Bell Canada → [Internet] Email attachment size limit

I am sending an email with 8 attachments from Gmail to @sympatico.ca address. The total size of the email attachments is 16.3 Mb.

As I understand it there's no limit on the number of attachments and a 20Mb limit on the size of the email (btw it does not specifically distinguish between incoming and outgoing email, so presumably they are the same?)

»service.sympatico.ca/ind ··· _id=6948

But Gmail returns an error message:

Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 552 552 #5.3.4 message size exceeds limit (state 18).

Any thoughts?

While the attachment may be 16Mb, odds are, once your 'attach' it to your email, the mime encoding balloons the actually email size beyond 20Mb. (you can usually check the actual size of an email by viewing it's properties)

Since you've got multiple attachments (instead of a single large one), why not spread it across a couple of emails - eg. two emails with 4 attachments each?

I usually just upload large files to my free account on adrive.com and then just send the URL to the recipient in an email.

I'm not sure what the file size limit is on adrive, but I think I've uploaded files that were larger than 100mb before.

Once you upload the file, right click and select share, then click on the magnifying glass and it will give you the URL of the file.

I appreciate the suggestions, for sure there are workarounds, along the lines you mention.

Of course I also hope that if Bell boasts of 20Mb attachment limits, then that's how their email servers should be set up.

I also had a chat with a tech support rep who kindly suggested some other options too and confided that sometimes emails "get stuck". He added that according to their "local database" or "internal tool" (he used the terms interchangeably) only the primary email account has a 20Mb cap. Additional accounts are capped at 10Mb - something that doesn't seem to be mentioned on the page I linked in my first post, or anywhere that I can recall, for that matter.

I was also promised a call back at an unspecified time from a "senior executive" who would follow up on my issue.

The receiving end may not allow large files therefore causing the message to bounce.

I'd recommend using the workaround suggested.

Bell is the receiving end. The fact that it's bouncing is exactly what I am writing about.

Emails are not really suited to send large files. Try Binfer which specializes in large file transfers. It is as easy as email, but without the size limitation. You can send hundreds of file without reducing their size. And, you don't have to upload them anywhere, they transfer directly from computer to computer. The site is »www.binfer.com