Account Closure and Backing Up

On this page, you will find instructions on how to back up your SSE Riga Google account data and/or transfer your data to your private accounts.

For most purposes, your SSE Riga account acts like a standard Google account. Other guides that specifically mention Google accounts should be applicable to your SSE Riga account as well.

Account closure procedure

If you have graduated from SSE Riga, your SSE Riga student account will be deactivated 2 months after graduation.

If you have otherwise finished your studies at SSE Riga, your SSE Riga student account will be deactivated after 1 month.

If your SSE Riga account is scheduled for closure, back up or transfer all importation information from your account. Full backup or transfer of all e-mails and Google Drive documents can take several days so please start this process well in advance.

Note: Google Drive documents owned by your account will become unavailable to your collaborators after your account is closed. Make sure that any documents from shared projects etc. are transferred to another Google account.

Recommended options for backing up your SSE Riga account data include using Google Takeout service or transferring e-mails, documents or contacts to a personal account.

If you want to back up only your e-mails, Google Drive documents or contact information, please refer to the specific sections below:

Backing up Google Account Data - Google Takeout Service

Using Google Takeout, you can export and download your data from Google services (e-mail, calendar, Drive etc.). Following these steps will create an archive to keep for your records or use the data in another service. (source)

Visit the Download your data page.
Choose which Google products to include in your download.

You can un-check services that you don't need backed up and only leave the most important services checked (Contacts, Drive and Mail being the most important). Also at the bottom to each individual service you have selected, you can click the "All... included" button to select in more detail what will be downloaded (specific Drive folders, Mail labels etc.).

Click on “Next step” located at the bottom and you will be directed to “Choose file type, frequency & destination”. If you don’t have anything special in mind, don’t change anything and just click on “Create export” at the end.

Your archive will start preparing. Depending on the amount of information in your account, this process could take a few minutes or several hours. Most people get the link to their archive the same day that they request it.
The backed-up data will be in the format you specified earlier. Extract the file and separate folders will be created for each service you chose to back up. Mail will be saved in an MBOX file, which will contain all your e-mails.

Backing up e-mails

This option will allow you to transfer all SSE Riga account e-mails to your private Gmail account. Gmail will first import your existing e-mails and then continue to check for new e-mails sent to your SSE Riga account.

Enable e-mail retrieval in your SSE Riga account

Login to your SSE Riga e-mail account
At the top right, click the Gear icon
Select See all settings
Select the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
In the POP Download section, select Enable POP for all mail
In the drop-down menu next to 2. When messages are accessed with POP choose what to do with messages in this account, such as keep SSE Riga Mail’s copy in the inbox
At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes

2. Enable 2-Step Verification and generate an App Password for your SSE Riga account

Login to your SSE Riga e-mail account
Enable 2-Step Verification according to this Google guide

More information about 2-Step Verification at How To - 2-Step Verification

Afterwards, click your Account icon at the top-right and go to Manage your Google Account
Go to Security - 2-Step Verification - App Passwords
Create an App password and note it down for the next step

3. Add SSE Riga e-mail retrieval to your personal Gmail account

Login to your personal Gmail account
At the top right, click the Gear icon
Select See all settings
Select the Accounts and Import tab
In the Check mail from other accounts section, click Add a mail account
Enter your full SSE Riga e-mail address, then click Next
Enter account options as seen in the image below
- Username: SSE Riga e-mail address
- Password: App password that was created in Step 2
- POP server: pop.gmail.com; port: 995
- Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server: unchecked
- Always use a secure connection (SSL): checked
- Other settings are optional
Click Add Account

Gmail will check your SSE Riga account for new e-mails periodically. You can see when the account was last checked from the Accounts and Import tab.

Backing up Google Drive

Use this option if you want to access your SSE Riga Google Drive documents from your personal Drive or if you want to transfer ownership of your files to another SSE Riga account so that the files can still be accessed after your SSE Riga account is closed (source).

Note: Once your account becomes inactive, all files you own will become unavailable, including files you have shared with others. To avoid losing access to files, either make sure you download a copy of your Google Drive files or make another SSE Riga account the owner of the appropriate files and folders (Steps 5 or 6).

Login to your SSE Riga e-mail account.
At the top right, click the Google apps icon and select Drive.
Select a file or a folder.
With the folder selected, at the top, click Share icon or right-click and click Share.
To share files or folders with your personal account:
- Write in the e-mail of your personal account in the Add people and groups box and click Send. This will grant your account Edit access.
- Note: You cannot make a non-SSE Riga account the owner of your files. If you wish to keep a copy of your files, after sharing them, either make a copy of the shared folder (if using desktop application) or download the folder as a ZIP file (if using web interface).
To make another SSE Riga account the owner of your files or folders
- Write the e-mail of the SSE Riga account in the Add people and groups box and click Send.
- While in the same window, click on the icon next to the name of SSE Riga account.
- From the list, select Transfer ownership.
Click Yes.
Repeat for each file or folder you wish to transfer to your personal account.

Backing up contacts

Use this option if you want to back up all of your SSE Riga contacts or import their contact information into your personal account (source).

Log in to your SSE Riga e-mail account.
Click on the right side Google apps icon, then click on Contacts.
If necessary, select contacts in the contacts list you want to export.
On the left of the contacts list, click Export.
Choose which group of contacts you want to export - selected contacts, all contacts in contacts list or frequently contacted.
Select the format in which you'd like to export your contacts' information. Note that some of these formats can lose some contact information.
- To transfer contacts between Google Accounts, use the Google CSV format. This is the recommended way to backup your Google Contacts.
- To transfer contacts to Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, or various other apps, use the Outlook CSV format.
- To transfer contacts to Apple Address Book, use the vCard format.
Click Export.
Select a location to save your file, and click Save.

Afterwards you can use this exported file to import contacts into your personal Gmail account (source).

Log in to your personal Gmail account.
Click on the right side Google apps icon, then click on Contacts.
On the left of the contacts list, click Import.
You can choose a label for imported contacts.
Click Select file.
Select the file you'd like to upload.
Click Import.
When importing is done, Contacts will display the list of contacts imported.

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