Resolving the issue: 5.3.4 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size

We recently discovered that several emails, we were expecting, were being rejected by our Exchange Server 2007 and giving the following basic response:

SMTP command failed when talking to server.domain.com: <<< MAIL FROM:host@remotedomain.com SIZE=16164910
>>> 552 5.3.4 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size

  • http://www.juicypear.nl Marco Engel

    after trying your solutions I found a better workaround.
    if you open exchange management shell
    do the following:
    get-receiveconnector

    select the receive connector identity for which you are changing this setting. in servernameidentity format

    then do the following
    set-receiveconnector -identity servernameidentity -MaxHeaderSize
    128kb (or a higher value)

    experiment with this until you do no longer get the error.
    to view the current maxheader size:
    get-receiveconnector -identity servernameidentity |list

    cheers,
    Marco

  • Mick

    Details are everything.. The above should say:

    The resolution was to go into:

    Exchange Server Management Console
    SERVER Configuration (NOT Organization)
    Hub Transport
    Locate the appropriate Receive Connector
    Adjust the value of the Maximum Message Size (KB)

  • Brian

    Mick, I don’t know what version of exchange you’re using but it IS Organization Configuration, not Server Configuration.

    • Koll

      Brian, i don’t know where you are looking under Org Config, but there are no Recieve Connectors there as far as I can see. The Recieve Connectors ARE under Server Config.

  • http://www.biz-edge.com Michael

    Thursday, July 19, 2007
    552 5.3.4 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size
    If you are running Exchange 2007 and you are getting the above error message from users outside your organization there is a very simple fix.

    Set-ReceiveConnector -identity “Default [SERVERNAME]” -maxmessagesize 20MB

    That will double your receive limit from the internet. Now if you want to go bigger you could do:
    Set-ReceiveConnector -identity “Default [SERVERNAME]” -maxmessagesize 1GB
    but that is not recommened at all.
    The available options for the size are: B (bytes), KB (kilobytes), MB (megabytes), & GB (gigabytes). The maximum you can do is 2GB and any unqualified sizes are treated as bytes.

  • Kaushik Roy

    Whenever I want to send the mail through Outlook using hotmail id this message is coming:

    552 5.3.4 Requested action aborted; Our daily message limit was meant to stop spammers–we’re sorry that it’s getting in your way. You can wait a day to send your message.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    Thanks for the pointer Marco.