Sending and Receiving Big Files
Size Limits for E-Mails
What are the size limitations of Münster University's e-mail system? We have summarized the most important figures and tips for "major customers".
- A single e-mail must not be larger than 25 MB, i.e. it can contain a maximum of about 18 MB of files attached to it. Our mail servers refuse to accept larger e-mails.
- The maximum size of the inbox is 1½ GB. E-mails arriving in excess of this size will be returned to the sender as undeliverable (does not apply to Exchange).
- Other email folders can be any size (large folders are slower). You can create any number of folders; there is no disk space quota.
Sending and Receiving Big Files
Sending files of more than 5 MB via the conventional e-mail route is often problematic, but most e-mail providers stop sending files of 20 MB at the latest. This may be enough in most cases, but there are always situations where you would like to send or receive larger files. In this case we offer the following solutions:
- Sending with the university cloud sciebo: Our cloud storage sciebo makes it easy for you to share large files or entire folders with others - either as a download link or, if the other party is also a sciebo user, also via shares.
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Receiving with the university cloud sciebo: If you want to receive large files, you can use a FileDrop. To do this, create a folder in Sciebo and click on "Share". Select the option "public links" and send this link to the person from whom you expect files. If you select the "Download / View / Upload" settings, anyone with this link can share files with each other. To ensure that only authorized persons have access to the folder, you should select a password under "Password" and set an expiration date for the link (e.g. after a submission deadline). You can also send the link to the folder directly to the target person(s) by entering their email address(es) under "Send link as email" and then clicking on "Share".
- Sending with perMail: While sending from the university address normally only works with attachments up to a maximum of 18 MB, our webmail program perMail offers a practical alternative here: It automatically switches to deposit, i.e. just like the procedure described above, the recipient receives an e-mail with a download link. Here, too, the maximum size is 512 MB.
Tips for Recipients of Many Large E-Mails
(These tips only apply to the standard mailbox, not to the Exchange mailbox.)
- In our "IT-Portal", activate "Nightly filtering" in the "E-Mail" section and select "Move read mails to quarterly folders". (If you receive several hundred megabytes per month, you may even be using monthly folders).
- In your e-mail programs, make sure that the copies of sent e-mails are not stored in your Sent Folder ("Sent Objects" or similar), but in your inbox (perMail users can find this under "Settings" | "New e-mail page").
This ensures that perMail is automatically called up once every night and that all e-mails read from the inbox are stored in folders on a quarterly (monthly) basis, sorted by time of receipt. In the automatically created quarterly (monthly) folders, you should be able to find your e-mails relatively easily even after a longer period of time.
If you follow these instructions, all your e-mails are permanently stored in folders on the central e-mail servers. In this case you do not need to worry about data backup and can access all of your e-mails at any time with any IMAP-capable e-mail program or with our webmailer perMail.
