1. Your email may be filtered in the HKU spam quarantine.
2. The email server is slow in email delivery because it is too busy scanning for email virus or spam. See explanation at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/news/ccnews119/helpdesk.htm#two. If you are expecting an email which has taken more than 2 hours, please send email to ithelp@hku.hk or call the help desk at 2859-2480.

You may have used a client email (POP3) program (e.g. Outlook or Outlook Express) to check mail, and the email in the inbox on the server was "popped" (downloaded) to your PC. Look for them in your PC. To verify whether email was popped to your PC, send enquiry to ithelp@hku.hk. We don’t recommend user to use POP3

If you receive the error message: 'The message could not be sent because one of the recipients was rejected by the server. Server Response: '(the address)... Relaying Denied'...

Your SMTP server is not configured correctly. If you are using the HKU network, your outgoing SMTP server name should be mail.hku.hk. This is independent of which incoming mail server that you are using. If you are outside HKU network, you can use smtproam.hku.hk as the outgoing SMTP server (refer to FAQ for details). You can also use the outgoing SMTP server provided by your network provider, e.g. "mail.netvigator.com".

In Outlook, click menu Tools => Email Accounts => View or change existing email accounts => click Change. In Outlook Express, click menu Tools => Email Accounts => Mail => Properties.

An "E-mail Alias" is another name for your email address which is easier for your friends to remember e.g. "chan-tai-man@hku.hk". An account name is limited to 8 characters while the email alias can have 9 to 32 characters with any combination of alphabets, numbers and special characters "-", ".", "_".

The email alias is NOT an account name. Email alias cannot be used to login your email account where the account name is required. In the above example, use the account name "h0956789" and not the email alias "ada-chan" to login your email.

You can create or change your email alias in the HKU Portal => Campus Information Services => Central IT Services => Change Email Alias.

Your email account expires when you are no longer registered in the University as a student. Students will receive a message from us notifying them the actual account expiry date before their leaving. They are advised to make the necessary follow up arrangement regarding their email content and files before the expiry date.

If you remember your current password, you can change your password in the HKU Portal. Login the HKU Portal at http://hkuportal.hku.hk with your Portal UID and PIN. After login, click on Campus Information Services => Central IT Services => Change HKU Portal PIN => Change HKU Portal PIN.

If you forgot your email password, you can reset your Portal PIN by filling out the electronic form CF-111 "Application for Change of HKU Portal PIN" at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/home/services/forms.htm, or print and return the completed form in person to the Computer Centre General Office in Room 223, Run Run Shaw Building together with your student/staff card for identification.

To determine whether a sender's email address was real or spoofed, you need to reveal the IP address in the full header. To reveal the full header, it depends on your email software. See the instructions for some of the popular programs at http://spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/19.html

For Webmail: Open an email message and then click the Message Details button on top.

If you do not know how to interpret the full header information, you can send it to ithelp@hku.hk

Bulk emails from departments are classified into General Notices and Important Notices. Important Notices contain important information that should be read by all recipients and will be sent to all designated recipients. General Notices are those that could be of general interest to members of the University.

Click here to see detailed instruction with screen shots.

The limit on the number of the recipients in a single email message is 200.

Deleted folder will be emptied automatically for items that are inside it for over 30 days.

You are allowed to recover a email within 7 days after it is deleted from Deleted Items folder. Login to webmail and do the following.

1. Click "Options" button at top right corner of the screen.
2. Click "Deleted Items" on left of the screen.

3. To recover a deleted item, select the item that you want to recover by clicking it in the Recover Deleted Items list. Click "Recover to Deleted Items folder" to recover the item.
4. The e-mail will go back to Deleted items folder

Webmail Interface

1. In the lower left of the IE 7/8/9 window, on the navigation bar, click Mail to make sure you are in the correct view.
2. In the upper left, you will see the folder list. Your name will be displayed near the top. Hover your mouse pointer over your name. A small box with your quota information will appear.

The maximum attachment size in a single email is 30MB

Before migrating to Central Email/Calendar Service (HKUSU1), you are strongly recommanded to export the address book from HKUSUA/HKUSUC webmail first (you can only do it before registering HKUSU1 service). You can recreate those contacts in HKUSU1 via webmail again after migration, or import the address book to local email reader like Outlook Express or Windows Mail

Export address book from HKUSUA/HKUSUC Webmail to a file

1. Visit http://webmail.hku.hk and login to your HKUSUA.HKU.HK or HKUSUC.HKU.HK account.
2. Click "Address Book" at the top of the page.
3. Click "Import/Export" at the top of the page.
4. Click "Export" button at the bottom of the page to export your address book to your computer.
5. Click "Save" button on "File Download" dialog box.
6. To save the address book file "turba.csv" on your computer desktop, click "Desktop" button and then click "Save" button on "Save As" dialog box.
7. When download is completed, click "Open" button on "Download complete" dialog box to examine your address book file.
8. Examine the address book file. Correct any error, if any, in your address book file and save the changes.
   Please note that distribution list (or mailing list) in IMP Webmail cannot be exported into address book file.

To change Sender Name/Email Address, login HKU Portal -> MyPage -> Campus Information Services -> Central IT Services -> Register Name/EAddress in Mail.

Webmail Interface:

Firstly, you need to create a folder called spam-notification.

1. In the lower left of the IE 6 or IE 7 window, on the navigation bar, click Mail to make sure you are in the correct view.
2. In the upper left, you will see the folder list. Your name will be displayed near the top. Right-click your name and select Create New Folder ...
   
   
   
3. For the folder name, type spam-notification

Secondly, create a rule to filter notification message into the spam-notification folder.

1. Click the Options button located at the top bar.

   
   

2. In the left-hand pane, click on Rules
3. Click the New Rule drop-down and select Move messages from someone to a folder
4. You may be prompted to delete any disabled rules that were setup in Outlook. If you have any such rules and are happy to delete them, click Delete disabled rules button. If you wish to keep them, cancel the operation.
5. In the New Rule window, type Spam Quarantine Notification in the Name: box at the bottom.
6. In the section After the message arrives on the right hand side, click on If the message includes specific words ...
7. Check the box In the Subject.
   
   
   
   
8. The following text will appear in the left-hand pane:
   
   "Apply this rule after the message arrives
   from people or distribution lists
     and with specific words in the subject
   move it to the specified folder"
   
   
9. Click on the "from people and distribution lists" link and type in an email address spam-filter@hku.hk in the Message recipients: box at the bottom of the dialog. Click OK.
   
   
   
   
10. Click on the "and with specific words in the subject" link and type in Spam Quarantine Notification in box. Click Add and click OK.
    
    
    
11. Click on the "move it to the specified folder" link and select spam-notification folder from the folder list. Click OK to close the dialog.
    
    
    
    
12. Click Save to save the rule.

1. In MyEmail, click "Contacts" button at the bottom left corner of the screen.
2. A Contact page is shown. To create a new contact, click an "arrow" next to the "New" button and click on "Contact".
3. A new contact page is shown. In Profile section, fill-in the essential information like "First Name" and "Last Name".
4. Scroll down to Contact section, fill-in other essential information like "E-mail" and "Display as" (i.e. Name shown in "To" field of email).
5. Click "Save and Close" button near the top left corner to save the new contact.
6. The new contact is available on the Contact page.

1. In MyEmail, click "Calendar" button at the bottom left corner of the screen will display your calendar.
2. To create an appointment, double click on a slot on the calendar or click on the "New" button on the toolbar to bring up an "Appointment" dialog box.
3. To fill in appointment details, and click "Save and Close" button to save and put it in the calendar.
   
   The "Show time as" box is a way of designating how your time shows on your calendar (Free, Tentative, Busy or Out of Office). This information can be used by others as an indication of your availability when setting up a meeting. The default setting for an appointment is "busy".

1. In MyEmail, right click on the email you treat as a junk email to bring up a pop-up menu.
2. In the pop-up menu, select "Junk E-mail->Add Sender to Blocked Senders List" to put the email (and all future emails) from this sender to "Junk E-mail" folder in your mailbox.

Note: In case the "Junk E-mail" is not available in the pop-up menu, probably automatic junk email filter option is switched off. To switch on this option:

• Click on "Options" button at top right corner of the screen.Click on "Junk E-mail" on left of the screen and you can find "Automatically filter junk e-mail" option on right.
• Select this option and click on "Save" button on top of the screen.

View Screenshots

You must use Internet Explorer to set email forwarding once. If you use other browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, you will not see the "Rules" button for setting email forwarding.

You can setup email forwarding in HKU Portal -> MyEmail as follows:

1. Click the Options button located at the top bar.
2. In the left-hand pane, click on Rules
3. Click the New Rule drop-down and select Create a new rule for arriving messages.
4. You may be prompted to delete any disabled rules that were setup in Outlook. If you have any such rules and are happy to delete them, click Delete disabled rules button. If you wish to keep them, cancel the operation and use Outlook to configure forwarding.
5. In the section Do the following, click on Forward or redirect.
6. Select either one of the following options:
• Redirect the message to people or distribution lists. The redirected message retains the original sender's details but any recipients in the To: and CC: fields are removed and replaced with the address that the message is being redirected to ie. your external email address. In particular, this means that you won't know who the message was originally sent to and you won't be able to "reply to all". However, the original recipients will still be available in the original message in mailbox.
• Forward the message as an attachment. The forwarded message contains the original message as an attachment. If you open the attachment, you can see and reply to all the original recipients. With this method, there is one disadvantage: In your external email account, all forwarded messages will be displayed as having been sent from yourself to yourself.
  
7. The text "Apply this rule after the message arrives / redirect it to people or distribution lists" will appear in the left-hand pane. Click on the people and distribution lists link and type in your external email address in the Message recipients: box at the bottom of the dialog.
8. Click OK to close the dialog.
9. Click Save to save the rule. You will be asked to confirm that this rule will be applied to every message that you receive. Click OK.

To cancel email forwarding, do the followings:

1. Click on Options => Rules.
2. Click on the existing rule and either delete it by clicking the Delete button OR disable it by unchecking the check box next to its name.

Remark: Even after forwarding, a copy of the mail will still deliver to the user mailbox and will occupy your disk space

When you go on holidays, you may want to take a vacation from answering email. This can be done by setting an “Out of Office” message to automatically reply to incoming emails with a message explaining that you are away from your email and will not be able to answer immediately. You can setup the vacation message via Out of Office Assistant. Click on the Options button from the top toolbar and then click Out of Office Assistant.

To turn on Out of Office auto-replies, check the Send Out of Office auto-replies radio button. You can also configure the following settings:

1. To select a time period, select the Send Out of Office auto-replies only during this time period check box, and then set the start time and the end time. Enter the auto-reply message text that you want to be sent to senders within HKU.
   
   
   
   
2. To send an auto-reply to external senders with non-HKU email addresses, select the Send Out of Office auto-replies to External Senders check box, and then select the options that you want. Enter the auto-reply message text that you want to be sent to external senders.
   
   
   
   
3. To turn off Out of Office auto-replies, click Do not send Out of Office auto-replies.

When you have setup the auto-reply message, please click the Save button.

1. In the navigation window on the left, click Mail. You should see a complete list of all of your mailbox contents listed above the Mail button. 
2. Click the plus sign next to your Contacts folder. That should reveal the all Contacts folder, nested within your current Contacts folder. 
3. Right click on it and choose Delete or Rename.

1. Login to webmail and click Option in right top corner.
2. Click Accessibility from the menu
3. Uncheck the option Use the blind and low version experience. Then click Save
4. Logout HKU Portal and login again

The "Recall" function of Outlook is not supported.

For Webmail, refer to http://www.itservices.hku.hk/faq/email/owa-distributionlist.htm

For Outlook 2007, refer to http://www.itservices.hku.hk/faq/email/outlook2007-distributionlist.htm

For Outlook 2003, refer to http://www.itservices.hku.hk/faq/email/outlook2003-distributionlist.htm

Please note that HKU Portal PIN contains 8 characters only. Please try to login HKU Portal again by using the PIN with 8 characters. You can then access to the "MyEmail" tab in HKU Portal.

If you encounter problems in clicking the buttons in Webmail, do the following link in Webmail (highlighted in red).

Please refer to the procedure for:
Hotmail
Gmail
Yahoo