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Various Ways To Send Large Attachment Files in Microsoft Outlook 2013

You might have encountered "limited size" issues when sending larger files through an email service provider like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and so on. There are various email service providers that limit the size of the file to be sent across the network. This could be due to the incapability of the email service provider to handle large amount of data at a time or for data integrity, since a big chunk of data stands a chance of becoming corrupted. However, you can split a single large file into multiple smaller files to be sent across the network.

The same case lies with various email clients like Microsoft Outlook. Whereas Microsoft Outlook is a very advanced and very popular email client today, it also limits the size of the file to be sent. Various versions of Microsoft Outlook have various limitations on the file size. With the latest Microsoft Outlook 2013, you can send a maximum file size of 20 MB, irrespective of the number of files. However, there could be a different maximum file size limitation imposed by the recipient's mail server as well.

Consider a scenario where you are working with Microsoft Outlook 2013 and you get the following error messages when trying to attach a file of size 25 MB.

‘The file you're attaching is bigger than the server allows. Try putting the file in a shared location and sending a link instead.’

Or

‘The attachment size exceeds the allowable limit.’

Such error messages usually occur when you try to attach and send large files of more than 20 MB in size.

There are several reasons why Outlook limits the size of the file to be sent. Some of them are the following:

  1. The email provider at the recipient's end might not allow the attachments with large size. Even if the size of the file sent via Outlook is less than 20 MB, there could be an email provider at the recipient's end that allows an even smaller file size. You can try compressing the size of the pictures and attachments before sending them.
     
  2. Every recipient's mailbox has a certain storage quota that continues to increase with the arrival of the messages. In case the storage quota reaches its limit, it would not allow any message to be received.
     
  3. Even the sender mailbox has a certain storage quota, that keeps on increasing with the arrival and sending of the messages. Every message sent is stored in the Sent Items folder, that is also a part of the storage quota. You would not be allowed to receive any further messages, if the storage quota is exceeded.
     
  4. Each attachment process makes the attached files 1.37 times heavier than the original file. This process is called Attachment bloat due to the encoding of the attached file to the message.

However, there are various ways that you can send files of more than 20 MB in size in Microsoft Outlook 2013.

  1. The first and the easiest way is to use the Windows registry. Using the Windows registry editor you can make changes in the registry values and increase the maximum allowed size in Microsoft Outlook.

    You need to use the following procedure to increase the attachment size limit in Outlook using the Windows registry:
     
    1. Click the Start menu.
    2. Start typing "regedit" in the search box in the bottom left of the screen.  In case you are using windows XP, type "regedit" by selecting "RUN" from the start menu.
    3. A "regedit" option is displayed under the programs.
    4. Click the "regedit" option to open the "Registry Editor" dialog box.
    5. The Registry Editor opens with a list of folders on the left pane.
    6. Expand the folder "HKEY_CURRENT_USER".
    7. Expand the "Software" folder.
    8. Expand the "Microsoft" folder.
    9. Expand the "Office" folder.
    10. Expand the folder "15.0".
       
    Note: In case of Microsoft Office 2007, this folder is named 12.0 whereas for Microsoft Office 2010, this folder is named 14.0.
     
    1. Expand the "Outlook" folder.
    2. Expand the "Preferences" folder.
    3. Here you can get the value of the MaximumAttachmentSize key. In case the MaximumAttachmentSize key is not present, you can manually add the key.
    4. Set your cursor in the middle of the screen.
    5. Right-click and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.
    6. Rename it to MaximumAttachmentSize.
    7. Press Enter.
    8. The "Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value" dialog box pops up.
    9. In the Value data field insert a possible value for the file size limit. Note: To specify a 30-MB limit, use the value 30720. This value is in KB. However, in case you do not want to specify any limit for attachments, you can leave the value as 0.
    10. Click OK.
    11. Exit Registry Editor.
    12. Start Outlook.
       
    Use the download link instead of the actual files by making use of the various cloud services like DropBox, iCloud and so on.
     
  2. You can make use of the various compression utilities like Winzip or Winrar.
     
  3. Outlook provides a builtin option called "Bells & Whistles for Outlook" to automatically compress all the outgoing attachments.

However, in order to safely send a larger file, you can always use various professional compacting PST tools available in the market. They use advanced algorithms to compact large Outlook PST files and reduces the chance of PST file corruption in case of oversizing.


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