Change your password

Please read the following guidelines before and after you change your password.

Forgot your password?

If you have forgotten your password you can use the self service password reset tool to gain access to your account. To use this select Forgotten my password when attempting to sign into a Microsoft online service such as www.office.com. If you no longer have access to your recovery methods (eg email address or phone) you will need to contact the IT Service Desk on +44 (0) 1392 72 5050. 

Changing your password: before you start

If you have your University email or Wi-Fi or any other University apps set up on your mobile devices (smart phone or tablet) please disconnect Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G connections on all your devices before you change your password.

If you don't, then you may be locked out of your University IT account.

The easiest way to do this is to "Forget Network" for Wi-Fi and turn off mobile data on all of your devices.

• change your password at the end of the working day
• change your password and take a lunch break/time away from your device where you require access

How to change your password

You can use this link to change your password. You can also try the following steps:

1. Go to www.office.com and sign in.
2. Select your user icon top right. 
3. Select View Account.
4. Select Password.
5. Use this tool to change your password.

Alternatively you can use the Self Service Password Reset tool.

Minimum password criteria

The latest University of Exeter password policy is available to read here.

• Your password must be at least ten characters long, preferably longer, comprising of at least three of the following:
  • Upper case letters
  • Lower case letters
  • Numbers
  • Special characters, eg  & , . ; ? / {​​​​​​​ }​​​​​​​ [ ] ~ - \ ( ) _ + $ % ^ #
• Please do not use the characters £ € : @ ¦ ¬ ' ' " | < > ! * =  as they are not compatible with all University systems.

What makes a strong password 

• ‌Make your password long - to be more secure we suggest 10, 12, or more characters
• Include a mixture of upper and lower case letters, and numbers and punctuation characters
• Make your password easy to remember – for example, choose a short phrase that makes sense to you and use its initial letters and a number, or combine two or three short words with a number between them

What makes a weak password

• The word 'password' or 'admin'
• Simple strings of keyboard letters such as '123456', ‘qwerty’ or ‘zxcvbn’‌
• Your username, or your username in reverse
• Your surname or any of your forenames
• Any word that appears in any dictionary, including technical and foreign words, even spelt backwards
• Any recognisable name (personal names, names of pets, fictional characters, your department, make of your car etc.)
• Any dictionary word slightly modified by adding a number to the end, or changing ‘i’ to ‘1’, ‘o’ to zero, etc.

After you have successfully changed your password

You will need to update your password in any apps or services you use for your University account, including email and WiFi, before you reconnect to your mobile network or WiFi.

If you are logged in to your University account on your PC or laptop, log out and back in again using your new password.

You will need to update your WiFi settings (ie the password you use to access the University WiFi) for Eduroam and UoE_Secure when you are on campus.

Please see Stop your account being locked for more details.

Staff working remotely

If you have a Staff University laptop and you are working remotely away from the university, that is, your laptop is not physically connected to the University network, then you are still able to change your IT account password, via a browser or VPN session. Learn how to use the VPN.

This will then be your active new password for accessing university systems and applications online.

But please note your laptop's local login password will remain as your old password until the next time you connect the laptop to the university network, when it will then be automatically updated to your new password.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)