Last Reviewed 2026-06-30
The Department of Computer Science offers PhD and MS graduates the option to convert their existing CS Google account into an alumnus account upon written request, submitted within 30 days of graduation. Submitting this request converts your student account into an alumnus account immediately. It does not create a separate or additional account, and all Google apps in your CS account other than Gmail will no longer be accessible. Alumnus accounts are limited to 15GB of Google storage space and do not include other Google services or departmental storage.
It is your responsibility to back up any files, calendars, photos, or other data you wish to keep from Google apps other than Gmail that will become inaccessible before submitting your conversion request. The department is not responsible for recovering data after conversion.
Alumni who are interested in converting their account to an alumnus account should use the contact button on this page or email help@cs.unc.edu.
In 2021, Google announced a storage policy that provides universities with a baseline of pooled storage shared across all users. In response to this change, CS was forced to set limits on storage usage. Since your Google storage space will be reduced to 15GB when converted, alumni must reduce their usage within 90 days of receiving a message to that effect from CS2 (or 90 days after graduation, whichever is first) to retain their accounts. CS does not back up Google services. Failure to respond to this request will lead to account deletion, including permanent loss of files stored in your CS Google account.
In November 2024, Google announced new licensing restrictions for education accounts.
In May 2025, Google announced the new licensing model will only provide access to Gmail for alumnus accounts. For more information, please see https://support.google.com/a/answer/15603742?fl=1&sjid=6263844609930111487-NA
Inactive alumnus accounts (including accounts with passwords older than two years) will lead to account deletion, including permanent loss of files stored in your CS Google account.
You can use Google Takeout to export the files in your CS Google account. This is useful to back up your data, or to migrate it to a service outside of Google.
You can view your current storage usage at https://drive.google.com/
If you still can't find an answer to what you're looking for, or you have a specific question, open a new ticket and we'd be happy to help!
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