copy your data to another Google account
Google offer a facility to copy Google Drive data from your University account to another Google account.
However, this tool automatically copies all of your Google Drive data and does not offer an option to copy specific files or folders. Therefore we do not advise staff use this method the risk of confidential or restricted University data being included is too high.
Students can find full details on our student leavers webpage:
Shared files in Google Drive
If you own shared files, it's important that you transfer the ownership before you leave the University. This is harder to do once you've left, and your colleagues will need our help to transfer the files. If they're not transferred within 12 months of you leaving, the files will be deleted by Google, and can't then be recovered. Several departments have lost access to work when this happens.
If you are leaving the University, you should check what files you own in Google Drive by searching owner:me in the search box. Alternatively you can use our add-on to collate files you own into a Google Sheet (UoY login required).
An easy way to ensure that files are not lost is to transfer these files into a Google Shared Drive, and add your team members to it. When you move a file into a Shared Drive the ownership of the file automatically passes over to the Shared Drive itself and is no longer owned by an individual account. This means you will not lose files when a member of your team leaves.
Find out more about using Shared Drives:
Alternatively, you could transfer ownership of your files to a colleague. However, be aware that changing the owner of a folder doesn't change the owner of the files within that folder; you will need to change the owner of the files separately (you can highlight multiple files in a folder and transfer them all at once).
If you run into any issues with this, please contact IT Services.
Please also see the information on research data below.
If someone is leaving your team
If a member of your team is leaving (or has recently left) the University, you can see what files they have shared with you by searching owner:jo.bloggs@york.ac.uk in the search box. Ask them to transfer ownership (see above) before they leave. If they have already left, contact us for advice.
OneDrive
Download and move your data from Microsoft OneDrive
Follow Microsoft’s guide to download your files and folders to your device.
Shared files in OneDrive
If you own shared files, it's important that you transfer the ownership before you leave the University. This is harder to do once you've left, and your colleagues will need our help to transfer the files. If they're not transferred within 15 months of you leaving, the files will be deleted by Microsoft, and can't then be recovered.
Check what you’ve shared
To check what files and folders you have shared, choose the shared view in OneDrive and then the Shared by you tab. For further guidance see files you shared in OneDrive.
You can also create a OneDrive sharing report to see what you’ve shared with others. Learn how to create a OneDrive sharing report.
Transfer ownership
To transfer ownership of files in Onedrive, download the files or folders from OneDrive to your computer and upload them into an existing Google Shared drive folder. See moving files from OneDrive to Google Drive.
By transferring ownership you will lose version history and you may also lose comments.
If someone is leaving your team
To check which files and folders are shared with you, choose the shared view in OneDrive and then the 'shared with you' tab. For help, see files shared with you in OneDrive.
Research data
If your personal filestore, Google Drive or OneDrive contains research data that you have created/collected, please ensure that you appraise your research data and take appropriate action:
- Dispose of research data securely, if the data has fulfilled its purpose.
- Archive research data in an appropriate research data archive or repository, if the data underpins a publication or is considered to have long-term research value. You must comply with any funder requirements and meet all your legal and/or ethical obligations in this respect.
For more advice, please see the Research data management practical guide.
Video conferencing
Zoom
When you leave the university, any Zoom links created by your Zoom account will no longer work. See our Zoom wiki page on Leaving the University (login required) for more information on what steps you can take.
Google Meet
If you are listed as an ‘organiser’ of any Google Calendar events with a Google Meet link, you will need to change the owner of these events for the event/link to remain. See this guide on how to change the owner of a calendar event.
Qualtrics - Transferring Survey Projects
Overview
It is important to transfer ownership or download your Qualtrics data before you leave the University. Your account and data will be deleted after one year from leaving the University.
You may transfer surveys from one Qualtrics account to another. This can be helpful if you are preparing to leave the University of York, switching to a new job at the University, or you have a Qualtrics account from another institution or a private account.
Transfer a survey from one UOY account to another UOY account
If you would like to transfer one or more surveys from your UOY Qualtrics account along with any collected results to another UOY account, please reach out to itsupport@york.ac.uk
Specify which survey name(s) you'd like to transfer or indicate you want all surveys transferred. Include the full name and username of the person you want to transfer the surveys to. That person will need to have a Qualtrics account before the surveys can be transferred. If any survey sharing was in place, it is retained after the survey ownership is transferred.
If you are not the survey owner and need surveys transferred from another person's account, the survey owner will need to submit the request; if that account holder is no longer at UOY, your Head of Department or line manager will need to confirm the request.
If only the survey questions need to be transferred, you can share the survey project with the other person and the recipient can create a copy of the shared survey. You can choose to copy one of your surveys into another UOY Qualtrics account. You can also choose to export a survey and its data and provide it to the new owner to import. See the steps in Transfer surveys manually below.
Transfer an external account to UOY
If you are new to UOY and would like to transfer your Qualtrics account to the UOY brand, email us itsupport@york.ac.uk to initiate the request. Please provide the URL of your previous Qualtrics site, its institution's name, and your username or email address that you used on this external Qualtrics site. The Qualtrics Brand Administrator at the other institution will be contacted by the Qualtrics vendor to approve the account transfer request.
This account migration will transfer any surveys that you own in the external account along with any survey results and Qualtrics library files and will delete your account at the other institution. Allow four weeks for the account to be transferred.
Transfer surveys manually
You can export surveys, survey results, and reports yourself to create a backup of your research. You can export a survey as a .qsf file and provide it to another person who can import it into their own Qualtrics account as a way of manually transferring a survey.
If your exported survey has images, email triggers, or custom messages, those will have to be provided to the other person and recreated or uploaded in the recipient's account with follow-up survey editing. To transfer the survey results manually to another account, export the data as a .csv file for the other person to import.
- Follow the steps in the Qualtrics resources below:
If you need assistance, reach out to itsupport@york.ac.uk
Other accounts
If you are the owner of any other IT accounts then these will also expire at the same time as your main account. If any of these accounts will still be required by the University after you leave, please email IT Services so that ownership can be transferred to a colleague.
You can view a list of any other IT accounts that you own on the My IT Account webpage, under Account Information.
Changing staff status
If you are moving from a casual contract to become a full member of staff, your department's People Database Administrator will need to provision an early registration associate account, otherwise your IT account will be disabled for up to two weeks, while HR issue the P45 for your casual employment, and update your HR record to your new employment status.
If you are leaving the University, but retaining a relationship with your former department (eg as an Emeritus or Honorary Professor), your department's People Database Administrator can give you Associate Status to enable you to retain access to your IT account and email.