Email Transition Frequently Asked Questions 

 

Table of Contents

Q. What's this transition all about? 

A. Over the past several years, we stopped providing email services for all new Courant system accounts, so only a small percentage of our users continue to have email delivered to Courant's mail server. If you are viewing this FAQ page, then it is very likely that you have been identified as one of those users, though you may actually be forwarding incoming mail as configured using tools on the Courant systems.

On  Tuesday, July 8th, we will start forwarding your Courant mail to your NYU mail (Gmail). At that time, the only change will be to the delivery of new email. Existing email will remain on the Courant mail server where it will continue to be accessible as it is now while we work on options for ensuring long term access. Updates regarding that process will follow.

In advance of the July 8th target date for forwarding your Courant mail, please be sure to disable any forwarding you may have set up on your NYU mail account that forwards email to your Courant email address.

Q. When will this transition begin? 

A. The email transition will take place on the morning of Tuesday, July 8th. At that time, the only change occurring will be the delivery of new email. All new email that would have arrived at your CIMS mail will be forwarded to your NYU mail. 

Q.  Why can't I see all of my CIMS mail within my NYU mail? 

A. Please note that we are just changing how your CIMS emails will be delivered. This is not an email transfer. Your CIMS mail and NYU mail remain as two separate entities. We have not transferred or moved any emails and/or folders. 

To clarify, all that we have done on July 8th, 2025 is forward all new mail that would have been received in your CIMS mail to your NYU mail. Please note that you can still access all of your historic CIMS mail via webmail.cims.nyu.edu. 

Q. What will happen to my pre-existing mail on the Courant server? 

A. Existing email will remain on the Courant mail server where it will continue to be accessible as it is now while we work on options for ensuring long term access.

Q. Which email client should I use? 

A. NYU Courant strongly recommends using NYU mail (Gmail) as your primary email client. By using Gmail, you will not only receive optimum performance and functionality unique to Gmail, but also avoid well known issues of other third party mail clients. 

Q. Which other email clients would you recommend using? 

A. To reiterate, we would strongly recommend using NYU mail (Gmail) as your primary email client.

If for whatever reason you must use an email client other than Gmail, then we would make note of these alternatives: 

  1. Apple Mail. Also known as the "Mail" application on iPhones and MacBook laptops. 
  2. Thunderbird.

Please note that while other email clients such as Pine, s-nail, and mutt can be configured to receive your NYU Mail, we do not officially endorse nor supply support for these Email clients. Use them at your own risk.

Q. Why don't you recommend using Pine as an Email Client?

Pine (aka Alpine) is a text-based email client. Due to how Pine works with Gmail labels, using Pine to access Gmail ultimately makes everything clunky. For example: 

[INBOX]  -- This is a "normal" mail inbox represented in Pine. It is only one item that can be selected. 

[INBOX] [ / ] -- This is a Gmail inbox represented in Pine. It consists of two items, [INBOX] and [ / ], due to the nature of how Gmail's labels are represented in pine. Despite being selectable, the "[ / ]" doesn't actually lead anywhere. Despite this lack of functionality, these trailing forward-slash boxes cannot be removed.

Q. How can I configure Apple Mail on my Apple device to receive mail?

A. Please refer to this following instruction set for configuring the Mail application on your iPhone and/or MacBook to receive your NYU Email. 

How to Configure your iPhone and/or MacBook to receive your NYU Email

  1. If you are on your iPhone: Open Settings, scroll down to Apps --> Select Mail 

    OR if you are on your MacBook Laptop: Open System Settings, search for "Internet Accounts".
  • Please note that the rest of these instructions apply to iPhones and Mac devices. 

  1. If you have a pre-existing NYU Mail account on your iPhone, then you will need to delete this old account first: Within Mail, select "Mail Accounts". Tap on the Mail account that you need to modify --> "Delete Account". Note that depending on the size of your mail account, this deletion step will take a few minutes. If you are on a MacBook, then you will want to similarly select and delete the pre-existing NYU Mail account. 

  2. To add your NYU Mail: Back within Mail Accounts (or Internet Accounts if you are on a MacBook) --> Add Account --> Google --> You will be prompted to enter your NYU Email address (i.e., netID@nyu.edu) click on "Next" --> You will be brought to a page to authenticate, followed up by Duo 2FA. Upon successful authentication, your NYU Gmail account will be added to your Mail app. No further configuration should be required. Note that it may takes some time for all of your old messages to be downloaded.

  3. To add your CIMS Mail: If you needed to add your CIMS mail account, then go back to Add Account (or Internet Accounts). Select "Other" --> "Add Mail Account." 

    1. ​​​​​You will be prompted to enter your Name, Email, Password, and Description. For Description, let's name this account "Courant Mail". 

    2. Upon successful authentiation, you will be brought to a page where you have to enter information for "Incoming Mail Server" and "Outgoing Mail Server". Select the IMAP tab, and then please use this following information (reference: Outgoing Email, SMTP and Mail Relaying). 

      • Incoming Mail Server:

        • Host name: imap.cims.nyu.edu

        • User name: <Your NetID> 

        • Password: <Your NYU Home Password> 

      • Outgoing Mail Server:

        • Host name: smtp.cims.nyu.edu 

        • User name: <Your NetID>

        • Password: <Your NYU Home Password> 

    3.  When you have entered your information, click on Save. Your information will be verified. If successfully authenticated, then you will be brought to a screen where you can select if you want to save Mail and/or Notes from this account. Select Mail (and/or Notes) and then click on Save. Your mail associated with this account will begin downloading to your device. 

Q. I need to modify my Apple Mail account, but the changes don't seem to be accepted? 

A. For whatever reason, whenever you perform a major configuration change on your Apple Mail application -- whether that is changing your email address or password -- the application refuses to accept/take these changes. 

Through lengthy trial and error, the easiest means of getting around this error is to just remove the Mail Account that you wish to modify, and then re-add it using your updated information. You cannot just re-add this updated email client without first removing the pre-existing (outdated) version, as the Mail application does not permit duplicate email accounts.  

Q. Can I still send mail using my Courant alias?

A. Legacy users (i.e., users who had a CIMS email address prior to the mail transition on July 8th, 2025) still have the ability to configure a Send-As alias in NYU mail. Newer users should be using their netID@nyu.edu email address.

Legacy users may still configure a Send-As alias in NYU mail in order to continue utilizing aliases such as alias@courant.nyu.edu, alias@cims.nyu.edu, and alias@cs.nyu.edu

Please note that these instructions for using a Send-As alias is for NYU mail, specifically within the Gmail web interface or application. 

How to use a Send-As alias in Gmail (October 20th, 2025 edition)

As of Monday, October 20th, 2025, Gmail will no longer ask for SMTP server information, because authentication through the Courant SMTP server is no longer necessary.

Please note that this instruction set applies to all Courant aliases, including @courant.nyu.edu, @cims.nyu.edu, and @cs.nyu.edu. In this example we will be setting up an alias for alias@cims.nyu.edu

  1. Open the NYU mail web interface.
  2. Click on the Gear Icon on the upper-right hand corner of the screen --> See all Settings
  3. Click on the "Accounts" Tab 
  4. In the "Send mail as:" section, click on "Add another email address". This will open up the "Add another email address you own" pop up window. 
  5. In this pop up window, enter your name, and for the "Email address" field enter alias@cims.nyu.edu  
  6. Make sure the "Treat as an alias" box is checked. Click on "Next Step >>" 
  7. On this "Verify your email address" screen, click "Send Verification". 
  8. A verification email will have been sent to alias@cims.nyu.edu. Open that email, and click on the verification link to confirm your new email alias. 
  9. To confirm that your new email alias is functioning, please send an email from your @cims.nyu.edu alias. To do so, compase a new email within Gmail -- you should now see a dropdown menu in the "From" field where you can choose your @cims.nyu.edu address. Note that you may need to reload the page for this change to take effect. 

By default, when replying to any message sent to alias@cs.nyu.edu, your FROM address will be automatically set to alias@cs.nyu.edu. Similarly, if you were to reply to any email explicitly sent to NetID@nyu.edu, gmail will automatically use "NetID@nyu.edu" in the FROM field. That being said, you can still select and utilize any alias that you'd like when replying (if for example a student sent an email to NetID@nyu.edu, and you would prefer to reply as alias@cs.nyu.edu). 

Please note that this Send-As feature is unique to Gmail. Other email clients may not offer this same functionality, which is one of the many reasons why we strongly recommend using Gmail as your primary email client. 

Q. How can I configure Thunderbird to receive mail?

A. To configure Thunderbird to receive your NYU Email, please refer to these following instructions.

Please note that in order to authenticate with Thunderbird, you will need to use a Google App password, not your NYU Home password.

Phase 1: Generate your Google App Password

  1. Open up your NYU Email (via Gmail, which can be reached from home.nyu.edu ). Click on your name in the upper right hand corner of the screen --> Manage your Google Account 
  2. In the "Google Account" screen that opens, click on Security. 
  3. Let's make sure that you have "2-Step Verification" turned ON. Scroll down to the section "How you sign in to Google" and select "2-Step Verification". 
  4. In the new screen, click on "Turn On 2-Step Verification". Click on the back arrow once "2-Step Verification" has been enabled to return to the Security screen.  
  5. Using the search bar at the top, search for "App passwords" --> click on "App passwords" which will open up the "App passwords" screen.
    • Note that the 2-Step Verification must be turned ON with your Google Account in order for the App Passwords option to even appear. If you do not see "App passwords" within your search bar, then you must enable 2-Step Verification first. 
  6. Within "App passwords" enter a new App name. Let's just name it "thunderbird" in this instance. Click on "Create". This will open a pop up window "Generated app password". Copy this 16-character password and/or have it readily available to be used during the next phase. 

Phase 2: Configuring Thunderbird

  1. Open the Thunderbird Application. You should be in the "Account Setup" screen. 
  2. Enter your Full Name, and your NYU email address in the respective fields. For the password field, paste the Google App Password that we had generated in the previous Phase. Click on "Configure manually" 
  3. Enter the following information for the Incoming Server:
    • Hostname: imap.gmail.com
    • Port: 993
    • Connection security: SSL/TLS
    • Authentication method: "Autodetect" or "Normal Password"
    • Username: <yourNetID>@nyu.edu
  4. Enter the following information for the Outgoing Server: 
    • Hostname: smtp.gmail.com
    • Port: 465 
    • Connection security: SSL/TLS 
    • Authentication method: "Autodetect" or "Normal Password"
    • Username: <yourNetID>@nyu.edu
  5. After filling in the provided information for both the Incoming Server and the Outgoing Server, click on the "Re-Test" button, which should set any missing information.
  6. If the Re-Test was successful, then you should see green text appear, confirming that your information has been properly set. 
  7. Click on "Continue" and your mail should begin to download to the Thunderbird client. Note that this might take up more time based on how much mail is being transferred to the Thunderbird client.

 

Q. How can I create an archive of my Courant Mail within Thunderbird?

After July 8th, all new email sent to your Courant address will be forwarded to your NYU mail account. You will still be able to access your Courant mail from within Thunderbird or other IMAP clients for the time being. 

That being said, since the Courant mail server will eventually be retired, we would recommend taking a few moments now to back up your important messages from your Courant mail into a local archive. Here's how to create an archive of your Courant mail in Thunderbird:

How to create a local archive within Thunderbird

  1. Open Thunderbird

  2. In the left-hand sidebar, scroll down to Local Folders

  3. Right-click on Local Folders --> select "New Folder..."

  4. A small "New Folder" window will open. Let's name this new folder "Courant Archive" and for "Create as a subfolder of: " select "Local Folders" from the dropdown menu. 

  5. Now that we have the local folder archive created, we can start to create copies of any messages that we would like to save. For individual emails that you would like to copy, you can drag and drop them into our "Courant Archive" folder.

    • Alternatively, you can right click on an email or folder you would like to archive, select Copy To --> Local Folders --> Courant Archive

  6. You will notice that while you can right click and "Copy To" for individual emails and some folders, you do not have this ability "right click/copy to" feature for your "All Mail" folder. To create a local archive of your entire inbox, we are essentially going to just select your entire Inbox at once before copying it over to the Courant Archive directory.

Q. Can I get my email forwarded to a different email address?

A. You can configure your NYU Gmail account to forward messages to an external address. Information on how to setup forwarding in Gmail is available here.

Should you have any additional requests, questions, comments, or concerns that are not addressed in this page, then please send an email to helpdesk@cims.nyu.edu