At the end of your final year the Computing Service will promptly remove your account from the University network. And just like that all your email will be gone. Here's how to save them.
Using the instructions below you can save all of your Hermes email messages that you currently have in your Hermes inbox - and keep them forever. If you've already setup forwarding to a Gmail account then you still might want to read on, this will get you all your messages - not just ones that you get after you set this up.
Motivation
Why would you want to keep your emails after you've left? Maybe you wouldn't. Maybe you won't look at them again ever. But maybe somewhere in there will be one useful attachment or piece of work that several years from now will be useful - or perhaps even vital. The future is hard to predict. With no cost (no £'s and no disk space) to carrying out this procedure it seems like you might as well go for it.
Method
There are numerous ways that you can achieve the desired result. Any email program for instance can be used to download all your messages. However tackling the problem like this does waste your disk space on these emails and considering that by the time you might want to look at these again you might have swapped computer a few times, it seems better to keep them somewhere online.
So this solution results in all of your Hermes emails appearing in a Gmail account.
Step by Step Instructions
1. Get a Gmail Account
If you already have a Gmail account then you can certainly have all your Hermes emails appearing in it. This is not everyone's cup of tea though and you may wish to create a new Gmail address exclusively for these messages. I would recommend using your current account if you have one. The Hermes messages will not disrupt your inbox or get in the way at all.
2. In your Gmail Account click "Settings" in the top right hand corner.
3. Click the "Accounts" tab.
4. Click "Add a mail account you own".
5. In the pop-up window that appears enter your full Cambridge email address - e.g. abc123@cam.ac.uk, Click "Next Step".
6. The next screen requires you to enter more details about your account. When you've entered all your details it should look something like this.
Here I've ticked all four of the boxes. You can make your own mind up about these options. I would definitely recommend ticking the first three boxes though. The last one is more of a personal choice.
7. The next screen prompt to ask if you want to be able to send emails from "abc123@cam.ac.uk". This is not required and this option can be added at a later date (as long as you decide before your account is deleted). It requires a simple verification that you own the email address - it walks you through it.
8. Sit back and relax.
Your emails will not all be there straight away. Gmail will slowly grab them over the next few hours. Typically 200 every few minutes. You don't have to stay logged into your account, and remember that if you have asked for the messages to skip the inbox then don't expect to see them there. Looking at the label "abc123@cam.ac.uk" should show all the messages that have been downloaded so far.
All Done
That's all there is to it. Any questions, comments, corrections etc. You know the address.
0.1 / Bacteria Biotech.