Email errors can be a nuisance, especially when you have to send an urgent mail. Mail delivery issues form a major category of errors reported by server owners.
As part of our Outsourced Tech Support for web hosting providers, we resolve such errors all day long.
One such error is ‘552 5.2.2 user quota exceeded’. Today, we’ll see what causes this error and how we fix it.
4 reasons for “552 5.2.2 user quota exceeded” error
Error 552 usually shows up in the bounce mail that the sender receives while attempting to send mail to a recipient mail account.
SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<mail@domain.com>: 552-5.2.2 The email account that you tried to reach is over quota.
The error message indicates that the quota of the recipient account is full and mail could not be delivered to that account.
Every email account has a fixed data storage space allotted to it, referred to as the ‘quota’. This quota limit is set when an email account is created.
Set mail account quota
If you are the recipient and senders complain that they get 552 error when sending mails to you, it means your mail account quota is full. This leads to mail delivery failure.
“552 5.2.2 user quota exceeded” happens due to these 4 major reasons:
1. Email attachments
If an email account receives a lot of emails with large attachments, it can eventually fill up the email account of a user. This can lead to email delivery failures.
2. Trash folders
Many email clients have a setting that the deleted mails will remain in the Trash folder until they are purge deleted. This results in the Trash folder getting filled up.
Trash folder also adds on to the quota of an email account. But many users overlook this aspect, causing trash to get piled up and quota to exceed.
3. Email forwarders
Some users set up one or more email forwarders from their email accounts. If any of those forwarded email accounts exceed their quota, mails can get bounced from those accounts.
4. Mail server restrictions
Every mail server has certain restrictions on the mail delivery settings. This is to avoid a single user or spammer from abusing the server resources.
The restrictions include limit on mail account size, mail attachment size, message content size, etc. If any of these limits exceed in a mail that is sent, it leads to 552 error.
How to fix “552 5.2.2 user quota exceeded” error
When a mail account is facing issues receiving mails due to 552 error, we follow a step by step approach to fix it.
- We first review the email quota and see if it has exceeded.
- Disk usage of the email sub-folders are examined and problem folder is identified.
- Trash folder and emails with huge attachments are deleted to clear space.
- Email client is configured so as not to store mails in server, unless necessary.
- In certain cases, the quota of the email account is increased for email delivery to succeed.
Conclusion
Mails that are bounced with “552 5.2.2 user quota exceeded” error have to be resent to the recipient after the quota issue is fixed. Today, we have discussed the causes and fixes for 552 email error due to quota issues.
I don’t believe this is the issue as i cannot send emails to France full stop. So the information in the afore message is erroneous. And the tasks are unacheivable because:
I do not have access to the said ‘full email’ account.
I do not have permission to alter another person’s account.
I have received the attachments, so it should be possible to send the attachments unaltered to the email recipient.
This is not the only failing email address, therefore, there must be a problem with the French service.
what do you mean? vetting a comment is very undemocratic. I have concerns that need attention and it is important to me that they are answered.
I would like to contact France. I need to know what the problem is. This vetting is in itself another problem that you are causing!
Why?
Dear Lisa,
We’d love to auto-approve every comment that comes to this blog, but you know how difficult the internet can be. There are all sorts of people who post spam, abusive comments, and more. Manual vetting is the best way we’ve found to keep the conversations here fruitful and on topic.
Just so that we are on the same page, you are reading this blog post on a website called bobcares.com. We are an independent technical support provider for web hosts, ISPs, data centers and cloud providers. We do not know who you are trying to email, nor do we provide support through the blog. This is a platform where we share FREE for everyone what we learn daily from our tech support requests.
Good day!
Dear Lisa,
Let’s say you are emailing a person called “Isabelle” in France. This error says that Isabelle’s email account quota is over, and no new mails will not be delivered to her. This is not something you can fix. Isabelle needs to clear her email account to make more space.
Yes, I understand that it is important for you to reach your contact, but at this moment emailing doesn’t seem to be the best option. I would recommend you to call her on phone, and pass along this link so that she can clear her account. You’ll then be able to send her the email and the attachment.
Good day!
Nice. Solved. Thanks
Hello,
We are happy to hear that using the advice in this article, you were able to fix the problem.
Everytime I’m trying to do something like I’d me or anything else for government or all other purposes it’s not letting it go through due to an error
Hello Robert,
Please let us know the exact error message so that we can provide the resolution for the issue. We’ll be happy to talk to you on chat (click on the icon at right-bottom).
I am trying to send several emails at once and I’m getting ” LMTP error after end of data: 552 5.2.2 “. These email addresses are part of an organizational network. Would the organization be the one I would contact to clear space or do I need to contact each person I am emailing?
Thank you for your help in advance.
Hello Paula,
Reaching out to the organization would be the most efficient way to address the issue.