What’s happening?

Technology Services will deactivate accounts belonging to people that are no longer eligible for the U of I Box service. Eligibility for U of I Box is extended to all current faculty, staff, students, recent alums, sponsored accounts, and affiliates. If you are currently enrolled as a student, currently employed by the university, or currently working as an affiliate of the University, then your account will not be affected. Each campus will devise its own processes for dealing with accounts and processes depicted here are relevant for the Urbana campus.

When is it happening?

Account deactivations will start June 12, 2023. Due to the number of affected accounts, the service team will be batching the deactivations through 2025. After the initial batches of ineligible accounts are deactivated, we'll begin to review accounts after each fall semester ends. 

How does this affect me?

For the overwhelming majority of users, there should be no impact at all. Only accounts that have been found to be ineligible for service will be affected. 

What about the data in those deactivated accounts?

There is a chance that you are collaborating on a file that is owned by an account that will be deactivated. To protect anyone from accidental data loss, we will be using a multi-step process.

1. The service team will identify the accounts that are no longer eligible for service based on their current account status as shown in Banner.
2. An email will be sent to the identified accounts and a notice will be shared with IT pros about the upcoming deactivations.
3. Thirty days after the notification messages are sent out, the account will be deactivated. When the account is deactivated, the account owner and any file collaborators will lose access to those files.
4. The service team will hold the data for 6 months.
5. In 6 months, after the holding period has ended, that data will be purged from the system and it will no longer be recoverable.

Frequently asked Questions:

Q: Why is this happening now? 

A: A recent service review showed that some accounts belonging to ineligible people had not been properly deactivated. We are remediating that issue. 

Q: How will I know if I am affected? 

A: We are only deactivating accounts belonging to people with no current affiliation with the university. If you are an employee of the campus, enrolled as a student, or working as an affiliate, you will not be affected. We will be sending out emails to all accounts (using last known email addresses) prior to account deactivation. 

Q: How are you determining eligibility? 

A: We are checking your status in Banner to see if you have an active affiliation with the campus. 

Q: What if I’m going to be deactivated, but I think my account should remain active? 

A: You will need to contact the department you work with or the registrar’s office to have your status updated in Banner.

Q: What should I do if I am notified that my account will be deactivated? 

A: You should copy out any personal data and transfer ownership of any data that may be needed by others. We've created a knowledgebase article with advice for migrating your data out of Box.

Q: What happens to data belonging to deactivated accounts? 

A: The account is will be held in a deactivated 30 days. During this time, the data will be inaccessible to the account holder and any collaborators. The accounts can be temporarily reactivated during this time. After 30 days, the account will be deleted and the data will be temporarily stored for 6 months. During this time, the data can be recovered by the Box support team. After 6 months, the data will be permanently purged from the system. 

Q: Will these account deactivations impact all data stored in Box? 

A: No, it will on affect data owned by ineligible accounts. Data owned by eligible accounts will be unaffected. Data stored in Box Team folders will be unaffected. Data stored in Box Health Data Folders will be unaffected. 

What if I have questions?

For most issues, if you have questions please reach out to your department's IT support team. They have been updated on these changes and can help you manage your data. Additionally, you can contact the Technology Services Help Desk via email at consult@illinois.edu or on the web at https://help.illinois.edu with any questions.