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This article covers what happens to your data in five situations:
- Moving from a personal Claude account into UNLV's managed environment
- Moving between UNLV's Claude tiers (Pro, Premium, Max)
- Moving an existing Console (API/Developer) organization into UNLV's managed Console org
- Having more than one UNLV email address
- Changing your name
Each works differently. Read the section that applies to you.
IMPORTANT: UNLV IT cannot move, copy, or transfer your data since Claude does not allow administrators to perform this action on your behalf. If you need to keep your data, please take action to save or copy the data yourself before any deadline or changes take effect.
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Terms used in this article
- Personal account: A Free, Pro, or Max Claude account you created yourself using your @unlv.edu or @unlv.nevada.edu email, before UNLV set up its managed Claude environment.
- UNLV account: The Claude account you access through UNLV's managed environment, created through single sign-on or through the migration process described below.
- Claude Pro, Premium, Max: UNLV's three tiers of managed Claude access. Pro is the default for all faculty, staff, and students. Premium and Max are requested upgrades with higher usage.
- Console organization: A separate environment used for API/developer access, distinct from Claude Pro, Premium, and Max.
Moving From a Personal Claude Account to UNLV Claude
This applies if you signed up for a personal Claude account (Free, Pro, or Max) using your @unlv.edu or @unlv.nevada.edu email before UNLV's enterprise rollout.
What happens
UNLV initiates a process called domain claiming. This sets a single, organization-wide deadline, at least 30 days out, by which everyone affected must choose one of two options:
- Merge and Join: All your chats, projects, files, memory, and Claude Code settings move into your new UNLV Enterprise account.
- Join Fresh: You get a clean UNLV Enterprise account. Nothing from your personal account moves over automatically, but you can export your data first to keep a personal copy.
UNLV Guideline: Merge and Join is irreversible. Once you merge, your data lives in your UNLV account and you cannot revert to a personal account later. If you're not sure which option you want, export your data before the deadline so you have options either way.
If you don't choose by the deadline: You automatically get a fresh Enterprise account. Your personal account is deactivated, and your old data is emailed to you.
UNLV Note: That emailed data export is a one-time snapshot, not a live account. Once the deadline passes, there is no later button to pull your old chats into your new account. If you skip the export and skip the choice, the email is the only copy you will have.
If you have both a paid and a free personal account
Claude identifies accounts by email address, so a paid account and a free account are only "linked" if they were made from the same email. If you made a paid account from one email and a free account from a different email (for example, a personal Gmail account and your UNLV email), these are two completely separate accounts. There is no way to combine them or move data from one into the other, before or after domain claiming. Each is treated on its own.
Refunds for Paid Accounts
If you had a paid Pro or Max subscription, it's automatically canceled with a prorated refund once the deadline passes, along with any leftover usage credits.
UNLV Note: If your subscription was purchased through the Apple App Store, Anthropic cannot auto-cancel it. You'll need to cancel manually through your Apple ID settings. Until you do, "keep both accounts" is your only option, since Apple-billed subscriptions block the automatic merge/cancel process.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
- Personal accounts on non-UNLV email domains (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are completely unaffected by this process, even if you use them for university-related work.
- Do not delete your personal account manually before the process runs. If you register a new account under your UNLV email after deleting the old one, Anthropic enforces a cooldown period on reused addresses that can temporarily block you from using Claude at all.
Moving Between UNLV Claude Tiers (Pro, Premium, Max)
This applies if you're moving from the default Claude Pro environment into Premium or Max, or between Premium and Max.
What Happens
Data does not transfer automatically between licenses. Each tier is a separate workspace, so your chats, projects, and files stay where they are unless you copy them yourself.
UNLV Best Practice: Before switching tiers, copy anything you want to keep:
- Projects: Copy the project instructions and files into a new project in your new tier's workspace.
- Chats: Ask Claude to help summarize or package a conversation so you can bring the important context into your new workspace.
- Memory: If you use Claude's memory feature, check Settings for how to view and carry over what it's saved.
UNLV Guideline if Upgrading: Your previous tier's workspace remains available afterward, but at reduced usage. It's meant to give you time to retrieve anything you missed, not to serve as an ongoing second workspace. Your new tier should become your primary one going forward.
UNLV Guideline if Downgrading: Your previous tier's workspace is unavailable after the ticket request is put in. Ensure you get what you need from that account prior to moving into a Pro account.
Switching Between Your Two Workspaces
During an upgrade (Pro to Premium, or Premium to Max), we set your usage limit on your old workspace to zero rather than removing your access. This means you keep the ability to view your old chats and projects, but can't generate any new usage there, so you're not being billed on two plans at once. To switch between your old and new workspace, click your initials or name in the lower left corner of Claude and select the workspace you want to use. A checkmark shows which one is currently active. Each workspace has its own separate chats and projects, so double check which one you're in before starting new work.
UNLV Note: This dual-access period does not apply to downgrades. See the section below if you're moving from Premium (or Max) back down to Pro.
Downgrading from Claude Premium (or Max) to Claude Pro
Unlike upgrades, we cannot preserve read-only access to a seat-based license the way we can with consumption-based usage limits. A seat is either assigned or it isn't, so there's no equivalent to "set it to zero and keep access." This means the process works differently, and you'll need to retrieve everything you want to keep before the switch happens, not during.
The process:
- You request a downgrade to Claude Pro.
- Before we make the switch, retrieve anything you want to keep from your current workspace. Since there is no bulk export or transfer tool, the best approach is to open each chat you want to keep, ask Claude to summarize it, and save that summary somewhere you can paste it into a new chat once you're on Pro.
- Let us know once you've retrieved everything you need.
- We move you to Claude Pro. Your current plan's billing continues until this switch happens, so there is a gap between when you request the downgrade and when the switch (and new billing) actually takes effect.
UNLV Note: We are not able to give you access to both workspaces at once during a downgrade. Please continue using your current environment to retrieve anything you need, and let us know once you're done. At that point we'll move you to Claude Pro.
Moving a Console (API/Developer) Organization
This applies to the small number of existing UNLV-affiliated Console (API) organizations being brought under UNLV's managed Console org.
What Happens
Console organizations work differently from personal accounts. Domain claiming does not apply to them. Instead, they go through a separate Merge Organizations flow:
- The Console organization cannot start this process on its own. It must be invited by UNLV's Team or Enterprise organization, and an administrator on the Console side must accept.
- For the merge to succeed, every member of the Console organization must have an email address matching UNLV's verified domain.
- A Console organization that already belongs to a different parent organization cannot be merged into UNLV's.
UNLV Note: If your Console organization includes members outside UNLV's verified domain, or if it's already tied to another parent organization, the merge cannot proceed until that's resolved. Contact the IT Help Desk if you're unsure whether your organization qualifies.
If You Have More Than One UNLV Email Address
This applies if you are both a student and an employee at UNLV, meaning you have both a RebelMail address (@unlv.nevada.edu) and a UNLV staff/faculty address (@unlv.edu).
What happens
Claude treats each email address as a completely separate identity. It has no way of knowing that your @unlv.edu and @unlv.nevada.edu addresses both belong to you. This means:
- You may end up with two entirely separate Claude accounts, one tied to each email, with no shared history between them.
- If one of your accounts is brought into UNLV's managed environment and the other is not, only the managed one keeps working normally. The other can become difficult or impossible to access.
- There is no automatic way to merge these two accounts together. Whatever is in each one stays there.
UNLV Guideline: If you know you have both types of UNLV email addresses, pick the one you intend to use for Claude going forward and stick with it. Before any migration deadline, check both accounts and copy or export anything you want to keep from the one you are not planning to keep using.
UNLV Note: If you are unsure which of your two accounts is your primary Claude account, or if you have already lost access to one, contact the IT Help Desk. This is a known limitation of how Claude identifies accounts, and Help Desk staff can walk you through your options.
If You Change Your Name
This applies if your name changes in UNLV's official records, for any reason (marriage, legal name change, gender transition, or any other update processed through UNLV's systems).
What happens
Claude identifies your account by your email address, not by your name. In most cases, a name change on its own does not affect your Claude account. However, in some cases a name change can trigger UNLV's identity system to treat your account as a new one rather than an update to your existing one. When that happens, you may lose access to your previous Claude account and its chat history, and a new, empty account is created in its place.
UNLV Note: There is currently no way for UNLV or Anthropic to automatically move your chat history from an old account into a new one created this way. This is a known limitation, and UNLV has raised it with Anthropic. Until a permanent fix is available, each case is handled individually through the IT Help Desk.
UNLV Guideline: If you know a name change is coming, export or copy anything important from your Claude account beforehand. If you have already lost access following a name change, contact the IT Help Desk. They can confirm what happened and let you know if the old account's data can be recovered on a case by case basis.