If your mail routing address is set to an external email address (e.g. Gmail, Bell.net, etc.) in your WatIAM account instead of your UWaterloo email address, you may not be able to receive your emails in your personal email inbox. This will result in missing or misplaced emails. The reason for this is that forwarding from one organization to another, through an intermediary (i.e. UWaterloo in this case) does not work well. Many sites restrict their mail systems to prevent mail spoofing and email phishing attacks. Since UWaterloo is not one of the servers permitted to forward emails on behalf of these websites, email providers such as Google (Gmail) will reject out attempts at forwarding.
For more information about the cause of this issue, take a look at this page: https://www.dmarcanalyzer.com/spf/, under “SPF will break when an email is forwarded”.
The steps below outline the settings needed to have email forwarded to an external email from your UWaterloo email address.
Part 1 - Update your mail routing address in WatIAM
If you have a UW inbox (e.g. CONNECT or Microsoft 365) please follow the steps below:
Ensure that your mail routing address is listed as your UWaterloo email address in WatIAM.
Login in to WatIAM and click on Manage Email Settings.
b. Click on Manage Email settings to see your Mail Routing Address.
The mail routing address options are:
CONNECT: username@connect.uwaterloo.ca
Microsoft 365: username@connect.uwaterloo.ca (or username@edu.uwaterloo.ca for those that have recently been migrated)
MailServices: username@mailservices.uwaterloo.ca
Note: If you are unsure of which UWaterloo email you have (CONNECT or Microsoft 365), please contact the IST Service Desk.
Part 2 - set up an inbox rule to forward all emails to your personal email
CONNECT: Setting up an Inbox Rule within Connect
Make sure you are selecting "forward" messages instead of "redirect". .
The difference between forwarding and redirecting.
Forward
If you use forward, your email will be forwarded to another email address, but they will arrive as if the original email came from the user's @uwaterloo.ca address.
Redirect
If you use redirect, your email will be redirected to another email address specified by the inbox rule. This rule will redirect the emails as if they came directly from the original sender's email address.
Microsoft 365: Go to portal.office.com > Outlook, and follow the guide: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-reply-to-or-forward-email-messages-in-outlook-on-the-web-ecafbc06-e812-4b9e-a7af-5074a9c7abd0
MailServices: Follow https://uwaterloo.ca/information-systems-technology/services/student-email/mailservices/how-set-filter
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Need help?
Contact the IST Service Desk online or 519-888-4567 ext. 44357.
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