When I try to send to a list, why does my list (LISTSERV) tell me I'm not subscribed?

Changing your preferred email may prompt a warning tell you that you are not subscribed when you try to send an email to a LISTSERV list. If you change your preferred email, LISTSERV does not automatically update your subscription and depending on how you set your identity in your client software, you may not be able to reply to the list or unsubscribe from it.

Many LISTSERV lists are set up so that they only allow you to send a message to the list from the email address you used when you joined. If you joined using your AccessID email address (e.g. xy6789@wayne.edu) and you try

sending mail from your custom email address (e.g. j_doe@wayne.edu), LISTSERV will not recognize you and will not accept the message. Thus, LISTSERV only knows you by the From address of the email you send to it when you subscribe. When your email address changes, LISTSERV no longer recognizes you.

How to regain access to LISTSERV lists after email change

 1. Contact the list owner by sending a message to listname-request@lists.wayne.edu (for example, CLAS-request@lists.wayne.edu would go to the owner of a hypothetical College of Liberal Arts & Science list) and ask the owner to edit the email address with which you are subscribed to the list.

 2. Update your settings at lists.wayne.edu. Create a password and account for your old email address and individually remove your subscriptions. Then you can create a password and account with your new email address and subscribe to each list.

 3. Send an email from your valid sending address to listserv@lists.wayne.edu. In the body of the message, type the command CHANGE listname|* newaddr. This will change your address for all subscribed lists. For example, if you can currently send from xy1234@wayne.edu, but you want to be able to send from wally.warrior@wayne.edu, send an email from xy1234@wayne.edu to listserv@lists.wayne.edu that says CHANGE listname|* wally.warrior@wayne.edu. Don't include any other text in the email. You will receive an email asking for confirmation. See the note below for information on how to change your from address temporarily to successfully send this command.

 4. Revert to using your original email address as the From address in your mail client's settings.

NOTE: You can change your preferred email address in your Account Settings in Academica, but this takes as long as an hour to be updated. C&IT recommends choosing one address and updating your LISTSERV subscriptions to all work with this address.