Gmail Attachment Size Upped To 25MB

@beekerstudios: Yeah that sounds cool... like yousendit.com or a billion other sites, but built into gmail since people trust gmail with their data already.

This makes me think of Dropbox's public folder where you just move a file to the public folder and a public link is created to the file online. If gmail could just send links for attachments over 5-10MB, it would be a bigger strain on their end but would solve the problem of overloading the recipient.

Psonar

I think people with the ability and desire to use FTP or drop.io or other services underestimate the huge majority of internet users who send pictures and songs, etc. to their friends and family on a daily basis.

My girlfriend recently purchased some songs for me, but because I forgot to get them on my thumbdrive before I left she was forced to email them to me. Even after her gmail uploader had failed several times, when I made a comment about there being "other ways" we could do this, I could feel the scowl over the phone line and I promptly shut up. She really dislikes using extra services and programs. Using gmail is fine in this case because I'm expecting the songs and we both have gmail, and the larger message size means you don't have to send 1 song per email anymore.

If it were me, I would use Dropbox with a public link and just send the links.

Psonar

@pale_blue_eyes: I use it to email stuff to myself so I don't have to worry about it, and have a quick way to find frequently-used files. The mroe I can fit in an email, the better...

The Bigger Unit

OMG A whole 25 MB?!Wowee...

@KeyserSoze: There are a number of reasons why this is a problem. Most email systems, including Exchange and Yahoo (the largest mail provider in the world), have a default maximum message size of 10MB. Limits are necessary to prevent people from clogging up their mailboxes. Trust me. You give a newbie the ability to send whatever size message he can, he WILL clog up his mailbox. It's an administrative headache for anyone who has to manage a mail system.

Oscar Feliciano

I had an odd issue a few weeks ago where checking a POP via gmail broke my ability to upload at all.

AnielaCorinthus

@Terc:

At work I regularly send 7-10 MB Excel files. Plus the pdf's that I have to send both internally and externally. Although those are fewer in number at that size range.

Runnin-Ute

@wickedcupofjoe: Of course it's not just you :-)

I remember I had to update the Flash Player to make it work in my case.

old news, it's been that way for a while

@njven: Another vote for Mediafire. Though it's almost impossible to persuade people to not send everything in email attachments.

@Oscar Feliciano:

The point of this is it makes gmail users tell their friends to sign up for gmail.

It's another attempt to put a chokehold on MS.

VayaConQueso

@njven: Um, I'm just wondering...

Why on earth does a 2kb file attachment take you 30 seconds to download from 12mbps? Something that small is always instantaneous for me on nearly any network.

@OCEntertainment: sounds like you use the sneakernet more than anything.

@ErikWestrup: lol, perhaps dirty to those of us that know the dirty truth about it (that it kind of sucks). But to many it looks quite shiny, I'm sure.

What's up with the silly "Comments" here?.. Are they from 1998 with Dial-up Accounts? 25Mb's "To Large of an Attachment? Just because your able, Which I'm Thankful for, to send an attachment that is 25Mb doesn't mean you have to. Its nice to Have ability to do so.. The more the better.. A nine second, decent quality video can be 25MB before you know it.. I'm Just Not Understanding the Complaints. I have multiple gmail accts, some for archiving in a pinch, etc.. myphotos@gmail for example.. a no fuss way to access Pics or Vids via Gmail. I have on line storage as well. Just gives us the option to share more, move more date. Whats wrong with that? Schteve

KeyserSoze

@Torley: I usually just add .gmail to the end of anything you want to send. Recipients get the hint to remove the .gmail and get the app you're mailing!

Matthew Kenworthy

@undefined: I use gmail as my PDF memory storage box, and occasionally store tarballs of source code in there.

Matthew Kenworthy

What they really need to do is come up with a link/upload automated service built into gmail. Instead of sending the actual attachment, it appends a link to it, which is stored on gmail/google servers. Kind of like a gmail, but automated, secure, and also link shareable. If I want to send the same link/attachment to 30 people I could.

I know it seems retarded, but for quick/big stuff, and also to simplify it for SOME people, it would be a great addition to the service.

beekerstudios

@Torley:

Or just save it as a draft and it will be left in your Draft 'folder' ;)

powaking

@pale_blue_eyes: This was one of the reasons I moved from Outlook to GMail. Doing entertainment promotions meant a lot of audio and video being emailed and it was annoying the hell out of me.

Never looked back

timdickinson

^^even when the *limit* was 10MB - sorry

nolabar10der

Even when it was 10MB, I routinely emailed myself 15-18MB MozBackup files successfully , and without so much as a warning. I'm sure that if you tried to send an 80MB file that it would fail, but as long as you're within reason Google never balked.

nolabar10der

@Terc: *in GChat*
Me: Hey, I'm working on this edit. Can you take a quick look at a low res version? Tell me what you think?
Friend: Sure, send it over.
Me: Oh, dang. It's 22 MB. I COULD just send it to you in this Gmail window that is currently open, very conveniently and quickly for this one-off transfer for peer review. But now I must hop on over to megaupload.com to transfer my very small, largely-irrelevant-outside-this-one-revi... video file.
Friend: Umm....yeah. I know. Why are you narrating all this?
Me: *glances at the camera*.....Um....err....no reason.

@hongjun: Well, I guess it's a positive that it's just not me. :) Thanks for the FYI!

@Oscar Feliciano: It's for people like myself who do it because I'm the only person in my social circle who is computer savvy enough and the only one to care enough to know there are better ways for file sharing... *sigh*

@OCEntertainment:
If you're sending files to people through email, "You're doing it wrong"®
If your attachments are regularly over 1MB, then you're looking for a File Server - [en.wikipedia.org]

Terc

I actually like this, as I end up emailing myself large files (or groups of files) for school or work (I can never find my flash drive when I need it). I'd love to use ftp, or the server at work, but I know that I can always get to gmail, wherever I'm at.
Also, I know it doesn't always work, but I LOVE the flash uploader tool, as I often have to send emails with multiple attachments to other people, and it's so much easier when you can just select them all at once, and upload them as you're writing the email.

farcedude

@Gyroscope352:

Mediafire is flash based and I haven't ever had any problems. I think it is more towards how experienced the author of the utility and how well they designed it.

njven

@Oscar Feliciano: Precisely what I was thinking when I read this. To be sure, it seems arbitrary to set a specific limit, and 20 MB is hardly more reasonable than 25 MB. But it seems to send the wrong signal to unexperienced users - that sending huge files via e-mail is OK. It ain't (unless, perhaps, explicitly requested by the recipient).

thomasmb

i have been at 25MB for a couple months now.... hmmm

@pale_blue_eyes: Unless the recipient used web based email as well. If they did, it would be a non-issue or if they had a broadband connection.

ri59

@wickedcupofjoe: sometimes it works and sometimes it just don't

What is the point of this? Most email providers will simply not accept messages that are 25MB in size. Email was never intended for sending large files. That is what FTP and other file-sharing methods are for. Are we reverting back to the days where user mailboxes would be clogged (to the point of being useless) because they were trying to email themselves the latest copy of MS Office? :P

Oscar Feliciano

Now if only we could re-point a file transfer to another Gmail accountholder's username to achieve the transfer without uploading and downloading, I'd have my needs met.

vesuvian

@Gyroscope352:

Flash is not shiny, it's dirty!

Yay for 25MB. Progress!!!

prabh1602

@pale_blue_eyes: I wouldn't send something that big unless the person was expecting it. Hopefully others will do the same, but probably not.

This is a quick way to backup some apps, too. But Gmail will scan for .exe files and understandably not allow them to be included due to security risks. You can, however, compress an archive in a different format and that'll work, such as password-protected RAR. Or, rename the archive so it has a JPG suffix at the end, then make a note in the body of the email that... this is actually a ZIP archive!

I couldn't be happier with this. Except that I know I'll be craving more later.

Of course, I do video editing and such. I won't be happy until there's attachments measured in the Gigabytes or Terabytes.

I suppose most people would be hurt by this. :-P Oh, well. Thanks, Google!

Nooo, now everyone will start emailing huge attachments. You really don't want to attach anything over 5mb. That's where file storage services like drop.io, Windows Live Skydrive, and Mediafire come in. It takes me 30 seconds for 2kb file through GMail/Pop on my 12mbps connection =[

I know organizations with their own mail servers hate it, it's just not a nice thing to do. Just drop the file at drop.io link it and let the recipient download it, the message is faster and their 500mb inbox from their ISP stays clean.

njven

I'd personally be really pissed off to be on the receiving end of an email with such a huge attachment. That's what file-sharing services like drop.io are for.

pale_blue_eyes

Yeah, I've found that the "older" HTML-based uploading tools are always better than the shiny flash-based options. Perhaps it's just me, but the flash ones never seem to work nearly as quickly and without returning erros.

Good to know! Although, I can't figure out why I can't get the multiple upload function to work. The option is checked to use the advanced function, but it's just not working.