Frequently Asked Questions about Gmail

Q: I'm seeing more spam. What's going on?
A: Yes, we're all seeing more spam. Google installed a blank spam filter, so it's going to need a little time to learn what's spam and what isn't. To expediate this process, make sure to use the Report Spam button to help teach the system.

Q: Suddenly, Gmail is moving very slowly. How can I fix that?
A: There are two things to try. 1: Switch to a basic version of Gmail by clicking Basic HTML in the footer of the inbox. 2: You could have a conflict with security and anti-virus software. Read more about how to better configure your system.

Q: Can I still get my mail on my Blackberry or iPhone?
A: Yep! Here are Google's instructions for the Blackberry and for the iPhone.

Q: How do I set up POP and IMAP connections to my e-mail client?
A: All the instructions to set up e-mail clients like Outlook and Thunderbird are here. Need more technical help? POP Settings and IMAP Settings.

Remember, your user name and e-mail address are uwalumni.com, but the incoming and outgoing servers are gmail.com.

Q: Do I go to Gmail.com to login?
A: No. You need to go to http://mail.uwalumni.com. If you go to Gmail.com, they won't know what your uwalumni.com account means.

Q: How do I set up my e-mail forwarding?
A: If you want to forward all your mail to some other system, all the instructions are here. The process shouldn't take you more than a minute. Don't forget to disable the forwarding on the old system or else you'll get double messages until April 30th when we turn the old system off.

Q: Labels. I'm baffled. Help me! I can't live with 1000 messages in my inbox!
A: Do you see the series of labels on the left hand side (some of them have numbers in parenthesis)? Those are your labels. Clicking on one will tell Gmail "Go get all the mail with the label X" and it will show it to you. You should apply labels to as many e-mails as you would have kept in your folders.

Labels are different from folders in that an e-mail can have multiple labels — you can only put an e-mail in one folder.

Your next question is going to be: Great, but that still means I have 500 e-mails in my inbox, and that's no way to live. We agree.

Gmail really only has two folders: Inbox and Archive. So if you label something and archive it, that e-mail will go in the archive folder, out of your inbox. Archiving doesn't mean that you've deleted it, it means it's in the Archives folder.

If you label an e-mail "Job Search" and archive it, you can find it two ways: search for it (in the search box) or click "Job Search" on the labels list on the left.

You can watch a movie about labels here.

Q: How do I change my theme?
A: Step-by-step instructions on how to change your theme are here.

Q: I already have a Gmail account. Will I be able to have two accounts? How will I manage both of them?
A: Yes, you will be able to manage two accounts. Check out Google's documentation on how to connect up to five Gmail accounts.

Q: I heard that Gmail spies on messages to put ads into them. Is that true?
A: No. Gmail is not spying on your messages. All e-mail systems scan your e-mails so that they can display the messages, allow you to search for your messages and flag your messages. Just as you can search all your e-mails for the word "Madison," Gmail can scan your messages for keywords and attach relevant ads. At no time will Google or WAA staff read your mail without your consent.

Q: I've been using my uwalumni.com account to log into Google Apps (Calendar, Docs, etc) for a long time! Will having this new account with GMail change my existing Google services?
A: Unfortunately, yes. Google doesn't allow duplicate account addresses, regardless of whether they're Gmail accounts or Google Apps accounts. After we create your new Gmail account, if you try to log in to Google Apps using your uwalumni.com email address, you won't be able to access your existing data, which might be quite substantial. However, your data is perfectly safe and there is a very simple fix. You can choose one of two routes:

1) You can change your e-mail address on your Google Apps account to something other than your uwalumni.com account (such as a Yahoo or Hotmail address), or...

2) You can contact us and we can delete your newly created Gmail account. You can then create a new uwalumni.com account with a different username and we'll migrate your old mail to it.

Q: Help! I can't login!
A: If you've tried to log in to the new Gmail system and your password seemed to fail, e-mail us and we will reset your password as soon as we can.

If you have more questions, contact us.