Connect FAQ

UC Merced Connect is the ‘One Stop Shop’ for critical UC Merced information and resources. The information in Connect is curated specifically based on your role at UC Merced - students, faculty, staff, friends & family - so that you can easily find exactly the information you want and need.

You can load the Connect app to your phone or tablet, or access Connect via a more traditional laptop or desktop computer.

The UC Merced website (ucmerced.edu) and Connect will point to many of the same campus services. By necessity, UC Merced's website is designed to promote the university's mission to a broad community, and so offers much more information than most of our students, faculty, and staff typically need.

When you access Connect, on the other hand, you pick your ‘persona’ - student, staff, faculty, or friends & family – and that selection determines the content you see in Connect. Hopefully, you’ll find that the information that Connect can offer you will be much easier to navigate and will offer more timely information for your day-to-day use while on campus.

You can download the free app from the App Store on iOS devices or from Google Play on Android devices. On the desktop, Connect is available at connect.ucmerced.edu.

You can watch this quick video (https://youtu.be/7ixYsDVvUWM) to learn about the UCMNetID claim process in Connect.

Don't want to watch the video? Just follow these steps:

1. Navigate to connect.ucmerced.edu on a web browser.
2. If it is your first time you are visiting connect, select "Students."
3. Scroll down and select "UCM Net ID."
4. Click "Account Claim."
5. For account type, select "Applicant/Student."
6. Enter your first and last name.
7. Select "I need a claim number."
8. Enter your personal email and then select the "Submit" button.
9. Navigate to your personal email to find your claim number from idmemail@ucmerced.edu.
10. Navigate back to "Account Claim" from step 4 and enter your claim number.
11. Create a new password that meets the requirements listed on the page and then select "Submit."
12. You will see a confirmation page that includes your UCMNetID. 

If you still additional help with this process, please contact the OIT Service Desk.

Yes! Much of the information in Connect doesn’t require a login, but the MyMerced section will ask you to log in with your UCMNetID and password via the familiar Single Sign-On page.

The Connect platform is available for all desktop and laptop computers and all iOS and Android-based mobile devices (phones and tablets). See minimum version requirements here.

While we always recommend the use of a VPN to keep your information safe while you’re off campus, UC Merced Connect does not require a VPN. 

Yes! As long as you have claimed your UCMNetID, you will be able to access Connect and the MyMerced section.

Yes, the Connect platform has a Family & Friends experience which provides content for parents, guests, and other users who do not have a UCMNetID. This experience is very similar to the student experience, but it does not include authenticated account information.

If you have a suggestion for the platform, you can use our Feedback Form to tell us about it.  

From the app or your desktop, click the Navigation hamburger menu and scroll down to Feedback Form.  

If you work on campus and want to get content from your area added to the platform, email oitcommunications@ucmerced.edu. 

If you are a UC Merced staff or faculty member looking to learn about how you can use Connect to communicate with a particular campus group, please refer to the Connect User Group page to learn more about using Connect to send messages, create affinity Opt-In groups, offer specific content, and more.

Push notifications don’t arrive via the desktop version of Connect, but you can find them in your inbox by clicking on the persona icon in the top right, then clicking Messages.

Yes, there is!  You can click on the person icon at the top right and tap “My Persona” to go back to the starting screen. If you are unsure which persona to choose click "Not Sure?" to learn about the different personas. You can also change persona from any home screen by clicking "Wrong Community" at the bottom.

If you are accessing Connect via web browser, check your browser settings and disable any AdBlock settings, then reload the page and try again.  
 
If you are on the Connect app, try closing the app and reloading it.   
 
If you continue to experience this issue, please Report a Problem at https://servicehub.ucmerced.edu or call 228-HELP (4357). 

Please Report a Problem at https://servicehub.ucmerced.edu or call 228-HELP (4357). 

Yes! Connect delivers content based on the status of your UCMNetID. So if you were an undergraduate student but you’ve move to graduate student, staff, faculty, or alumni status, your Connect experience will change as you do.  

When your UC Merced status changes, first make sure you are in the right persona: Scroll down to “Wrong Community?” from the home screen or click on the person icon and tap to change your persona.  

Connect will serve you content based on your campus affiliations from there. If you’ve just changed affiliations, it can take a few hours to a day for the campus systems to change your roles on campus. 

The majority of the content in Connect is the same from app to desktop. However, there are a few slight changes that we’ve made in order to provide the best user experience based on your device type. 

For example, the UC Learning Center is available on desktop only, so you won’t see an icon for the Learning Center if you’re on a mobile device. Similarly, we have configured the platform to open the app for campus tools like Zoom, Box, and Outlook on mobile, while the desktop version of Connect links to the web versions of those tools. 

Similarly, the way the platform manages links differs slightly from mobile to desktop – links open within the app whenever possible, while links open in a new tab via the Connect desktop version. 

UC Merced Connect is meant to be a curated experience for our various campus audiences. We have done our best to include information that is the most relevant for each persona within their experience.  
 
If you have a suggestion for the platform, you can use our Feedback Form to tell us about it. From the app or your desktop, click the Navigation hamburger menu and scroll down to Feedback Form. 

Click your browser refresh button on desktop or swipe down on any screen in the Connect app to refresh your screen. 

Once you log in to Connect, your authentication should ‘pass’ from section to section, which means you’ll have to log in and use 2FA less frequently in Connect. However, there are three situations in which you will need to log in again:  
 
1. If you’ve been inactive in the platform for more than 12 hours, you may have to log in again.   
 
2. If you are a UC Merced staff member trying to access UCPath from the MyMerced section, you will always have to log in a second time – that is just the way UCPath is designed.   
 
3. UC Merced OIT is in the process of updating some of its older services on campus to newer technologies. The older technologies use a different type of authentication, so your credentials don’t ‘pass’ through in those cases, and you’ll have to log in again. We’re working as quickly as possible to get this resolved, so stay tuned for a better experience in Connect! 

There are a few shortcuts in the platform that will help you navigate around. To go back to the Home screen, click the seal in the top left corner. If you’re navigating within a particular section, click the white icon to the right of the seal to go back to that section’s main screen. And of course, you can always use the navigation hamburger menu in the top right to find quick links to specific areas of the platform. 

In the mobile app, you may notice that some screens have a blue Done button in the top left and others have a back button. This is because of the type of content that’s being displayed on particular pages.  

If for any reason you don’t see either a Done button or a back button in the app, just refresh your screen or click the seal in the top left corner to navigate back to the Home screen. 

You won’t see either a Back or Done in the desktop version because that interface will open content in new windows and relies on your browser’s back button for navigation.