Orange Mail: attachment too large, the 25 MB limit and the ways round it
25 MB for the whole message, 30 MB with Gigamail — and a non-delivery report that turns up after the fact.
The short answer. Orange Mail accepts 25 MB for the whole message — text, signature and attachments added together. The Gigamail option raises that limit to 30 MB.
Given the encoding, that leaves about 18 MB of actual file. Above that, you have to send a link.
Orange Mail's limits
| What is limited | Value |
|---|---|
| Whole message, attachments included | 25 MB |
| With the Gigamail option | 30 MB |
| File size actually accepted | ≈ 18 MB (≈ 22 MB with Gigamail) |
These values apply to the webmail as well as to third-party apps configured on an @orange.fr or @wanadoo.fr address.
Orange is France's largest internet provider, and @orange.fr / @wanadoo.fr addresses come with the subscription. If you correspond with someone in France, you will meet these limits from the other side.
Why a file smaller than the limit gets refused
This is the point the official help pages skip over, and it is almost always the explanation. An email can only carry text. A file — video, photo, PDF, archive — therefore has to be converted into printable characters before it leaves: that is base64 encoding, which writes three bytes as four characters. The file grows by about 33 % in transit.
In other words: to fit inside a 25 MB limit, your file must not exceed about 18 MB on disk. For a 20 MB limit, count on 15 MB. And that limit applies to the whole message — the text, your signature, the inline images and every attachment added together, not just the file you have dragged in.
One last factor, this one invisible: the lower of the two limits decides, yours when sending and the recipient's when receiving. A corporate server often caps at 10 MB. Your message leaves, appears to be sent, and then a non-delivery report comes back an hour later.
The non-delivery report that turns up two hours later
This is the most common complaint on the Orange help forums, and it is not a malfunction at all. If your message fits within 25 MB, Orange accepts it and sends it. But it then has to be accepted by the server at the other end — often a corporate mail system capped at 10 MB. That server is the one that refuses, and its non-delivery report takes as long as it takes to come back.
The practical consequence: the absence of an error at send time proves nothing. A 15 MB file will get through to one recipient and not to another.
What Orange offers
- Shrinking images on send. The Orange webmail offers to resize attached photos. Useful for a few phone snapshots, useless for a video or full-resolution photos.
- Orange Cloud. The file goes into your space and the message carries only a link. That settles the question of the email's size, but the file takes up your quota and stays there until you delete it.
Sending a genuinely large file
For a video, a folder of photos or a backup, none of these options holds up. You need a service whose actual job this is.
toobigtoshare accepts up to 2 TB. You drop the file from your browser, you get a link, you paste it into your Orange message. The recipient clicks and downloads: no account to create, no app, no quota to watch. $5.49 per send, and the file is erased after 3 days.
Send the file with toobigtoshare — up to 2 TB, no account, a link to paste into your email.
Frequently asked questions
What is the maximum attachment size on Orange Mail?
25 MB for the whole message, attachments included, according to Orange support. The Gigamail option raises that limit to 30 MB.
Why does my Orange email bounce several hours after sending?
Because the message did leave your mailbox, but the recipient's server refused it because of its size. The non-delivery report is issued by that server, hence the delay.
How do I send a large file with Orange Mail?
By sending a link rather than an attachment: Orange Cloud for moderate files, a transfer service for large volumes. toobigtoshare accepts up to 2 TB with no account to create.
Is shrinking the photos enough?
For a few phone photos, yes: Orange offers to resize them on send. For a video or a folder of full-resolution photos, no — the saving is too small.
Got a file of several gigabytes to send?
toobigtoshare carries up to 2 TB. No account to create, neither for you nor for the person receiving: you get a link, you paste it into your email. $5.49 per send, file deleted after 3 days.