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In this article, we would like to inform you about the upcoming discontinuation of automatic email forwarding via the Selfservice function. We will provide a brief overview of the reasons for the discontinuation, a review of what has already been implemented, and information about the final step in discontinuing the function. You will also learn how you can continue to forward emails from your RWTH email address to another email address.

Reasons for the Shutdown

Automatic email forwarding causes a number of problems: From a technical point of view, automatic forwarding can cause problems with email delivery. When an email is forwarded, the original sender address remains in the email header, but the forwarding server appears as the sender. This can cause receiving mail servers to mark emails as spam or reject them.

A detailed explanation of the technical background and the associated security requirements can be found in a previous blog post.

Automatic email forwarding is also questionable from a data protection perspective. Especially in the university environment, where sensitive data is often sent by email, it is important to ensure compliance with data protection standards. For these reasons, the IT Center has decided to disable email forwarding via the Selfservice function. The process of deactivation has been underway since November 2025 and will now be finalized in April 2026. By deactivating automatic forwarding, we are implementing a recommendation from DFN-Recht (page 91 ff.).

What Has Been Implemented So Far?

On November 13, 2025, the function was restricted for all users. Since then, it has no longer been possible to change the destination address of existing automatic forwarding. The function for setting up new automatic forwarding was removed from Selfservice as part of this restriction.

Final Deactivation of the Function in April 2026

On April 21, 2026, the function for setting up automatic email forwarding via Selfservice will be permanently deactivated and will no longer be available from that date.

If you want to continue forwarding emails from your RWTH email address to a private email address, you can create a forwarding rule in your inbox. An email forwarded via an inbox rule is first stored in the inbox. To prevent mailboxes from filling up, we recommend adding a deletion instruction to the inbox rule and moving the email to the trash folder of the respective mailbox. Automatic trash cleanup can then be implemented in Selfservice. To do this, a checkbox for automatically cleaning up the trash is added in Selfservice. Instructions for setting up forwarding can be found at IT Center Help or in a previous blog post.

We ask all users who currently still have automatic forwarding set up via Selfservice to convert this to a corresponding inbox rule by April 21, 2026, and to remove the existing automatic forwarding.

If mailboxes with automatic forwarding still exist on April 21, 2026, the IT Center will change them to an inbox rule with forwarding to the previously stored destination email address and remove the automatic forwarding in Selfservice. For mailboxes where the IT Center changes an existing automatic forwarding to an inbox rule, the automatic cleanup of the trash will be preconfigured accordingly.

Any Questions?

Do you have any questions or need further information? Feel free to check out the documentation on IT Center Help:

Email Forwarding in IdM SelfService – Discontinuation of the Function in April 2026

Setting up an Email Client: Outlook

Setting up an Email Client: Thunderbird

Or read the details in our previous blog posts on email security:

Email Security – Why Are Redirections Bad?

Email Security – How to Configure Forwarding Correctly

Email Security – Evaluating the DMARC Policy for Incoming Emails

Email Security – Evaluating and Applying the SPF Policy

If you have any questions or problems, the IT Service Desk team is available to help.

Responsible for the content of this article are Hedda Faber, Maike Lennartz, and Thomas Pätzold.

Kategorie: Announcements
Schlagworte: E-Mail, E-Mail-Sicherheit, Umleitungen
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