Email took 5 days to inform me a message was 'too big' for the server

Forums › Mac OS › Email took 5 days to inform me a message was 'too big' for the server - why?!

Geektastic

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#146956 3-Jun-2014 22:49

I sent an email from my iMac (using Gmail) on Thursday night.

Just now, the system suddenly popped up with the message and informed me that the message attachment was too big.

Fair enough but 5 days seems a ludicrous amount of time to take to tell me that. It was to a client, who I assumed had the document 5 days ago!

Why on earth would it take that long?

sidefx

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#1058953 3-Jun-2014 23:04

Sorry I can't give a definite answer, but email is generally relayed through a number of servers to get to the end recipient, and often retries a number of times if something goes wrong.

I basically never assume attachments will get through for work, so always ask for receipt of the attachment when I send them. If I don't get one I send a quick followup email to the effect of "did you get this" And if nothing from that a phone call. Safest that way. email is not 100% reliable for many reasons.

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#1058955 3-Jun-2014 23:06

it was probably waiting for you to resend it, and after *searching through all your emails and browsers and what nots decided that there is no evidence you sent it via gmail, so it thought it'd just make sure you are going to resend it?

Geektastic

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#1058956 3-Jun-2014 23:07

Yes, very odd. I have had 'Your email can not be delivered and is in the queue' kind of messages before - but not for this one. Just nothing - then 5 days later "we can't deliver this because the attachment is too big"!

Geektastic

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#1058957 3-Jun-2014 23:08

joker97: it was probably waiting for you to resend it, and after *searching through all your emails and browsers and what nots decided that there is no evidence you sent it via gmail, so it thought it'd just make sure you are going to resend it?

Who knows.

I shrunk the PDF and sent it again!

Dairyxox

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#1058958 3-Jun-2014 23:09

onedrive or dropbox ftw
email needs to be put out to pasture.

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#1058964 3-Jun-2014 23:19

Dairyxox: onedrive or dropbox ftw
email needs to be put out to pasture.

MEh... still need to email the link? :)

Geektastic

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#1059101 4-Jun-2014 11:06

Dairyxox: onedrive or dropbox ftw
email needs to be put out to pasture.

I have found that some organisations - especially government ones dealing with, ahem, classified documents - often have IT systems that prevent their staff from getting docs from places like that.

I had a client at MFAT who had to give me her personal address to send her some stuff (all of which was entirely legit and harmless) simply because their IT system disallowed that.

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MikeB4

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#1059103 4-Jun-2014 11:13

Geektastic:
Dairyxox: onedrive or dropbox ftw
email needs to be put out to pasture.

I have found that some organisations - especially government ones dealing with, ahem, classified documents - often have IT systems that prevent their staff from getting docs from places like that.

I had a client at MFAT who had to give me her personal address to send her some stuff (all of which was entirely legit and harmless) simply because their IT system disallowed that.

The Govt Dept I worked for did that, the recipient would receive a system generated email stating that an email from jbloggs had been blocked due to image, exe or other attachments. They simply had to contact IT with the reference number provided, the attachment would be looked at in an isolated machine and released if it was business related and safe.

scuwp

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#1059106 4-Jun-2014 11:19

KiwiNZ:
Geektastic:
Dairyxox: onedrive or dropbox ftw
email needs to be put out to pasture.

I have found that some organisations - especially government ones dealing with, ahem, classified documents - often have IT systems that prevent their staff from getting docs from places like that.

I had a client at MFAT who had to give me her personal address to send her some stuff (all of which was entirely legit and harmless) simply because their IT system disallowed that.

The Govt Dept I worked for did that, the recipient would receive a system generated email stating that an email from jbloggs had been blocked due to image, exe or other attachments. They simply had to contact IT with the reference number provided, the attachment would be looked at in an isolated machine and released if it was business related and safe.

Yep, we get this all the time. It is mostly a PITA but can appreciate why it is needed.

Also our attachment limit is ridiculously low, something like 10Mb last time I looked.

I have had some 'non-deliverable' email responses a couple of hours later, but never days! Lost in cyberspace somewhere for a while perhaps?

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BTR

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#1059614 5-Jun-2014 10:02

Geektastic: I sent an email from my iMac (using Gmail) on Thursday night.

Just now, the system suddenly popped up with the message and informed me that the message attachment was too big.

Fair enough but 5 days seems a ludicrous amount of time to take to tell me that. It was to a client, who I assumed had the document 5 days ago!

Why on earth would it take that long?

Maybe took 5 days for the NSA to get to it before passing it on the actual mail server. Govt depts never have quick turn around times... Haha