ALERTS

Notice: Microsoft Office 365 Changes and Administration of the hawaii.edu Microsoft Domain (Aug 14 4:09 pm)

Microsoft is retiring its unmanaged Office 365 services at the end of 2025. Learn more about their changes on the Microsoft website.

Due to these changes by Microsoft, ITS is assuming administrative control over the unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft domain. This will allow us to achieve several critical objectives: gain comprehensive administrative control over the domain, eliminate security concerns present with an unmanaged Microsoft domain being affiliated with the University, and allow for individual campuses and the University as a whole to benefit from system-wide service and licensing agreements with Microsoft. As part of this change, ITS will be deprovisioning all accounts that exist in the unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft domain on Monday, 11/03/2025.

What is the hawaii.edu Microsoft domain?

The hawaii.edu Microsoft domain is a Microsoft 365 tenant that was created by Microsoft and has operated without any involvement or administration from ITS or the University since its creation. As a result, ITS had recommended against users creating a Microsoft account with their @hawaii.edu. The unmanaged domain provided access to various Microsoft services that were often utilized by individuals on an ad-hoc basis. The services available through this domain generally included:

• Microsoft Office Online Applications: Web-based versions of applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

• OneDrive: Limited cloud storage for files and documents.

• SharePoint: Collaboration and document management capabilities.

• Microsoft Teams: Communication and collaboration platform.

Timeline to deprovision existing Microsoft accounts on the hawaii.edu Microsoft domain

ITS will be deprovisioning accounts created on the unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft domain on Monday, 11/03/2025. Users will be unable to access deprovisioned accounts after this date and all data stored on the accounts will be permanently lost.

Important note - you will not be impacted if:

• you are currently utilizing Microsoft Services under a campus-specific contract; or

• you are using installed Microsoft applications purchased through ITS Site Licensing (Office, Publisher, Visio, etc.); and

• you are NOT utilizing services via the unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft domain

How to check if you are impacted

Only users who have accounts in the unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft domain will be impacted. ITS will be sending email notifications to UH Users who have accounts on the unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft domain with more information.

Users can also determine if they have an account in the unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft domain and may be impacted by this change by following these steps:

1. Visit the Microsoft sign-in page at https://myaccount.microsoft.com?tenantId=hawaii.edu

2. Enter your hawaii.edu email address and click Next.

3. If you receive the message “This username may be incorrect. Make sure you typed it correctly. Otherwise, contact your admin.” when trying to login, you do not have an account in the unmanaged domain and need not take any further action.

4. If you are instead asked to enter a password, then you likely do have an account in the unmanaged domain and may be impacted.

What should impacted users do?

Impacted users who have accounts in the unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft domain will have until Monday, 11/03/2025 to export or download any data currently stored on their domain accounts in order to avoid data loss.

Users who log into a Windows device using their unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft domain account should update their device to log in with a local account or a personal Microsoft account to ensure continued access to their device.

Visit our AskUs article for instructions on exporting or downloading data and updating Windows devices to switch from an unmanaged hawaii.edu Microsoft account to a local account.

UH users who may have been using services available at the unmanaged Microsoft domain can transition to using the equivalent or enhanced Google@UH services offered to all active UH users, such as the following:

• Document Creation and Collaboration: Google Docs, Sheets, Slides (alternatives to Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

• Cloud Storage: Google Drive (alternative to OneDrive)

• Collaboration and Intranet: Google Sites, Shared Drives (alternatives to SharePoint)

• Communication and Collaboration: Google Meet, Google Chat (alternatives to Microsoft Teams)

• Conversational AI: Google Gemini

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