FAQ - RWTH-E-Mail

When starting Outlook, you may be prompted to log in to your RWTH email account or your Microsoft account. Please check which login dialog is being displayed and make sure that no incorrect data has been filled in automatically.

 Login for an RWTH email account:

Log in with a username in the form ab123456@rwth-aachen.de or ab123456@[institut].rwth-aachen.de. The password is the one set in Identity Management Selfservice for your RWTH email account.

Outlook may automatically enter incorrect login credentials. Please check that the username is correct and enter your password yourself.

Login for a Microsoft account:

For data protection reasons, no changes can be made to the content of the account profile by the respective user themselves.

Only the profile picture can be changed or removed, as this can also only be added by the user.
If your account has a profile picture, this is because you have explicitly created a contact for your own e-mail address on your smartphone and assigned a profile picture to this account.

This picture is then also displayed in the RWTH Mail App (OWA) in the menu item Options → General → My account. However, this image cannot be changed via OWA.
If you want to change this picture, please change the profile picture that has been assigned to your contact on the smartphone. You can also delete the picture so that a profile picture is no longer displayed.

The size of individual files is not relevant as long as the sum of all attachments together does not exceed 20 MB.

Instructions for handling larger attachments can be found here.

The sum of all attachments may not exceed a size of 20MB.

Instructions for handling larger attachments can be found here.

• Students must first register the name change with the Registrar's Office
• Employees must first report a name change to the responsible HR department (subordinate to department 8.0)

Regarding the export, the format is crucial so that you can import your own calendar in another "calendar" app.
We recommend to use Thunderbird for this purpose. By means of the integrated Lightning (calendar app) you also have access to your calendar and can perform the export.

(Background: On the server side, only an export in Outlook format (PST) is possible, this can only be used in Outlook).

You can sign your e-mails digitally, if you use the RWTH MailApp. To do so, you need to install the corresponding S/MIME Plugin.

In chromium-based browsers, you may first have to allow the installation and set up the corresponding certificate chain on the computer or in the browser so that the user certificate is recognized as trustworthy.

• You can use your e-mail client to define rules for archiving e-mails
• To do this, you must activate the archiving function in your e-mail client and create a local folder
• If you use an e-mail client such as Outlook or Thunderbird, you can follow these instructions.
• Unfortunately, the RWTH OWA does not support archive or export functions

• In the respective e-mail client, you can activate the settings to make extended logs visible to the user.

• Here you can find the official instructions from the manufacturers on how to enable extended logs for error diagnostics:

  Outlook: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-enable-global-and-advanced-logging-for-microsoft-outlook-15c74560-2aaa-befd-c256-7c8823b1aefa

  Thunderbird: https://www.thunderbird-mail.de/lexicon/entry/215-protokoll-log-datei-der-server-verbindung-mit-imap-pop-und-smtp-erstellen/

Should the size of the quota pool no longer be sufficient, please inform us by sending an email to servicedesk@itc.rwth-aachen.de.

Please add the following information:

• RWTH Organisation and Organisation ID
• Domain
• Required quota pool increase (The scope of the actual increase may differ from this)

The admin of the specific mail domain can assign quota of varying size to any e-mail account based on an overall quota for their institution.

Currently, only Microsoft Outlook supports address list separation.

If address list separation is not supported, the user is given access to the global address book and must search for the required email addresses from this address book independently.

You can setup any number of aliases.

Emails can even be sent from the alias addresses.
This applies if the email client is configured so that the SMTP protocol is used to send emails.
As a rule, this does not apply when using Outlook.

The following mail-protocols are supported:

• IMAP
• POP3
• Outlook Anywhere
• Active Sync

The POP3 protocol can be used, but is not recommended, as emails are downloaded to the respective client and deleted from the server.

• First of all, please check if you have used one of these instructions to configure your client.
• If you still have difficulties, please contact the IT Service Desk and send us your full name, your user name (ab123456), screenshots of your error message as well as an error description as detailed as possible including the instructions you used and device- and client-specific information (Which device; Which operating system; Which mail client)
• Here you can find more answers to questions about e-mail.

If shared calendars are integrated into your mailbox, you may be prompted to log in to the owners' mailboxes. To prevent this, the Download Shared Folders setting must be disabled in Outlook.

Please follow these steps in Outlook:

File > Account Settings > Account Settings... > Click on the primary Exchange account > Change... > More Settings > Select the Advanced tab > Uncheck the box next to Download shared folders > OK.

The error message "You don't have permission to send messages from this mailbox." says that you are trying to send via another e-mail address, i.e. assigned to your mailbox. This is not possible on the central mail system of RWTH Aachen University.

This typically happens at RWTH Aachen if you have entered your RWTH-E-Mail account user name (e.g.: ab123456@rwth-aachen.de) instead of your mail address (e.g.: max.mustermann@rwth-aachen.de) as the sender mail address in the SMTP (dispatching server) settings.

When creating an account, Outlook displays the following popup report: 

This report must be confirmed so Outlook can download all required configuration settings to guarantee full functionality. Only then the free/busy times or out-of-office assistance will be displayed correctly.

If you have discovered that e-mails sent to you are undeliverable or if someone sending an e-mail to you receives the following error message:

• Report the fault to the IT Service Desk.
• Please provide the following information:
  • Sender and recipient address, date and time, screenshots of the error message and the email that could not be sent as requested attached. * Here you can find more answers to questions about e-mail.
• Here you can find more answers to questions about e-mail.

For incoming mail traffic the IT Center of the RWTH Aachen University uses the assessment system of the company Cisco Systems in order to reduce the amount of spam and virus-infected e-mails. With this process,each supplying e-mail system is assigned a so-called reputation score. This assessment is based on global analyses of the e-mail traffic of each dispatching system.

Three different gradations can be distinguished:

• Good
• Neutral
• Poor

If the reputation of an e-mail server is classified as "poor", the RWTH Aachen does not accept e-mails of this system and the sender receives an automatic message:
"554 Your access to this mail system has been rejected due to the sending MTA's poor reputation."

If you have full access rights to a functional mailbox, you can access the shared mailbox from your personal mailbox in Outlook.

If you access the mailbox in this way and delete items from the inbox of the shared mailbox, these items will be moved to your personal "Deleted items" folder.

The same problem occurs if you have the "Send as for" permission for the shared mailbox. In this case, items that you send from the shared mailbox are moved to your personal "Sent items" folder.

You can configure Outlook to save the sent or deleted items in the shared mailbox folders by setting local registry keys:

• Settings for the "Sent items" folder
• Settings for the "Deleted items" folder