On a a Monday morning, the session expires on the academic portal just as one is about to validate a mission order. We restart the browser, hesitate between three different URLs, and end up calling a colleague. Most administrative staff in the Grenoble academy have experienced this situation at least once since the migration in December 2025. Understanding the new architecture for accessing the academic webmail prevents these repetitive blocks.
Extranet, PIA, Convergence: which portal to open depending on the situation
Since December 9, 2025, the Grenoble academy has switched to a centralized authentication interface at extranet.ac-grenoble.fr. The old address webmail.ac-grenoble.fr still redirects to this new portal, but this redirection may not last. Updating bookmarks remains the simplest precaution.
The PIA portal (pia.ac-grenoble.fr) offers an alternative path: you log in, then click on “Messaging” in the menu. For administrative staff who also use other components (HR management, business applications), PIA allows everything to be grouped under a single authentication. When you want to access the webmail of the Grenoble academy by combining messaging and administrative tools, this path via PIA proves to be the most logical.
Convergence, on the other hand, refers to the collaborative environment that includes messaging, shared calendar, and address books. It is accessed from the extranet. In practice, Convergence is the webmail interface itself, not a separate portal.
Identifier and NUMEN: errors that block access to Grenoble webmail
The email identifier follows a strict format: [email protected], all in lowercase and without accents. An “é” in the first name becomes “e”, a hyphen remains a simple hyphen. Making a mistake on this point prevents any authentication, without an explicit error message in some browsers.
For a first connection, the password is the NUMEN, entered in uppercase. This number appears on the appointment order or the administrative file. After the first authentication, the system prompts to create a personal password.
Recovering a lost NUMEN
You cannot find your NUMEN online through a simple reset form. You must contact the personnel management service of the rectorate, specifying your assignment body and establishment. Response times vary depending on the time of year, but outside peak periods, processing generally takes a few working days.
- First, check your appointment order or any official correspondence from the rectorate: the NUMEN is always listed there.
- Consult I-Prof or your agent space on PIA, where the number is sometimes accessible in personal information.
- As a last resort, send a letter or call the DPE (Division of Teaching Personnel) or the DPAE for administrative staff, depending on your status.
Configuring an IMAP and SMTP email client for the Grenoble academy
The Convergence webmail works well for occasional consultation. For daily use at the office or on the go, configuring Thunderbird or Outlook in IMAP is more reliable and allows for offline work.
Server settings to enter
The academy’s servers use mandatory encrypted connections. Here are the settings to enter in any email client:
| Protocol | Server | Port | Encryption |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMAP (incoming) | imaps.ac-grenoble.fr | 993 | SSL/TLS |
| SMTP (outgoing) | smtps.ac-grenoble.fr | 465 | SSL/TLS |
The identifier remains the same as for the webmail ([email protected]). The password is the one defined after the first connection, not the initial NUMEN.
Why Thunderbird rather than Outlook on a shared workstation
On shared workstations in secretariats or management, Thunderbird has a concrete advantage: you can create distinct user profiles without an additional license. Outlook requires a Microsoft 365 account, which is not always available in the software allocations of EPLEs. With Thunderbird, each agent launches their profile, and messages remain compartmentalized.
End of redirection to Gmail or Outlook.com: what it changes in daily life
Since July 11, 2025, the automatic redirection of academic emails to a personal inbox has been disabled on the server side. All messages sent to an address @ac-grenoble.fr remain on the academic infrastructure. This rule cannot be bypassed, even by changing account settings.
For administrative staff who had gotten used to centralizing everything on Gmail, the change is significant. Notifications of official correspondence, invitations to committees, exchanges with rectorate services arrive only in the academic inbox. Not checking it for several days means missing deadlines.
The motivation for this block is not solely regulatory. Transferring to external servers (Google, Microsoft) posed a problem of confidentiality of administrative data, especially for emails containing personal information about students or staff.
- Configuring an IMAP client on your professional or personal phone allows you to receive notifications without redirection.
- Scheduling a daily consultation of the webmail during a fixed time slot prevents the accumulation of unread messages.
- Activating filters in Convergence to automatically sort messages by sender (rectorate, DSDEN, establishment) reduces noise.
The Grenoble academy encompasses several tens of thousands of staff concerned by this messaging. Whether working in DSDEN, at the rectorate, or in an establishment, the reflex to directly consult the webmail or to go through a properly configured IMAP client becomes the only functional option. It is better to adapt now rather than when an urgent message has been waiting for a response for three days.
