Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size

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Symptoms

Sending email with attachments in some cases fail.

The following appears in the atlassian-jira.log:

2012-08-13 17:41:13,477 ERROR [Issuetrack Mailhandler] QuartzWorker-0 ServiceRunner    Mail Handler[10000]: Exception: com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSendFailedException: 552 4.3.1 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size
com.atlassian.mail.MailException: com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSendFailedException: 552 4.3.1 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size
	at com.atlassian.mail.server.impl.SMTPMailServerImpl.send(SMTPMailServerImpl.java:193)
	at com.atlassian.jira.service.services.mail.MailFetcherService$ErrorEmailForwarderImpl.sendMail(MailFetcherService.java:545)
	at com.atlassian.jira.service.services.mail.MailFetcherService$ErrorEmailForwarderImpl.forwardEmail(MailFetcherService.java:507)
	at com.atlassian.jira.service.services.mail.MailFetcherService$1.process(MailFetcherService.java:368)
	at com.atlassian.jira.service.services.mail.MailFetcherService$MessageProviderImpl.getAndProcessMail(MailFetcherService.java:264)
	at com.atlassian.jira.service.services.mail.MailFetcherService.runImpl(MailFetcherService.java:349)
	at com.atlassian.jira.service.services.file.AbstractMessageHandlingService.run(AbstractMessageHandlingService.java:250)
	at com.atlassian.jira.service.JiraServiceContainerImpl.run(JiraServiceContainerImpl.java:61)
	at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.execute(ServiceRunner.java:47)
	at org.quartz.core.JobRunShell.run(JobRunShell.java:195)
	at com.atlassian.multitenant.quartz.MultiTenantThreadPool$MultiTenantRunnable.run(MultiTenantThreadPool.java:72)
	at org.quartz.simpl.SimpleThreadPool$WorkerThread.run(SimpleThreadPool.java:520)
Caused by: com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSendFailedException: 552 4.3.1 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size
	at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.issueSendCommand(SMTPTransport.java:2114)
	at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.finishData(SMTPTransport.java:1900)
	at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.sendMessage(SMTPTransport.java:1122)
	at com.atlassian.mail.server.impl.SMTPMailServerImpl.send(SMTPMailServerImpl.java:166)
	... 11 more

Diagnosis

Your SMTP server settings might not allow messages with attachments over a certain size. The error message can show up when processing incoming mail as well. This scenario in the case would be that the message is not able to upload correctly so an error log to the forwardemail will be sent. Since the message is too large for the SMTP server to handle, the mail stays in the mailbox and errors like the above will be printed in logs.

Resolution

Change your Exchange mailbox settings to allow larger pieces of mail to be sent.

Last modified on May 31, 2023

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