Since so many people now use the umn.edu gmail system, we no longer create physics email accounts by default. However they are available on request. You may also need this set up if you need to access physics-only mail features such as shared mailboxes. You can request a physics mailbox via MyPhys > Physics Email Status & Forwarding.

For most people, the best way to use your Physics email account is with a program such as Thunderbird to access your mail using our IMAP server.
Check out our instructions on setting up your Thunderbird client

You can also use your mail account by logging in to the Unix system interactively and running one of the available mail programs, such as alpine or mutt.

Finally, you can access your mail through our webmail system. The webmail system also lets you control many features of your email account, such as filtering messages to different folders. You can read more information about it here. <note> The old physics squirrelmail interface is not recommended, but can still be accessed here </note>

We don't put any particular limit on the size of email messages you can receive. Other mail systems may prevent delivery of large files, and the webmail system may have trouble with very large attachments.

The size of your mailbox overall is subject to a quota limit, which is generally set between 5-10GB. You can see your current usage and quota by visiting MyPhys. If you go over this limit then further email deliveries will be deferred until you reduce your usage.

If you only want to read your mail in one place, we have directions for forwarding your mail to or from physics, with specific examples for umn.edu mail.

• Mail forwarding & Vacations
• Organizing mail with folders
• Spam control
• Offline access to messages
• Shared mailboxes
• Adding additional identities (multiple from addresses)

More about mailing lists available to Physics users