What is the reason for limiting the number and size of email attachments?
Mainly for security reasons, all email server providers limit the maximum email size that an email account can receive. Otherwise, if there would be no maximum email size limit, the email server would risk to be bombarded with very large emails, causing it to cease working properly.
Most email providers put a cap on the size of your files (Outlook and Yahoo have a cap of 20MB and 25MB, respectively). These limits prevent recipients from encroaching on their storage limit every time a vast file lands in their inbox.
Size Limits for Top Email Providers
Gmail: 25 MB. However, the Gmail attachment size limit can be deceptive because Google encodes your email into a particular format before sending it. This process can double the size of your attachment; thus, the actual Gmail attachment size limit is closer to 12.5 MB.
Attachment size limit
If you have more than one attachment, they can't add up to more than 25 MB. If your file is greater than 25 MB, Gmail automatically adds a Google Drive link in the email instead of including it as an attachment.
To keep systems healthy and accounts safe, Google limits the number of Gmail messages users can send per day, and the number of recipients per message. If your users exceed an email sending limit, they'll get an error message, such as: You have reached a limit for sending email.
Note: Due to the encoding of emails, total email size when delivered can inflate up to 33%; So in actuality, the attachment size can range around 25MB, depending on other factors of the email. Prior to the Summer '14 release this maximum limit was 10MB.
Refrain from sending large attachments (something over 500 KB) without warning, on weekends or after business hours when the recipient may not be there to keep their inbox clear. Sending unannounced large attachments can clog the receiver's inbox and cause other important emails to bounce.
Simply drag and drop the large file into Google Drive, right-click the file and click share. Next, type in the email address of the person you wish to share the file with. Click “Done” and voila! You've just shared a large file using Google Drive.
Go to Edit, select New > DWORD Value, enter MaximumAttachmentSize, and press Enter. In the Value data text box, enter the desired attachment size limit in KB.
Locate the property on the page with the heading "Maximum file attachment size in megabytes". Below this heading is a field in which the specified value can be typed to specify the number in MB of the maximum allowable attachment size. also refer below threads for more details.
What is the size limit for email attachments in Outlook?
Sadly, due to mail server restrictions, the default max attachment size limit of files attached in Outlook is 20 megabytes (MB). This attachment limit applies to both Outlook and Office 365 versions of Outlook.
This limit prevents your computer from continually trying to upload very large attachments that exceed the limits of most Internet service providers. This limit applies whether you are adding one large attachment that is greater than 20 megabytes (MB) or several attachments whose sum total size is greater than 20 MB.

This message appears when the maximum memory or file size limit for a Data Model is exceeded. In the 32-bit version of Office, the maximum files size for a workbook containing a Data Model is 2 GB, and the maximum memory that can be consumed by a workbook is 4 GB.
250 MB - File attached to a list item. Applies to Microsoft Lists and SharePoint lists - both based on same lists platform. The entire decoded file path, including the file name, can't contain more than 400 characters for OneDrive, OneDrive for work or school and SharePoint in Microsoft 365.
"You have reached a limit for sending mail"
You may see this message if you send an email to a total of more than 500 recipients in a single email and or more than 500 emails sent in a day. When you get this error, you should be able to send emails again within 1 to 24 hours.
1. Compress Your Files. Compressing your files to bypass Gmail's size limit is one of the easiest methods. You just need to compress your file into a ZIP or RAR format so that you can send it to your Gmail contact.
To help protect against abuse by spammers, Outlook.com limits the number of email messages that you can send in a single day, as well as the number of recipients for a single message.
Email attachments can be a convenient way to share files, but they also come with certain risks. One of the most common dangers is the potential for viruses and other malware to be embedded in attachments. When these files are opened, the malware can infect the computer and spread to other devices on the network.
What does too large for the destination file system mean? It points out to the fact the file is not compatible with the formatted hard drive or any other storage drive because it is exceeding the maximum file size limit.
- Emails with attachments have a negative impact.
- A wrong format can lead to an email block.
- Sending email with attachment of wrong size can keep your email from getting to the inbox.
- Unadjusted image attachments may avert users from reading your email content.
How do I bypass the attachment limit?
- Use Google Drive. This is the default option for most people trying to share files that are larger than 25MB. ...
- Compress Your Files. Another easy way to get past the gmail client file size limit is by sending compressed files.
Gmail is integrated with Google Cloud Storage, so the easiest way to bypass the attachment limit is to send files via Google Drive. This cloud storage service enables you to attach files of up to 15GB.
Use Google Drive
If the Gmail email window detects that your attachment is larger than 25MB, the attachment is instead uploaded to your Google Drive account. A link to the file in Drive is then inserted into the email, and the recipient clicks the link and downloads it from Drive.
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Maximum size.
File system | Maximum size |
---|---|
HFS | 2 GB |
HFS+ | 8 EB |
HPFS | 2 GB |
NTFS | 16 EB |
With the ulimit command, you can change your soft limits, up to the maximum set by the hard limits. You must have root user authority to change resource hard limits.