New limit imposed on max. number of addresses per message?

[Andy]

Hello,

Gmail used to have a limit of 500 recipients per email message (or 100 if sent from an email client program).

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22839?hl=en

It appears that maybe they just changed that limit from 500 to about 10.  They still claim it is 500, but I don't think so!

I send weekly emails to a list of about 50 addresses.  All was fine, until this week.  This week's message bounced saying that the message was "blocked" to every single address, including my own.  I received 50+ bounces, one per address.

After a few days of retrying, and looking for an explanation, I finally resorted to sending separate emails to everyone on the list, and they all went through, no problem.  Golly.

But I got lazy near the end of the list, and my last message was addressed to 11 recipients -- and that one bounced.  When I split it into two messages with half as many recipients each, they both went through.  Therefore, I conclude that someone at Google has throttled the threshold down from 500 to about 10.

When the limit is exceeded, the bounce message is cryptic, saying little more than the fact that the message has been "blocked", and refers to https://support.google.com/mail/answer/69585 .  All the bounces look the same and came from googlemail.com (I'm in the USA), even for the non-Gmail recipients.  I think the messages never left Google and were rejected internally by Google.

For example:

Final-Recipient: rfc822; someone@comcast.net

Action: failed

Status: 5.0.0

Diagnostic-Code: smtp; Message rejected.  See https://support.google.com/mail/answer/69585 for more information.

followed by a severely truncated version of my email message, and no further diagnostic information.

In case it matters, messages were sent from Gmail's web interface (client software not involved), on Chrome.

What's going on?  Has there been an announcement about such a change?  Does it sound like a bug?

Thanks,

Andy

[coconut]

Hi Andy,

That has been happening to me as well.  It started a several months ago, but I would split my list to 40 recipients and all would be fine. Then after a few days, no problem I can send out to my email group of 125 with no problem until it happens again.  Recently, some messages are blocked and others aren't.  Some group messages retry delivery over a period of time which results in multiple blocked replies for each recipient. At first I thought it was because of the graphics in my message, but even that is not consistently blocked.

I find if I send to small group of 2 or 3, it's fine.  But that is too much of a hassle. 

Once I received a link that suggested I create a google group.  But that is not what I want to do.  My group emails are notifications and I want to keep it as such. 

And I don't want to subscribe to an email client.

Yes, it appears the messages are blocked internally by google. 

Andy, I'm glad you've posted as I want to understand what is going on, too.

[Andy]

On Sat, Jun 23, 2018 at 7:06 AM, coconut <rhu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Andy,

That has been happening to me as well. 

​...

​Thanks for this confirmation.  At least I'm not the only one in the world experiencing this.

All of my bounces have been immediate (within 1 minute).  No retries, so far.  As far as I know, every single recipient email bounced the same exact way.  All bounces came from Google, so none ever reached their target domains.

It's strange that we aren't hearing about this from others.  I'm sure we aren't the only people sending emails to small groups of people.  Well, my bounces just started this last week.  Maybe it's a slow-spreading virus at Google.

Regards,

Andy

​

[Sean Murphy]

    I've been following this thread, but I have not experienced this phenomenon. I don't send regular group emails, but I do sometimes forward webcomic strips, and when I do, my friends and family number nearly twenty. So far so good...

[Andy]

Well, I tried another email sent to my list of 50+ recipients -- all the same addresses as last week's repeated failures -- and this time it worked without a hitch!

Beats me.

From where I sit, the logical conclusion is that either Google fixed whatever was wrong FOR ME for the last several days (might not be the same as what's affecting 'coconut'), or that it's still broken but Google is becoming like Yahoo where the results differ every time you try (I guess depending on which server it happens to go through).

Regards,

Andy

[Les Turgeon]

I haven't been following this discussion, but a few months ago I switched emails from one Google account to another Google account.

I started a new group and invited everyone from my former group to join. (5000 members by groupings of 500)

I would estimate that 95% of members who were NOT with Google came back as 'undeliverable'.

My former group had no 'bouncers' as I removed them when they bounce, so the problem was not there.

Another problem I had was sending the invitations. If I sent 500 one day, I couldn't send more sometimes for over a week or more. I tried sending mail to the bouncers 10 at a time but most were undeliverable.

I once had a group (HumorErotica) that topped 34000 members at one time, that I ran for over 15 years (Yahoo, then switching to Google when they began groups) but dropped it last fall because of continuous interference from Google. (Banning for no reason) They would unban after a few days or weeks. No explanation!

I am now content with my little Nature Picture group (down from 5000 members to 1200) I no longer remove bouncers because there are some who receive mail (no problem)

I haven't got the 'big picture' but I am convinced Google Groups is in a downward curve.

Les T.

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[coconut]

Andy,

Your post gave me encouragement to send out an email blast to my entire list, and it went through without a hitch. And I did another send 30 mins ago, this time with graphics, no problem.

Its difficult to predict  why and when bounced messages will happen again. I don't think it's a fix. My guess is Gmail sporadically monitors activity and enforces limits. When that happens, I stop activity or send out small group emails ( less than 20 recipients, but I've even had that bounce too).  After a while, I'm allowed my usual activity.

[catzrule]

Please read  https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/2iDBfj3v_IM for a full run down on this.

Problems, and solutions, all there.

[Andy]

On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 6:56 AM, catzrule <phill...@gmail.com> wrote:

Please read  https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/2iDBfj3v_IM for a full run down on this.

Problems, and solutions, all there.

​This is interesting.  However, I suspect that the problem I had, last month (and now gone), was something else.

And yes, the problem I had then is totally gone now.

Regards,

Andy

[coconut]

Thank you, this helps explain why my rejected emails may happen, BUT not why it is rejected sparodically.  And if I wait it out a few days, I am not rejected.  OR if I split my groups to 15 members, I don't have this problem.