3 Ridiculously Easy Ways You Can Email a Large File

You never need to worry about seeing an error message like this one ever again. Because today, you're going to email school to learn the ABCs of zipping, driving and dropping. Ready? Let us begin.

Size Matters

What are the size limitations to sending a file? It all depends on the email platform you use.

Message size limitations for:

Gmail: 25 MB

Ymail: 25 MB

Outlook: ~20 MB (for default internet email, but your company may limit sizes at the Exchange level)

So, typically if your file is in the 20+ MB range, you will need to do something about it. 

Besides the annoyance of an error message and time lost working around it, there are other good reasons to shrink the size of your email messages and attachments. Those reasons include keeping inboxes clean if your Exchange server has storage problems, file and document sharing integrity, and security, just to name a few.

1. Zip It

If you need to send a really big file, or lots of little files, one neat trick is to simply compress the file. This means, you're sending the actual PDF or PSD, or whatever, but you're compressing the data so that the file size is smaller.

On a Mac or PC (the directions are roughly the same), you simply right (control) click your file and select Compress. This will create a new file on your desktop with the same name and .zip extension.  

If you have several files to compress, create a folder with the files you want to zip, and then control-click and Compress.

2. Drive It

Gmail has provided its own elegant workaround for sending large files: Google Drive.

If you use Gmail, you have the option from your message window to attach a file from Drive. Instead of including the file in your email, it links to the file or folder in your Google Drive. 

Make sure to adjust share settings to allow your contact access to the folder or file.

3. Drop It

Dropbox is your everything when it comes to file sharing. We keep our entire LIFE on Dropbox. You can share massive files, a folder of 1 zillion photos, movie files, anything that you can think to upload. 

Another tidbit about Dropbox is a nifty security feature that allows you to send an exploding link. This is a great way to send a file that you can't securely or practically send over email, and you don't want someone to have access to the file for more than a set amount of time.

So, now you can Zip It, Drive It or Drop It (like it's hot) anytime you need to hurl a big file across the internet.

What is your preferred method? Add your comments below!