DoIT Alerts

Showing items tagged gmail. Show All

Update: Gmail Delay

Resolved: Delays in receiving and sending email

Update:

7:19 pm, April 8, 2026

Status: Resolved

Note from Google: The issue has been fully resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.

Original Post:

As of Wednesday, April 8, 2026, Google is aware of an issue affecting Gmail users, who are experiencing delays in receiving and sending emails. No mail loss is expected. 

Google's engineering team is working on the issue. 

For direct updates, click Google Workspace Dashboard.

Tags:

Posted: April 8, 2026, 7:15 PM

Read Original Post in myUMBC
U-M-B-C logo shield with the text "D-O-I-T News

Spring Cleaning Your Cloud Storage!

Resources and tips on freeing up space for the future

Spring is here, and it's time to tidy up your cloud storage so that you'll be able to be more organized and work more efficiently.


Cleaning up Your Email

Your UMBC Gmail account is directly linked to your cloud storage, meaning any emails, files, or attachments you receive can take up even the smallest amount of your cloud storage space. 

Consider deleting old emails and threads or any emails with large attachments. Also, consider unsubscribing from any unwanted mailing lists. These will help with both freeing up your storage space as well as declutter your inbox.

Remove/Relocate Unnecessary Files 

You may have a lot of old files on your Google Drive that have not been accessed in over a year. Consider sorting your files by date and removing old files you no longer have a use for. If the files are important but not accessed often, consider archiving them on another storage device. 

You can also sort your files by size on Google Drive. You can use this to see what is taking up the most space and remove any large files that are no longer needed. 

Remember, the UMBC Cloud Storage platforms should be used for UMBC-related files and documents, including but not limited to classwork and research. 

Empty your Trash Bin

Once you have gone through and cleared any files and or emails, be sure to empty your trash bin, as files are not fully removed, meaning you won't get back any storage until that bin is emptied. 


Tags:

Posted: March 30, 2026, 9:51 AM

Read Original Post in myUMBC
A black, Maryland flag patterned background with a yellow cloud icon in the middle. In the cloud is black text reading "Cloud Storage Spring Cleaning"

Graduating Students' Access to UMBC Cloud Storage Services

A guide for new alumni on their cloud storage access

Congratulations on making it this far in your academic career! You've put a lot of hard work into getting this far, and it's almost time to graduate, but before you move on to the next chapter of your career, make sure you take the next steps to ensure you keep any important records from UMBC!


Once you become an alumnus of UMBC, there will be changes to what services you can have access to, primarily Google Suite, Microsoft Suite, and Box. With Microsoft Suite and Box, your access to these services expires 30-90 days after graduation. This means any documents or files you had stored in OneDrive, Office 365, and Box will be deleted if they are not copied or moved to another storage device. 


To maintain access to your UMBC Google Suite, which includes your Google Drive and UMBC Gmail, you will need to sign into your myUMBC account at least once every 12 months.


Note: We strongly recommend that you migrate any important data and have your UMBC mail forwarded to a personal account.


  • Storage: Your Google storage will be restricted to a total of 5GB os space. Please review the resources below to help cut down on you storage usage and assess what should stay on the UMBC cloud before your account is adjusted to the alumni quota limit

  • Migration: For long-term accessibility and data security, please migrate any critical files a personal cloud or storage space


To see how much storage you're using, click here:

Check my Google Storage Usage


Below you will find many resources on how to cut down on cloud storage and manage your files going forward. 


Your Digital Transition: UMBC Alumni Tech Guide


Tips and Best Practices for Managing Your Cloud Storage


Take Control of Your Google Drive: A Guide to Freeing Up Space


Declutter Your Inbox: A Guide to Cleaning Up Your Email


Cloud Storage Quotas & Changes - UMBC FAQs   

Tags:

Posted: November 17, 2025, 10:37 AM

Read Original Post in myUMBC
A yellow, Maryland flag patterned background with black and grey lines near the bottom left and top right corners. Descending diagonally are words reading "Notice for Graduating Students"

UMBC Gmail Now Accessible Through Google Inbox App

See highlights, add reminders, and bundle messages

DoIT would like to announce that you can now use your UMBC gmail address with Google Inbox by Gmail. Inbox is available on the Google Play Store, Apple App Store and can be accessed on the web by going to inbox.google.com

Google Inbox offers several features not found in regular Gmail. Highlights lets you see things like attachments and pictures without having to open your message. 

When you add a reminder, it will help you accomplish it by including relevant info like phone numbers and links. In addition, Inbox bundles your messages in groups like finances and purchases by default, but can be disabled if needed. 


You can check out this article on DoIT's own Chief Information Officer Jack Suess and his tips and tricks on getting your inbox to zero.

For tips on using Inbox by Gmail, you can check out their promotional video 

If you need additional help on Inbox, you can get support for Inbox here. Also be sure to check out DoIT's extensive FAQs on Gmail here 


Tags:

Posted: September 19, 2016, 10:11 AM

Read Original Post in myUMBC

Getting Your Inbox to Zero by Jack Suess

UMBC’s Chief Information Officer shows how to tame Gmail

On March 9, 2016 DoIT’s instructional team hosted a new event called Techfest, an event that would  bring the campus community together and present ways that technology can both support and improve the efficiency of day-to-day activities. One of the several panels being presented was by Jack Suess of DoIT, who gave his own personal tips & tricks to managing your Gmail.

Suess is no stranger to email, having setup the first email system here at UMBC in 1983. In an average week he receives about 1750 messages with an average of 300 per business day. Jack mentioned that he remembered hearing that President Teddy Roosevelt was a prolific letter writer, believed to have written 100,000 letters in his own lifetime. Suess noted that as of March 7th, 2016, he had 78,783 messages in his sent-mail folder that corresponds to his sent-mail since 2005 and is presently utilizing over 23GB of storage for his Gmail. 


A 1995 issue of Computerworld. The article goes on to mention that back then Suess would get 1,200 emails a week and spend four hours a day just responding to them.

Here are Suess’ key tips for managing Gmail along with some video tutorials:


This helps automatically sort what type of emails you get into their own tabs. By clicking the gear icon in the top right of Gmail and then clicking “Configure Inbox” you can enable tabs for Social, Promotion and more. “When messages are mis-categorized, drag the message to the proper folder and gmail will learn that you want it here in the future,” said Suess.

2. Bulk deleting emails. 

Key: In any of the new category tabs -- Suess demo’d in “promotions” -- the key is clicking the select box of one message and then holding the shift key & click to select everything from the first click. This allowed Suess to select 47 emails down the inbox at once to bulk delete in less than 20 seconds. Jokingly, Suess said  “I know if I made a mistake in promotions I know I’ll get the promotion the next day.” 

One feature some people might enable is priority inbox, which sorts your email based on highest priority rather than chronological order. While this can be a very powerful feature for people with limited time, Suess advised that it’s not for everyone. “I would propose to people is to never adopt priority inbox during a busy time. This would be something to do during a quiet period.” he said.


Located in Settings, Suess showed the Labs menu where Google displays experimental features that add more functionality to Gmail. One feature Suess has enabled is “Quote Selected Text” which quotes the text you have selected when you reply to a message. 

 He also shared a trick not found in Gmail itself. Boomerang for Gmail is a separate download that allows you to schedule an email to be sent at a later time. “I can Boomerang a message to be sent out a week from now,” said Suess.

4. Vacation messages

Located in the Settings using the gear icon in the top right, Suess showed where to set vacation messages, how long you are gone and a custom message to send when someone emails you, or even limit this to just UMBC addresses. However, he also offered the ultimate email tip when you are on vacation. “Go to Hawaii as it’s 9 hours ahead, so by the time you’ve looked it’s most likely been resolved.”

5. Controlling your Inbox

Even with the volume of email he receives, Suess keeps his unread messages under twenty. He gave the following tips he uses:
* Use Categories, this makes it easy to move less important messages into categories outside your primary category. By doing this you can more quickly go through email and get rid of the messages you don’t want;
* Instead of leaving the message as unread if you want to go back to the message, use the star in Gmail to allow you to quickly identify messages you want to go back to;
* Use fewer labels -- Gmail has great search capabilities, by lessening the number of labels you use it makes it easier to file your email, Suess stated he uses only ten folders; and
* Use Gmail Tasks - For any email that requires a response that you can’t get done right away, use Gmail tasks. Under the Move button, there is a menu item Add to Tasks, by creating a task, the email is automatically linked to that task, you can set a date and link these tasks to your Google Calendar.


If you want to learn more about Gmail or have any questions, DoIT has extensive FAQs on Gmail.
Tags:

Posted: March 21, 2016, 9:29 AM

Read Original Post in myUMBC