Central Consulting

AcS Account Expiration

The Office of Information Technology offers accounts on the Academic Computing System (ACS) to students, faculty, and staff of Boston University. Your account will remain active for as long as you are registered at or employed by the University.

ACS accounts expire on a schedule determined by the type of University affiliation (see details, below). Approximately two weeks before your account is due to expire, you will receive an expiration notice each time you log on. If you want to forward your e-mail to a new e-mail address or preserve copies of important files, you must do so before your account expires.

Account expiration timeline

Degree program students
Students in both undergraduate and graduate degree programs may retain their ACS accounts for one semester after graduation. Accounts will expire in:

  • August for May graduates
  • January for September graduates
  • May for January graduates.

Part time or non-degree program students
Part time or non-degree program students are eligible for ACS accounts only while registered for courses. When the Registrar's records indicate that you are no longer affiliated with Boston University, your ACS account will be expired following a two-week notification period.

Faculty and staff
Faculty and staff are eligible for accounts only while employed by the University. Accounts may be expired immediately upon termination. Former employees engaged in studies at the University can usually retain their accounts as long as they remain registered for classes.

Guest accounts
Guest accounts are set up for a maximum of one year. Expiration for these accounts occurs four times a year -- in April, July, October, and January.

When you are on a leave of absence

You may be eligible to retain your ACS account while you are on an official leave of absence. Contact acct-mgr@bu.edu for more information.

How to forward your Boston University e-mail

You can arrange to have e-mail sent to you@bu.edu (and any sent specifically to you@acs.bu.edu) forwarded to a new e-mail address after you leave the University. Forwarding of mail sent to you@bu.edu will continue for approximately one year; forwarding of mail sent specifically to you@acs.bu.edu lasts only a short time. For this reason, and for overall simplicity, it's generally good practice to always give out your e-mail address as simply you@bu.edu.

Note that notification is not made when e-mail forwarding expires.

To forward your e-mail, you will need to:

  1. Have access to e-mail at another location, such as an employer, Internet Service Provider, or Web-based mail service.
  2. Set up forwarding to that e-mail address by following the steps at www.bu.edu/computing/email/forwarding/ (BU login name and Kerberos password required).

How to move your saved messages

Using a desktop mail client (Thunderbird, Outlook, Mail) that's configured for IMAP to acs-imap.bu.edu, you can move copies of messages from ACS to your Local Folders (local computer) OR even to a different e-mail account (set up within that same e-mail program) simply by dragging them.

Of note: because Gmail supports IMAP (and similar services might too) you can actually set up your desktop client to also access Gmail and then use the move-by-dragging method to upload your stored ACS messages to your Gmail account. This process is described at www.bu.edu/pcsc/email/configure/forwarding/#IMAP. It is recommended that before you do the ACS->Gmail drag/move, you first set up forwarding from ACS to Gmail using www.bu.edu/computing/email/forwarding/. Then, once forwarding is set up, you'll know that after you move the current ACS messages to Gmail, you won't have missed anything and you'll then be all done with ACS.

If you use Horde, instead of the dragging method described above, you can also save folders to your local computer. Go to Folders->(select the folder)->Choose Action->Download Folder(s) and save the .mbox file when prompted. (If you then have trouble finding the downloaded file, look in your Downloads folder or do a search on mbox.)

To view the downloaded folders, you could then set up Thunderbird (or similar) and move them into the location on your local computer that recognizes them as mail folders. For example, on our sample computer using Thunderbird, downloaded folders placed in C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\d67vhxfe.default\Mail\Local Folders will be recognized as mail folders after Thunderbird is launched.

How to move your Horde Contacts list

If you have a address/contacts list that you would like to preserve for import into another e-mail application, you should follow the related instructions at www.bu.edu/pcsc/email/manage/webmail/horde/#exportcsv.

EFL - E-mail Forwarding for Life (Alumni only)

All alums are eligible to apply for an alumni email forwarding address, which is a mail forwarding alias you will hold for life. Register for a forwarding address at www.bu.edu/alumni using the links provided there.

VPN disabled immediately after graduation (international students only)

International student graduates are able to keep their BU login name and ACS e-mail account according to the regular expiration timeline outlined above.

However, by law, PPP (modem) and VPN access (and, thus, wireless access) have to be immediately disabled after graduation.

If you are continuing to work at BU, you may have VPN access re-enabled via a letter from your manager/advisor to the IT front office. Please call 617-353-2780 during business hours for more information.

How to get more information

If you have additional questions about when your ACS account will expire, contact acct-mgr@bu.edu.