Step by step process

Overview

With so many university community members working and learning from off-campus, changing your password can be a little more complex than it used to be.

This page is intended to be a general how-to guide as personal devices and software versions can differ from machine to machine and device to device. It is still recommended to only change your password while on campus if possible to avoid complications from account lock-outs.

First Steps: Prepare for the Password Change

Account access problems can arise due to account lockouts after changing a password. Email clients and wireless connections do not “know” if/when a password has changed and will continue trying to connect with the old password. 3 or more attempts within 15 minutes will lock your account. To avoid these lockouts and the resulting loss of access to anything requiring your UMass Lowell (UML) credentials, please do the following BEFORE changing your password:

  1. Put mobile devices in “airplane” mode. This will prevent them from bombarding the UML system and locking the account.
  2. iOS Apple devices: Use Airplane Mode on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch webpage
  3. Most Android devices: Swipe down from the top of the screen then tap on Airplane Mode.
  4. On laptops/desktops, close out of email applications (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc).
  5. Close out of all Microsoft applications that automatically sign in (Skype for Business, Teams)
  6. For university Windows machines, connect to VPN using Pulse secure (Instructions on how to connect to VPN can be found on the Remote Access webpage)

Change the Password

  1. Navigate to the UMass Lowell MyPassword website and click on “Change my Password”
  2. Enter the captcha, then enter your current UML credentials.
  3. Once logged in, enter your new password then confirm it. You will receive the message “Your password has been changed” once the change goes into effect.

Update Passwords on Laptops/Desktops

IMPORTANT: If at any time your new password stops being accepted during the procedures below, your account is most likely locked. Please unlock your account on the UMass Lowell MyPassword website by clicking on “Unlock my Account”

  1. Since the university computer should already be connected to VPN, lock the computer with the Windows+L keyboard combination, then unlock it using your current (new) password.
  2. Once logged back into your machine, open each Microsoft application, one by one, providing updated credentials as necessary (Skype for Business, Teams, Outlook, etc).
  3. Open other mail clients and update the password when it prompts to do so.

IMPORTANT: If your passwords still aren’t working, even if the account isn’t locked out, the credentials could be stuck in Windows.

Close out of all Microsoft applications then open the Start menu. Type in “Credential Manager” then click on it to open.

Click on “Windows Credentials” then remove anything with .uml.edu or @uml.edu by clicking on the drop-down arrow on the right. Click on the red X to close the application when done.

Re-open your Microsoft apps and enter the updated credentials. This should resolve the issue.

Update Passwords on Mobile Devices

IMPORTANT: As before, if at any time your new password stops being accepted during the procedures below, your account is most likely locked. Please unlock your account on the UMass Lowell MyPassword website by clicking on “Unlock my Account”

  • iOS Mail
    1. After turning off Airplane Mode, Open Settings>Passwords & Accounts. Tap on your UML account, then tap on the email address at the top. You can then update your password for the account. Tap on “Done” in the upper-right to complete the change.
    2. Alternatively, the mail app should prompt for your new password when trying to sync mail, but this could quickly lock the account.
  • Android
    1. After turning off Airplane Mode, Open settings and scroll to Accounts. Tap on the UML account, tap on Settings again, then tap on Server Settings. Enter the new password then tap Done.
    2. Alternatively, the mail app should prompt for your new password when trying to sync mail, but once again, this could quickly lock the account.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to Tech Services if you have any issues or questions with the above procedures.