— MICROSOFT 365 —

Eligible staff and students can sign up for Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) for the classroom for free, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Microsoft Teams, plus additional classroom tools for the duration of their time at the university.

Microsoft 365 is licensed as part of your METU email account.

Important Note: In line with the global policy change by Microsoft, the OneDrive storage space offered to Microsoft Office 365 users within the corporate storage area will no longer be available. In this context, to prevent possible data loss, we recommend that you back up your data on OneDrive to an external storage area and free up this space until August 1, 2024.

Important Notice-2! 

Dear Members,

Recent announcements have shared that Microsoft will globally change its licensing policies, and therefore, it has become necessary to implement a two-phase adjustment in our current Microsoft software services.

In the first stage, as stated in the announcement, required members benefiting from Office 365 services to individually back up/delete all their data on OneDrive, Teams, and other Microsoft services.

The second stage, to be carried out between June 24 and July 1, 2024, involves discontinuing the Office 365 A1 Plus licenses used in our university and providing access to new licenses through a new infrastructure.

As part of the second stage, there will be planned restrictions on access to existing Microsoft services during the specified dates. Disruptions may occur when logging into Microsoft Teams, Office 365 software, and other Microsoft services. After the stage is completed on July 1, 2024, all our members will be able to access Microsoft services via their new "@metu.edu.tr" email addresses (e.g., for staff: namesurname@metu.edu.tr // for students: e123456@metu.edu.tr) and new access passwords, which they will obtain by following the "Forgot my password" steps, through the new infrastructure.

After the transition to the new infrastructure, it will not be possible to access data in the old infrastructure using the "@metu.edu.tr" Microsoft accounts and new access passwords. Members wishing to access their data in the old infrastructure will be able to log into Microsoft services with temporarily created "@metu2.metu.edu.tr" email addresses (e.g., for staff: namesurname@metu2.metu.edu.tr // for students: e123456@metu2.metu.edu.tr) and their old Microsoft account passwords. The old infrastructure accounts will remain available for a while to allow members to back up their old data.

Detailed information on the subject can be accessed at https://faq.cc.metu.edu.tr/microsoft365. Possible questions or issues can be submitted via https://bilisimdestek.metu.edu.tr/.

We present this information for your attention.

Regards,

Computer Center

Important Notice-1! 

Dear All,

Microsoft has announced that it will make global changes to its licensing policies. As part of these changes, the Office 365 A1 Plus licenses currently used at our university will be discontinued, and the 1 TB OneDrive, Exchange, and SharePoint cloud storage capacity, which is recognized on a user basis, will no longer be available.

To ensure uninterrupted access to Microsoft software for university members, it is mandatory to make adjustments in our existing Microsoft software services based on the announced changes.

In the first stage, the 1 TB OneDrive, Exchange, and SharePoint quotas recognized on a user basis in Office 365 accounts associated with our members’ @metu.edu.tr email addresses will be restricted as of June 30, 2024. Therefore, members benefiting from Office 365 services need to individually back up or delete their OneDrive, Teams accounts (including records and channels), and all data in Microsoft services by this date. Failure to take action by the specified date will make the account owner responsible for any service interruptions or data loss in Office 365 accounts. If the relevant data in Office 365 accounts continues to be stored without any backup or deletion, there is a possibility that Microsoft may delete this data, and access to it may not be possible after some time.

Details of the planned adjustments related to Microsoft software services in the second stage will be announced later.

For more detailed information on this topic, you can visithttps://faq.cc.metu.edu.tr/microsoft365 .

We sincerely appreciate your attention.

Best regards,

Computer Center 

[1] Note for eligibility: Microsoft 365 is available for free to all current students and staff. Microsoft 365 subscription will be valid throughout your time as a student or staff at METU. Once you have graduated or left the University, copy the data (emails, attachments, OneDrive, etc.) you want to save before your account is closed. Accordingly, at the time of account closure, all data and information stored in the cloud service will no longer be accessible or recoverable. Please regularly backup or sync all files to your personal computer to avoid losing files and data.

[2] Note for license activation: Activate your Microsoft 365 by signing in with your staff/student email address and password linked to your Microsoft account when prompted after opening one of the Office applications. This will ensure you get the full version of Microsoft 365 in accordance with the university's license.

[3] Note for students: When registering for the Microsoft 365 service, students must register with an e-mail address such as e123456@metu.edu.tr. Registering with aliases defined in e-mail addresses such as name.surname@metu.edu.tr is strictly prohibited in accordance with the license agreements.

[4] Microsoft Office 365 Announcement: There will be changes in Microsoft Office 365 services connected to METU e-mail accounts as of June 30, 2024. As of this date, there will be no OneDrive quota for Office 365 services. You must back up/delete all your data in OneDrive, your Teams account (including recordings and channels), and Microsoft services by the specified date. If your accounts are not brought into compliance with the new terms/conditions by this date, you will be subject to any service interruptions, data loss, etc. The user who owns the relevant e-mail is responsible for such situations. We want to remind you that the data stored in your accounts will be irreversibly lost according to the specified conditions.

[5] Note for Graduate and Retired users: Our graduate and retired users still have the opportunity to access their old data. There is no new registration option for both our graduate and retired users on the new infrastructure.

WHO IS THIS SERVICE AVAILABLE TO?