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Email servers enforce size and storage limits to maintain performance and reliability. When these limits are exceeded, messages are rejected before delivery.
The SMTP Error 552 – Message Size or Storage Limit Exceeded occurs when an email is too large or when the recipient’s mailbox has reached its storage limit. Attachments are the most frequent cause of this error.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
How to Resolve SMTP Error 552
1. Reduce the size of any attachments by compressing files.
2. Replace attachments with secure cloud storage download links.
3. Ask the recipient to free up mailbox space if their storage is full.
4. Review mailbox quotas within cPanel if the issue affects your own account.
Common Email Size Limits for Reference
- Most email providers enforce a maximum message size of between 20 MB and 25 MB, including attachments and message headers.
- Attachments are encoded during sending, which can increase their actual size by up to 30–35%.
- A 20 MB attachment may exceed limits once encoding is applied.
- Webmail platforms often apply stricter limits than desktop email clients.
- Receiving servers may reject messages that exceed their limits even if the sending server allows larger sizes.
- Mailbox storage limits are separate from message size limits and vary by hosting plan.
- Messages can fail if the recipient’s mailbox is full, even when the message size is within limits.
Additional Information
- SMTP Error 552 occurs when message size or mailbox storage limits are exceeded.
- Attachment-heavy emails are the most common trigger for this error.
- Mail servers enforce size limits to maintain system stability.
- Recipient mailbox quotas vary depending on the hosting configuration.
- Large messages may be rejected even if the mailbox exists.
- File compression can reduce message size, but this may not always resolve the issue.
- External file-sharing services are recommended for large files.
Login to Hosted.com® Account
1. Go to the Hosted.com® website Account Login page.
2. Enter your Email and Password and click the Sign In button.
3. You will see the Hosted.com® Dashboard, displaying the Manage Account menu on the left and your Account Information, Account Overview and Open Support Tickets on the right.
Login to cPanel from your Hosted.com® Dashboard
4. Click on Manage Services to view the sub-dropdown menu and select the hosting package for the domain you want to work with – in our example we are using WordPress Hosting.
5. Click the Manage button to the right of the domain name you want to access.
6. The display will now show Product Information, Quick Manage, Resource Usage and Site Statistics for that domain name.
7. Under Product Information, scroll down to Control Panel, which will display cPanel to the right, and click on the Login button.
8. The cPanel Dashboard will now be displayed.
