Unsubscribing from an Email List Service

Unsubscribing from an email list is quite easy. You need to know two things:

• The name of the list from which you want to unsubscribe. If you do not know the exact name of the list, visit the list-of-lists (http://lists.ncsu.edu/cgi-bin/lists) site to see the active lists at NCSU.
• The email address to which your subscription is being sent.

If you saved the "introductory" or "welcome" message that you received when you subscribed to the list, follow the unsubscribe instructions included in that message. Otherwise, use the sequence of commands in one of the options below. Like all commands sent to the mj2@lists.ncsu.edu (mailto:mj2@lists.ncsu.edu) list server, they must be in the correct format. Substitute the actual list name for the word "listname" below.

Option one - unsubscribing from a single list

• In the "To:" area, type mj2@lists.ncsu.edu.
• Leave the "Subject:" area blank.
  
• To unsubscribe from a list that uses for you the email address that you're sending this message from, type
  unsubscribe listname
  in the body of the message.
• To unsubscribe from a list that uses an email address for you other than the one you're sending this message from, type
  unsubscribe listname other_email@domain.com
  in the body of the message, where other_email@domain.com is the address used for you by the list.

Option two - unsubscribing from all lists

• In the "To:" area, type mj2@lists.ncsu.edu.
• Leave the "Subject:" area blank.
  
• To unsubscribe from all lists that use for you the email address that you're sending this message from, type unregister in the body of the message.
• To unsubscribe from all lists that use for you an email address other than the one you're sending this message from, type unregister other_email@domain.com in the body of the message, where other_email@domain.com is the address used for you by all the lists.

Using either option, you should receive an email stating that you have been successfully removed form the list(s).

Problems?

The two biggest problems that people seem to have when they try to unsubscribe from a list are

• Misspelling the word "unsubscribe."
• Using an incorrect list name.

If you have a problem unsubscribing from a list and you know that you haven't done one of the above, please send an email to listman@ncsu.edu letting us know. Please include a copy of both the command you sent and the error response you received.

Last updated February 5, 2007 by dlschmid