Male student in communal room with glass walls and bright blue and red carpet

Digital Storage Changes

    

Why Digital Storage Changes?

Kent State University provides email services and digital storage through both Microsoft and Google. Over the last two years, we've been progressively moving towards a more secure workspace that is in alignment with the resources provided to us by our vendors. This is important because our vendors have changed the terms and conditions around how much space is provided to the university and what the costs are for those services.

Due to broad changes in licensing, storage allocation provided by our solution providers, and security requirements for email and productivity suite services (Google Suite and M365), Kent State University will be taking several steps to perform account cleanup and ensure adherence to our terms and conditions.  You may be impacted by one or more of these changes. 
 

What is Changing?

Reduction in the total number of kent.edu accounts:

  • The email for life program will be concluded at the end of September. Graduating students will continue to have an account for two years after graduation. Data stored in Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive will also be removed at this time.  
  • The kent.edu Google accounts of all previous Kent State students, staff, and faculty who have no active connection to the university will be removed.
    • Former employees who are not emeriti
    • Former students who are not currently pursuing academic work and need to reapply to the university to continue their coursework
  • The Google accounts and contents of users who were migrated from Gmail to M365 within the last two years will be deleted on April 21, 2025. There will be no impact on M365 mailboxes.

Reduction of total Google storage in kent.edu accounts:

  • The Google Photos service will be disabled for all kent.edu users at the end of January 2026. Photos needed for personal use should be downloaded and/or moved to iCloud, a personal Google account, or a photo storing service of your choosing.
  • New quotas will be applied to M365 accounts (Mail, OneDrive, and SharePoint services), and Google Drive accounts starting in January 2026. Users should review their kent.edu Google contents, then delete or move unnecessary or large files that may cause the quota to be exceeded. 
     

How Does This Affect You?

Next steps depend on your current role at the university. Click the appropriate role below to learn how you can prepare:

 

 

I am a CURRENT student, staff member, faculty, or emeritus
I am an ALUMNUS or PREVIOUSLY worked at or attended Kent State
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