Saint Mary's College Alumnae and Google Workspace for Education

All Google Workspace accounts for alumnae who graduated before May 2025 have been transitioned to “Gmail Only Accounts” on May 5, 2025, as scheduled. This change was necessary to accommodate storage and licensing changes imposed by Google. We thank you for understanding that we cannot accommodate requests to retrieve data now that the transition deadline has passed.

We can confirm there are issues with the Gmail app for iOS accessing Saint Mary’s alumnae e-mail accounts, and we have reported the issue to Google. The issue is not occurring on the Android version of the Gmail app. You can still access your Saint Mary’s e-mail using the web interface at www.google.com or by adding your Saint Mary’s e-mail account to Apple’s Mail app on your iPhone/iPad.

The following information is specific to Saint Mary's graduates who graduated prior to May 2025.

To accommodate the changes they made, Google is offering “Gmail Only User” licenses to educational institutions. These new licenses will not count against the full Google Workspace for Education licenses necessary for our current students, faculty, and staff. Saint Mary’s will move all alumnae accounts from full Google Workspace for Education accounts to Gmail Only User accounts on May 5, 2025.

All alumnae with student e-mail accounts ending in @saintmarys.edu in Google Workspace for Education will be affected, even if you not have signed into your account for a while.

To help alumnae with the transition of going from a full Google Workspace for Education account to a Gmail Only User account, we have established the following timeline:

Monday, March 31, 2025: Information about the change from full Google Workspace for Education accounts to a Gmail Only User accounts will be shared with affected alumnae and posted online at www.saintmarys.edu/resnet/googlealumnae

Monday, April 21, 2025: A minimal storage quota will be set for all alumnae accounts. This will limit the creation of new files in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Photos. During this phase, alumnae will be still be able to sign into and access their Google Workspace for Education accounts, view and download files, and send and receive e-mails.

Monday, May 5, 2025: All alumnae accounts will become Gmail Only User accounts. All information saved in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Photos will be deleted when the account type is changed and cannot be recovered.

Extensions for having alumnae accounts transitioned from full Google Workspace accounts to limited accounts for saintmarys.edu e-mail access will not be granted.

We recommend moving your files in Google Drive and Google Photos to an account you have more control over, such as a personal Google account. Google Takeout will let you export a copy of all of your files in your saintmarys.edu account to your computer, where you can then transfer the files to another location (such as a Google Drive associated with a personal Google account).

To use the Google Takeout Transfer Tool to copy and transfer your e-mail and Google Drive files to another Google Account (such as a personal Google account), visit takeout.google.com/transfer The Google Transfer Tool will not transfer files from Google Photos or other Google apps.

To use Google Takeout to export a copy of your files from Google Drive, Google Photos, and other resources included in Google Workspace, visit takeout.google.com

If you need additional storage space in a personal Google account, you can purchase a Google One subscription. To learn more, visit one.google.com Apple’s iCloud (icloud.com) and Microsoft’s OneDrive (onedrive.com) are other popular resources for personal cloud storage.

If you have shared files in Google Drive or Google Photos that you do not wish to retain through Google Takeout but others still need access to them, you must transfer ownership of those files to another account that will continue to have Google Drive or Google Photos storage. Ownership of shared files must be transferred before Monday, May 5, 2025. If ownership has not been transferred, the files will be deleted and cannot be recovered.

Google 2-Step Verification has been required on all Saint Mary’s Google accounts since Monday, April 11, 2022 at 11:59pm. Any alumnae accounts without Google 2-Step Verification enabled by Monday, May 5, 2025, will be deleted. You can verify that you have successfully enabled Google 2-Step Verification on your account by taking the following steps after signing in to your account:

1. Visit myaccount.google.com
2. In the left column, click on Security.
3. Scroll down to the "How you sign in to Google” section.
4. Next to "2-Step Verification” it will tell you if 2-Step Verification has been turned on.
5. If It is not turned on, click on "2-Step Verification” and follow the prompts to turn it on. Google 2-Step Verification is required to be enabled on all saintmarys.edu accounts for security.

Graduates who return to campus as graduate students will have their full Google Workspace accounts restored after their status from alumnae to active students is updated by Graduate Studies. Any data removed from the account while it was a Gmail User Only account (Google Drive, Google Photos) will not reappear.

If you have questions about accessing your Saint Mary’s Google account, please contact ResNet at resnet@saintmarys.edu. Assistance with accessing accounts is not available over the phone.

Thank you for your understanding as this transition to Gmail Only User accounts occurs.