If you are experiencing an issue that is not listed in the sections below, or you have any questions concerning current issues or planned maintenance work, please contact the IT Service Desk by telephone on 01752 588588 or online using the IT Self Service portal.
Please note that this page is updated only during office hours (8am-6pm Monday to Friday).
Mandatory and important security
update: to be applied to all University MS-Windows laptops to improve security
when using Wi-Fi off campus (VPN access).
This is a mandated update of the VPN App known as ‘Fortinet’. It
will require your managed laptop to reboot to complete the installation
process. All running applications and open documents will be
terminated during the update and reboot process. In order to protect your
work and data please ensure that you have saved any work prior to
starting the update process. The update should take no more than 10 minutes to
complete including the reboot.
To allow you the flexibility of installing this at a convenient time the update
package is made available to self- install ‘pull’ at your convenience via
‘Software Centre’.
Just follow these simple steps below or search for ‘software center’ at http://TISselfHelp.Plymouth.ac.uk
1) Select ‘search’
2) Type ‘Software Center’. (note spelling)
3) From the ‘Software Center’ screen, select package Forticlient
6.0.2.
After 23:59 on Thursday 7th March 2019 the update will be installed on your
University laptop without further notice and this will invoke a forced reboot
sequence on your device.
(Announcements about planned maintenance to enhance the service, or work to prevent or mitigate the risk of a newly discovered issue that may otherwise cause a service failure)
All services are currently available.
(Planned periods of maintenance activity to facilitate improvements and upgrades to key IT services during which there may be a service disruption)
| Digital Learning Environment/Moodle | 07:00–09:00 every Tuesday |
| JANET (The University’s network) | 07:00–09:00 every Tuesday |
| PEARL (The research repository) | 08:00–09:00 every Wednesday |
| iTrent (HR system) | 17:00–21:00 every Wednesday |
| IT Self Service portal | 08:00–08:30 every Friday |
OneDrive for Business Issue with missing files\data
We are aware of an issue affecting Microsoft One Drive for business where, for a small group of users, OneDrive for business is moving data from the OneDrive to their ‘recycle bin’.
Please be assured that data is not being permanently deleted and can be securely recovered from your OneDrive ‘recycle bin’. Should you be unable to find your data file there, or in the ‘second stage recycle’ bin, then please contact the service desk and we will assist in your data recovery.
We can advise that in collaboration with our service partner Microsoft, a probable root cause and workaround has been identified. We will apply the workaround to the small number of people affected who have already contacted the IT Service desk.
More detailed information, for anyone who experiences this type of event, is available on http://tisselfhelp.plymouth.ac.uk/ and search on ‘data missing’
Should you have further concerns then please do contact the IT Service Desk using via +44(0)1752 588588 | Portal: ITselfservice.plymouth.ac.uk | Web: www.plymouth.ac.uk/ITservices
Thanks for your patience and feedback.
(Services that are unavailable or have a significant degradation in performance)
All services are currently available.
(Advice about known problems which are either a design feature of the IT systems or software, or recommended workarounds for commonly occurring issues)
Service Advice re: Only use Excel Online when co-authoring Excel workbooks
With Excel Online you can work on Excel workbooks with others in real time. This is known as co-authoring.
Word and PowerPoint, in addition to the Online version, will also support co-authoring in your University desktop software application.
However, to co-author in Excel you must use the Excel online App via your web browser.
NB Attempting to co-author in Excel 2016 desktop application may corrupt your Excel workbook.
When you need to co-author an Excel workbook just follow the simple steps below. For more detail - just type ‘co-authoring’ in the ‘tell me what you want to do’ tab on the top menu bar.
(1) Go to the UoP Portal ( https://portal.Plymouth.ac.uk )
(2) Click on the Apps icon (top left of screen)
(3) Launch the Excel App
(4) Create a new, or Open an existing, Excel sheet
(5) Use the ‘share’ tab (top right of Excel on-line)
You must use Excel Workbooks in .xlsx, .xlsm, or .xlsb files format. If your file isn’t in this format, open the file and then click File > Save As > Browse > Save as type. Change the format to Excel Workbook (*.xlsx).
During the next software service release (UWSS 2019) scheduled for this summer, it is intended to update the Excel desktop to a version and that will have the co-authoring function.