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Gmail Doubles Maximum Attachment Size to 20 MB

googlesystem.blogspot.com — Gmail upgraded the maximum attachment size from 10 MB to 20 MB. Gmail was quite forgiving and you could send more than 10 MB in some cases, but now it's possible to send at least 20 MB in one message.

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  • breezy, on 10/11/2007, -5/+204Unfortunately most other email services won't even handle 20mb attachments. At least for now we can have some gmail on gmail 20mb action.....and if others follow suit like they did with overall email storage space, then we should be seeing larger attachments all around pretty soon.
    • Salgat, on 10/11/2007, -8/+129Screw Yahoo and their "unlimited" offer. I'll never use all of the 3GB that Gmail offers, but I will however be able to fill 20MB in attachments, far above Yahoo's offer.
    • jjesusfreak01, on 10/11/2007, -7/+81On a whim, I tried sending myself a file tonight that was 14 MB, fully expecting that it would not work. Imagine my surprise when it went through.
    • gjzilla, on 10/11/2007, -63/+20"gmail on gmail 20mb action"

      Wow. That sounds like a tagline for a porn film. ~~~~
    • jus1haz2, on 10/11/2007, -5/+97Sweet, that 10mb limit was getting annoying.
    • Dejital, on 10/11/2007, -9/+178Next Step: Let us send zip files :(
    • Guspaz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+34It's hardly GMail's fault that no (or few?) other mail services match their attachment size limits.

      I would imagine that this will significantly cut down on overhead (and improve efficiency of) GMail storage-related applications such as GMailFS or GMail Drive.

      GMailFS uses a virtual filesystem, so doesn't have file size limits, but GMail Drive is strictly one-file-one-attachment (a significantly less efficient method), so at the very least it doubles the max file size you can store with GMail Drive.

      None of the current GMail filesystem applications seem to be ideal implementations though (GMailFS's creator admits that using subjects for metadata was a bad idea, and GMailDrive's approach is severely limiting), so the possibility of significant improvement in such third-party utilities is quite exciting!
    • Ozzy73, on 10/11/2007, -0/+69@Dejital (#6823337)
      You currently can. Just have to change the filename a bit from like File.zip to file.zip.hahasucker This also works with other blocked extensions.
      If you dont want to use that method you can just .rar the file
    • PixelVision, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14I use Pando for large file transfers, which obviously wont be used by everyone, so the increase is definitely welcome.
    • CraigJ, on 10/11/2007, -4/+3A lot of folks, including me, use gmail to have an off site back up, so this is really useful, especially if you have multiple gmail accounts...

      edit - didn't see guspaz's post...
    • lolgamoff, on 10/11/2007, -10/+15"At least for now we can have some gmail on gmail 20mb action"
      sounds hot.
    • abcdefghij, on 10/11/2007, -11/+27Good news! With Moore's Law taken into calculation, within a decade we can expect conversations like this:

      "dude, have you seen Jenna Jameson's "Granny Jenna Swallows" ?
      "no"
      "then, I'll just Gmail it out to ya, it's only 0.8 GB so it won't fill up your wigwamilion bytes account"
    • a5ph, on 10/11/2007, -5/+19It's no real use..

      I use Google Groups heavily. Its maximum attachment size is.. still 1 freaking MB.

      Come on Google you can do better!!!!



    • fakkedap, on 10/11/2007, -4/+11@ Ozzy73

      Or you can just rename it to something like .zi_. That works with any file, in fact.
    • nlogax, on 10/11/2007, -3/+22What? I've sent tons of zip files without renaming them, never had a problem. Is it the web client only that has this restriction, perhaps?
    • kalleanka, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6I have also had many zip files bouncing, and it pisses me off a lot.
      But I'm not sure if it's because it unzipped it and detected it contained an .exe file or if it was just the fact that it was a .zip file.
    • robinator08, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9Now I can send those 15,000,000 byte files of mine!
    • robcolburn, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3You my friend do not manage an e-mail server. Nor suffered massively forwarded messages within an organization. Imagine 50 users receive picture-filled e-mails that then are forwarded to 50 other users apiece - 10MB * 50 * 50 = 250MB potential cost of a single chain letter. Aggregate with probability considerations across a year in a medium organization let alone a university or large corporation. Also remember space cost as little as five or six years ago - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hard_drive_capacity_over_time.png . Services such as yousendit.com provide a much better way to transfer large quantities of data - store it one place. versus the many servers and computers, and email message may rest at.
    • M4v3R, on 10/11/2007, -2/+17Gmail DO accept .zip files. But also it scans the contents of a zip file and if a restricted file (.exe and such) is found, the attachment will be discarded. However, like guys above said, it recognizes files by their extension, not contents so you can rename file extension and send the file just fine.
    • Rhino2, on 10/11/2007, -10/+1I run my own mail server. I just sent a 250 MB attachment to about 2 dozen people I know (collection of email forwards I've been saving). I once emailed a guy a 2 gig file! Boy he was suprised; he called me and said "Rhino... did you send me a large file again" and I said "Yes, it's part of that backup you wanted".... he said "uh... thanks... thanks for that... next time ftp it please " and I said "but now I can send them though email!" and that solved that problem!

      Let's see google do that!

    • Pensador, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12@Dejital:
      "Gmail allows you to send and receive zipped attachments, as long as they don't contain executable (.exe) files. Gmail rejects all executable files as a security measure to block potential viruses."
      Source: http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=9481&query=attachments&topic=0&type=f&ctx=en:search

      Wow, I didn't know that...!
    • rikardos, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3wtf, you can send .zip files. Any archive just can't contain any of forbidden files (.exe, .com, etc.)
    • unusualbob, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3@robcolbern

      if you are going to compain, at least get your math right

      10MB * 50 * 50 != 250MB

      10MB * 50 * 50 = 25000MB
    • 3dom, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2just make it a passworded (enclose the pw in the email) rar or zip, and encrypt the file names, and they can't block it. easier still, just remove the .exe extension from the file and get the recipient to put it back on the other end.
    • sark666, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1I never noticed this? Why would google block zips?!
    • tatical, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I've gotten around the .zip restriction (containing .exe files) by using .cab files.
      The files compressed using the cabinet algorithm aren't checked.
      Changing the file extension didn't work for me.
  • lieutenantmudd, on 10/11/2007, -4/+74You know what Google product I want to see next? I want Google Talk to give you a phone number like Vonage, but for free. I figure they can play an ad every time you pick up the phone to call out. Incoming calls are free for VoIP providers, it's the outgoing calls that cost two or three cents to connect. A targeted audio ad is easily worth 3 cents.
    • Bitruder, on 10/11/2007, -7/+77I think we'd run out of phone numbers pretty quickly.
    • bloaty, on 10/11/2007, -0/+50That may be happening sooner than you think!
      http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/05/phone-calls-in-google-talk.html
    • leth4l, on 10/11/2007, -3/+47I personally would like to see them incorporate 30fps video teleconferencing into google talk.
    • Kumaku, on 10/11/2007, -12/+12All I want is rainbows and sunshine. (:
    • BalooUrsidae, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4The nice thing about Jabber is that it doesn't have to be Google that provides the service. Just sign up with a Jabber to Phone transport and it doesn't matter if you're getting your Jabber on from GT or elsewhere.

      We're all pullin for ya!
    • adrenaline33, on 10/11/2007, -2/+33haha at what point does everything become free and then google realizes they have no one to pay them for advertising anymore because they do EVERYTHING
    • SocialPoison, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@lieutenantmudd

      Can you imagine Google doing audio targeted ads? I think their accuracy with the text ads has been pretty crazy (e.g. I had an e-mail about the Renu contact cleaner recall and the ticker ad I got above the e-mail was for a lawyer who could help you seek payment for damages if you'd been injured by the cleaner).

      Think about that... you jokingly have a conversation talking like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs and get an audio ad for moisturizer next time you talk....
  • u2wedge, on 10/11/2007, -32/+1anyone else notice that Gmail is down right now?
    • Bitruder, on 10/11/2007, -1/+30Works fine for me.
    • moresheth, on 10/11/2007, -22/+4It appears that Gmail is experiencing the Digg Effect.
    • JosephDurnal, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0I can't get to it either, so, you aren't the only one.
  • Cerealkillr, on 10/11/2007, -17/+7My first though was now i can send myself 20mb of porn easier.
  • jbaez, on 10/11/2007, -11/+4they def need to give us a number and free out calls. i wouldn't mind listening to a short ad if it let me call for free. they really need to make a mac client for google talk too.
  • Lanage, on 10/11/2007, -10/+6YES!! I can send/receive twice as much porn

    ... not that I would want to...
  • bloaty, on 10/11/2007, -48/+2Maybe I Caused this! Only about 4 hours ago i tried to send my friend macamatition all of my mame games with Gmail!!! it was about 5GB!!
    AND HE GOT IT!!! Gmail ROCKS!!!
    • jus1haz2, on 10/11/2007, -5/+24No u didnt and I doubt your upload would send 5Gb in a reasonable amount of time.
  • DuhStupid, on 10/11/2007, -4/+18ARrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh , Ye Matessssssssss.

    Who needs peer to peer?
  • zakharm, on 10/11/2007, -3/+49How many times will Firefox time out until I reach 20mb?
    • jhshukla, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7unless you are only sending files, attach first and then write the message. gmail uploads the attachment in background so FF (or any AJAX capable browser for that matter) won't time out before the attachment is completed.
  • weebit, on 10/11/2007, -4/+4Google is your friend! :)
  • AngelBunny, on 10/11/2007, -1/+30.r00 .r01 .r02 .r03 .....they fit. and to think of the possibilities.
  • muzzamo, on 10/11/2007, -5/+9Am I the only one who finds uploading files to gmail to be extremely unreliable?

    Unortunately with a HTTP POST the only way you could have a status bar would be to use flash. AFAIK there is no other way in modern browsers.
    Google use flash to play audio in gmail, I wonder if they could provide a progress bar that gracefully degrades to a standard http POST when flash is not present.

    It certainly seems their policy to go with flash only when it is absolutely needed.
    • ciar, on 10/11/2007, -8/+7yep, every time I've tried to attach a file with gmail, it just ... doesn't go through.

      sadly, hotmail works better than gmail for sending attachments in my experience.
    • nlogax, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3Works like a charm over SMTP.
    • j4200, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6there are other ways to display a progress bar. they just require a ton of server overhead.
    • armbar, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Not necessarily a ton of server overhead--it's just a periodic Ajax call--but you do have to configure the server so that processing starts at the beginning of a request, and not when it's completed.
  • Rikki7, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12The 10MB attachment limit has got me out of trouble a number of times when my own work email couldn't handle it. The upgrade to 20MB is going to be a real life saver when I occasionally have to get big files out in a hurry.
  • HerrEisenheim, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1As Carl would say, "Freakin' awesome."
  • digitallysick, on 10/11/2007, -9/+10can't they unblock zip? i mean wtf its a pain in the ass to have it blocked
    • theWrkncacnter, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9just rename the file, it's really not that hard
    • diggimator, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I was able to attach zip files to my mails in Gmail.
  • TruckStuff, on 10/11/2007, -56/+12Am I the only mail admin here who thinks its totally freaking stupid to allow users to send attachments that big? Use FTP or something else to send files like that, something that is *designed* to send files that big. I can't stand when my users gripe that they can't send a 10Mb ppt file containing pictures of dogs eating ice cream. Quit abusing your sysadmins.
    • adrenaline33, on 10/11/2007, -8/+63Or you could shut up and do your job
    • dave932932, on 10/11/2007, -10/+7Doesn't the network you run have USB ports? I'm sure at least half of your users have an iPod/ thumbdrive/etc.
    • kidd3ckz, on 10/11/2007, -24/+6U should be fired and replaced with someone half ur age.
    • skyshock21, on 10/11/2007, -15/+4I logged in just do dig you down.
    • j4200, on 10/11/2007, -7/+14whats the problem with this man's gripe? he has a huge point. people need to learn that attachments should be for attached documents at most. Email is not made to send fresh off the camera albums of gigantic lame pictures or every chain letter that you received that day. If you need to send files bigger, post it somewhere and link it, that way it's not traveling redundantly through server after server.
    • Seifey, on 10/11/2007, -4/+4I wouldn't mind seeing a dog eat ice cream, honestly.
    • chalkboy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6You must be old. 10 megs is nothing. I limit my users to 100 meg files. If you need to send something to a client mailing them a cd is not very efficient either is trying to explain how to use ftp. You need to loosen up. Get with the times.
  • dqderrick, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9Anyone know if this applies to Google Apps for Your Domain (GAYD) accounts? I googled for it and checked google.com/a and couldn't find anything.
  • Jammerdelray, on 10/11/2007, -13/+4"Screw Yahoo and their "unlimited" offer. I'll never use all of the 3GB that Gmail offers, but I will however be able to fill 20MB in attachments, far above Yahoo's offer."

    When yahoo goes unlimited storage their attachment size will be 20MB as well fyi.
    • Eragmus, on 10/11/2007, -4/+5Where are you getting this outrageous ignorant claim from? Yahoo is giving users unlimited email storage space, NOT attachment size capacity.
      Those are two completely different things.
    • j4200, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4This yahoo vs google fan boy crowd that is starting is laughable. As long as Google is successful, Yahoo is making money from them. It's all about creating the illusion of competition so that the market becomes hotter and healthier.
  • crypthis, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2long live google! yay me harties!!!!
  • BamB00, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2any free email provider beside gmail can receive >10MB file attachment?
  • DrDabbles, on 10/11/2007, -7/+18And still, my gateway server will reject your email if it's larger than 4096K. SMTP is NOT a file transfer protocol. A 20Mbyte attachment can blow up to well over 40Mbytes of transferred data on an email server because of encoding. If you want to send me a file, use a drop box service or send me the original link. IT People of the world, UNITE! Stop this senseless abuse once and for all! :-D
    • diversionmary, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6I went from 12mb, to 10mb, to 8mb to 7.5mb to a 5mb nazi... then to 20mb knock yourself out, I'm tired of explaining why email isn't for transferring files. Exim4/exiscan/clamav/spamc setup.

      Y'know what finally helped me? Turning off spam and AV scanning of files larger than x. 256K for spam, 8MB for viruses. It's been quite a while now without any problems, and I have desktop/server AV if it does make it past that border.

      I find that outlook's default timeout of 1min is incredibly small, and that qpopper/pop3/mbox is a pita to maintain long term for some users. Especially if a blackberry with web access is in the mix (imap/large mbox).
    • j4200, on 10/11/2007, -8/+3Digg this up. SMTP is NOT a file protocol. 5mb for attachments is EXTREMELY generous in my humble opinion
  • adiggtion, on 10/11/2007, -8/+1Stop blocking zipped EXE attachments - love Google and most of their services, but that really perturbs me sometimes. Protecting users from themselves.
  • ubuntumonkey, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1Google is now officially cooler than the Pope's big hat. http://www.greatdreams.com/sacred/PiusXIItiara.jpg
  • jerwood, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Awesome!

    Now where's the frickin' IMAP!

    -me
    • robcolburn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1IMAP sucks bandwidth - do you want thousands of people with 2gb mailboxes sharing the same server as you when accessing mail? i know it's google, but still.
  • Avalontor, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15and yet it's still Beta.
  • abhiroop, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1Gmail's attachments section is unreliable at best. The lack of a progress bar means you have no idea whether anything is actually happenning. Furthermore who realy needs to transfer that much? I mean look at it this way, you send a text doc its about 1-2mb, if you send a music file its about 7mb MAX! Of course if the limit was about 100mb then it'd be more useful. Right now if I have a number of things to send I'll still have to compose multiple messages. I have always found attachment limits the most restrictive thing about gmail, you have 3gb of space, and there's literally nothing u can put in it except 1KB e-mails (thats about 3 million e-mails!!!!)
    • j4200, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Progress bars put incredible overhead on the server and really aren't needed unless you've got anxiety problems. Its easy enough to check if the browser is still sending data if you really must know
    • abhiroop, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1i'm just looking at what can be improved (instead of doubling the attachment limit) a progress bar is just the kind of functionality google has. The reason gmail is so "perfect" is because it has managed to integrate different features that just "work". A progress bar is something I feel would add to this functionality.
  • freakout1, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Fantastic news!! I've loved Gmail since I switched from Yahoo ever since it came out. I always use it to send large, high-quality PDF logos and designs and sometimes the files can be quite large. Now I don't have to use a third party host! Gmail just keeps getting better!
  • GangsterCompute, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2WOOHOOO that was restricting me from sending out some of the songs I write, now let's just hope they can up that to like 80mb soon so that I can start emailing the live mixes...
  • besprenbrian, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Rock On GMail!!! I will definitely spread the words..........
  • d3bruts1d, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4About time! Can't say I need the full 20M, but there have been many times when I needed to send a 12 or 15M file.
  • silouette747, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2***** Sweet!
  • QsheiK, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0So now Gmail went from an MP3 storing medium to a MP3/short video clip storing medium. Sweet.
  • HomerSimpson748, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2And yet you can't send zipped executables. Am I the only one who thinks Google shouldn't feel responsible for "protecting" people?
    • leetdood, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4See above comments, where EVERYBODY tells you to rename it. GMail doesn't want you to send viruses around on their network.
  • webstudionz, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0Fantastic. Thats what i like about Google, they go beyond. This will bring the normal computer user into a whole new realm of what files they can manage using email. Go Go Google.
  • Omeganon, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3This may be great for using Gmail as file storage but it's not so great for actually sending attachments to other users. E-Mail was _never_ intended to be a file transfer service. That's what FTP is/was for. When you send your binary attachment in e-mail it is converted to plain text for transfer, usually increasing it's size 2-3 times. Your 20MB attachment is now 40-60MB in transit, while sitting in your friends mailbox and while they're downloading it. It is also that larger size that is used to evaluate transfer limits and quotas.
    • leetdood, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1The problem is that not everybody knows how to set up a FTP or how to use one. Third party storage solutions also suck.
    • chalkboy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Trying to explain to a user how to use ftp is not worth it. I let them mail what ever they want with a notice that a lot of systems will limit to 10megs it that kind of sets its own size limit.
    • bradleyland, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Very large attachments are a source of great annoyance. Why, you ask? If I'm using POP to download my mail, and you send me a 20 MB attachment, I've got no convenient way of rejecting that attachment. I have to wait for your large file to download before I can get on with my day. That's not much of a problem on a fast connection, but what if I'm connected using my mobile phone on an EDGE network. Bleh.

  • ZMerlin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Yes! Finally 20MB per E-Mail!!! Been waiting for this for a while :)
  • tearor, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3I'd rather use one of the file storage places

    http://www.snapdrive.net/upload.php?upload_to=
    http://www.sharebee.com/
    http://www.sharebig.com/
    http://www.mediafire.com/
    http://www.divshare.com/
    http://www.senduit.com/
    http://www.sendspace.com/
    http://www.wikifortio.com/


  • nswint, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I never even realized this but some of the early gmail adopters have been able to send attachments well over 20mb. Until now I never realized there was an attachment limit :-D
  • obrysii, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1I was able to send 12mb attachments before...
  • doxtyp, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I'd really want Google to allow us DELETE attachement without deletting email itself.
  • rauz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"{ Thank you, Rauz. }"

    Seems like I should have submitted it to digg instead :)
  • ajpr, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2very cool.
  • SmSpillaz, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0I'm waiting for 5GB so I can email my friend my entire media assignment :/
  • JosephDurnal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'm fairly new to digg, why isn't this story showing up in the top 10 on the main page?
  • dc5mike, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1helllll yeahhh
  • oneradgeek, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0once again, google proves it's superiority in the email market
  • DixonMy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Yup, it's a good news for me.
    But sadly some other provider are can't receive it
    So better sends to Gmail users.

    Google rocks
  • schitzo15, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Only on digg could a story relating to email attachments reach the weekly front page. Not that that's a bad thing but..........
  •  

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