Has anyone successfully implemented strict limits on email attachment sizes in their organization? Our users currently have 365 Business Premium licenses that allow for a 50GB mailbox, but I'm considering whether we should lower the email attachment limit significantly—perhaps to 6MB or even 10MB. The problem is that many users insist on keeping everything in their mailboxes, leading to constant warnings about exceeding local storage. I'm aware of workarounds and unsupported registry changes, but I'm looking for genuine experiences or success stories from anyone who managed to convince their users to share files through OneDrive instead of relying solely on email. I'm especially interested in strategies that have proven to be effective without causing major backlash from users.
5 Answers
I advise against going below 10MB for attachments, as many users don't realize that the email message itself also counts towards the total size. I’ve had multiple calls from people who thought they were under the limit but added signatures or inline images and ended up exceeding it.
You could set a policy to only download emails from the last six months. This way, users can search for older emails without cluttering their local storage. Users typically remain unaware that the old data is being cached.
It’s crucial to educate your users on how email should not be used as file storage. If you can get executive support for this shift, it would greatly help in reducing the database size. A third party can also help customize it to your organization’s needs.
Limiting email attachments can be tough, but have you thought about encouraging users to utilize Online Archiving? With reasonable retention settings, emails older than two years can be stored in the cloud while keeping the primary mailbox light. It can give the illusion of a larger mailbox too, especially with the auto-expanding archive feature. Most users don’t even notice it’s happening!
Exactly! The 50GB plan can effectively turn into a much larger storage solution with archiving, and it really helps with user experience.
We have a max attachment size of 50MB, and we block external zip files from being received to promote the use of our external sharing site. It encourages users to adopt better practices without causing too much hassle.
Right? Those fancy signatures can add up, and users get blindsided by it. Simple text signatures are the way to go!