While most account holders are able to log in for the first time without issue, some do run occasionally into a problem.  If you have any issues with your first login, please take the following troubleshooting steps.  These are the same steps we will walk you through if you call the Help Desk for assistance.  If you're still unable to login, give us a call or stop by, and let us know what you found while completing these steps.

Basic email troubleshooting

1. To access email, you should go to: https://www.office.com or just click the Email link at the bottom of the USC Aiken homepage.
2. You use information from your Pacer Account to log into email.
3. Use your full email address (your Pacer username followed by @usca.edu) as your username when logging in.  For example, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
4. Use your Pacer Account password when logging in.  This is the same password you'd use to log into a campus computer or campus Wi-Fi.
5. Wait at least 5-minutes after resetting your password to log into email.  It's better to wait up to 10-minutes though just to be safe.
6. It's best to choose a password beginning with a letter. Some passwords beginning with a number will not work across all systems.
7. Can you log into campus Wi-Fi or a campus computer with the same password you're using to try to log into email?

Newly Admitted or Transferring Student?

Has it been at least 72-hours since you were accepted?  If not, you should check back again in a day or two.

Transfer and "Change of Campus" Students may also run into issues if they were not properly released from their previous campus before being accepted by the USC Aiken Office of Admissions. Even if you only took college credit courses in high school, the system may still treat you as a "change of campus" student.  Please call your old Admissions Office to ensure you were properly released.  Then contact the USC Aiken Office of Admissions at 803-641-3366. Explain the issue you're having to them and let them know the Help Desk has asked you to check that you are properly accepted after a transfer.  Once this is completed, please try the steps above again.

Still can't get in?

If you are still unable to log into email after completing all of the steps above, please contact the Help Desk with any issues you've found during troubleshooting.

Having this information will allow us to quickly assist you in resolving the issue.  We may be able to help you directly ourselves, or we may get this information from you to work with our counterparts in Columbia to resolve the issue.

To log into your email account, simply click the Email link at the bottom of the USC Aiken website, or go to: https://portal.microsoftonline.com

• For username, enter your USC Aiken email address (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
• For your password, enter the same password as the one you use to sign into campus computers and wi-fi.
• You may be presented with a screen full of options such as Mail, Work Online, Excel Online, OneDrive, etc.  Click the Mail icon.
• During your first sign-in, you'll be asked to set your Time Zone.  Eastern Time is the 16th from the top of the list.

You'll then be taken directly to your Inbox and can begin using email.

Connecting a mobile device to your USCA Email account is fairly simple.  We've included basic instructions below.  If you run into any issues, please bring your device to the Help Desk.  We're happy to walk through the setup process with you.

Setup an iOS device

1. Go to Settings
2. Add Account
3. Tap Exchange
4. Add a new Exchange Account or Corporate Account
5. Enter your full email address and password
6. Connect
7. Choose which options you would like to sync: Mail, Calendar, Contacts, etc.

Setup an Android device

1. Open the Mail app on phone
2. Add a new Exchange Account or Corporate Email Account
3. Enter your full email address and password
4. Click Next
5. Select the Sync Options and Update Schedule
6. Click Next

Setup for Windows Phone

1. On Start, flick left to the App list, tap Settings, and then tap Email & accounts
2. Tap Add an account, and then tap Office 365
3. Enter your full USCA Email address
4. Tap the Password box, and then enter your email password
5. Tap Sign in

Help for Issues

If you run into any issues setting up your device, you may want to check Microsoft's help site for instructions specific to your device.  You'll find those on the Office Web App Help page.

Forwarding was setup over the summer to make sure any messages that went to your new account before you set it up would be forwarded to your old account.  We didn't want you to miss anything.  Now that you have your new account setup, you need to turn that off or you could end up with an email loop...which wouldn't be a good idea.

To turn off the forwarding we setup for everyone...

• Log into your old @usca.edu account
• Click the "gear" icon in the upper-right side of the screen
• Click Options
• Click Accounts > Forwarding
• Select Stop forwarding
• Click Save

A simple way to notify people of your new email account is to set up an automatic reply on your old account to send a reply message giving them your new account information.  It's easy to do.

• Log into your old @email.usca.edu account
• Click the "gear" icon in the upper-right side of the screen
• Click Options
• Click Mail > Automatic Processing > Automatic replies
• Select Send automatic replies
• Write a simple message in the box provided. Something like: My new email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Please update your address book.
• Leave the rest of the options as their default settings
• Click Save

Now anytime someone sends a message to your old account they'll automatically get a reply alerting them to your new address and suggesting they update their address book.

IMPORTANT: It's still best to directly notify anyone important about your new address. You will also need to change the address in the settings of any accounts which might use the address like the account on your bank's website.

New messages sent to your old @email.usca.edu account won't be forwarded automatically, but again that's pretty easy to correct. To make sure you don't miss any messages to your old address, you should set-up a forward from the old account to your new account.

This won't copy over any old messages though.  If you'd prefer to have a copy of the old mail AND have messages forwarded, see the next section "Will email from my old account copy over automatically to my new account?".

Just follow the instructions below to forwarding email.

• Log into your old @email.usca.edu account
• Click the "gear" icon in the upper-right side of the screen
• Click Options
• Click Accounts > Forwarding
• Select Start forwarding
• Enter your new email address (for example, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
• If you'd like to both forward any new messages and keep a copy of new messages in the old account, check "Keep a copy of forwarded messages..." otherwise just leave that checkbox empty
• Click Save

New messages to your old account will now forward over to your new account.  There may be a slight delay between your old account receiving a new message and it being delivered to your new account.

IMPORTANT: You may want to send a test message to your old account just to make sure it does forward to your new account.  If it doesn't for some reason, please contact the Help Desk for assistance.

The email from your old account at @email.usca.edu won't be copied over automatically to the new account.

If you want a copy of all the old messages moved to the new account, you'll need to do that manually, but it's pretty easy.

You can link your two accounts, which will transfer a copy of your old email from your @email.usca.edu account to your new @usca.edu account and forward any new messages as well.  You can do so in just a few simple steps.

Method 1 (works for about 80% of those who try it)

• Log into your new @usca.edu account
• Click the "gear" icon in the upper-right side of the screen
• Click Options
• Click Accounts > Connected accounts
• Click the + icon
• Enter your old email address (for example, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
• Enter the password for your old email (same as your Blackboard password)
• Click OK at the bottom-right

If the steps above don't work for you, you'll see a message saying a secured connection couldn't be established.  If that happens to you, just do the following additional steps.

Method 2 (works for everyone else)

• Click Next
• Select IMAP
• Enter your old email address for both the email address and the username
• Enter the password for your old email account
• Enter outlook.office365.com for the server
• Set Encryption Method to SSL
• Ensure that the port is set to 993
• Leave all other options as they are

If you still can't connect your accounts you will need to reset your Blackboard password, wait about 5-minutes and try again.

Once your accounts are connected, your old messages will begin downloading automatically in the background.  You do not need to stay logged in for this to occur.  It may take up to a day for all old messages to copy from the old account to the new.

IMPORTANT: You should begin seeing messages copied over to your new account within a few hours.  If you haven't seen the copy start within 24-hours, this procedure may not work for your account.  In that case, please contact the Help Desk so we can help you import your old mail. 

You should immediately sign into your new email account and begin using it as your official USC Aiken email account.  This will ensure you don't miss any messages from your instructors, classmates or the university, and allow you immediate access to the additional features the new account provides.  However, your old @email.usca.edu account will also remain active for now if you need to get back into it for some reason.

Your old account will still be available for now, but you shouldn't use it as your official University account...if at all.  To make the upgrade possible, students have to switch to the new email address schema. For example, a student who previously used This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. would now use This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  If you do want to access your old account for any reason, just sign into it using the old address and your Blackboard password.

There are several good reasons:

• Email delays we've all seen for the past couple of years between faculty/staff and student email accounts will be eliminated. 
• Students and faculty/staff will once again be able to share access to each other's calendars. This has been a huge problem for student workers and their supervisors.
• All students will immediately have 1TB of OneDrive space, instead of waiting on the eventual upgrade for this on the @email.usca.edu accounts managed by Columbia.
• Having student email back "in-house" means we can help you with email issues much faster.
• Many new collaboration and classroom technologies will be available with everyone on the same Office 365 server.
• And of course, most importantly: @usca.edu is a shorter email address than @email.usca.edu

1. Be sure that as soon as you have your new account setup, you disable the forwarding from the new to the old account which has been in place over the summer.
2. Now let's get your new account setup. Go to https://portal.microsoftonline.com.
   
3. Enter your new address as the Username. It's your PacerStudent Username followed by @usca.edu.  For example, if my PacerStudent Username was smithj then my new email address will be This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
4. You'll need to stop by or contact the Help Desk using your old @email.usca.edu account if you need your PacerStudent password reset.
5. If you're not sure what your username and password should be, please see the PacerStudent information page.  If you still have a problem with your account, please contact the USCA Help Desk for assistance.  The Columbia/UTS Help Desk will not be able to assist you with this account.
6. Set your Timezone to Eastern.  You'll need to scroll to the top and then find the Eastern time zone.  It's the 16th from the top.
7. Once the Time Zone is set, click Save.
8. You'll see your new Inbox and you should begin using this account as soon as possible. Be sure to notify everyone of your new email address!

If you run into any issues during any part of the steps above, please contact the Help Desk for assistance.