Email error 552 | InMotion Hosting

A 552 email error is typically ecountered when there is a problem related to an attachement in your email. Either it has exceeded the size limits of the remote server, or the file-type isn’t allowed by the remote server. Some mail servers also seem to use this error code incorrectly when blocking a message due to triggering a filter such as a URL in the message being found in a domain black list.

You should receive a bounce-back message from the server with a variation of email error 552 in the subject, and the body should contain your original message that you attempted to deliver.

Example of a 552 bounce-back message

Return-path: <>
Envelope-to: [email protected]
Delivery-date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:30:14 -0700
Received: from mailnull by biz24.inmotionhosting.com with local (Exim 4.77)
id 1TQMlS-0005G9-3e
for [email protected]; Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:30:14 -0700
X-Failed-Recipients: [email protected]
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
From: Mail Delivery System
To: [email protected]
Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
Message-Id:
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:30:14 -0700

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

[email protected]
SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
host RemoteDomain.com [123.123.123.123]:
552 5.3.4 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size

—— This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ——
—— The body of the message is 10672605 characters long; only the first
—— 106496 or so are included here.

Return-path: <[email protected]>
Received: from comcast.net ([123.123.123]:33534 helo=Admin)
by biz24.inmotionhosting.com with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES128-SHA:128)
(Exim 4.77)
(envelope-from <[email protected]>)
id 1TQMjz-0004Ug-Sz; Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:29:42 -0700
From: Sender <[email protected]>
Subject: Annual report
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:29:18 -0400
To: Recipient <[email protected]>

Common variations of the 552 email error

552 5.2.2 mailbox quota exceeded for this recipient
552 5.2.2 User mailstore exceeded quota limit
552 5.2.3 Message exceeds local size limit.
552 5.2.3 message size exceeds fixed maximum message size
552 5.3.4 Message size exceeds fixed limit
552 5.3.4 Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size
552 5.3.4 message size limit exceeded at MAIL FROM
552 Backend Replied [mxlogic.net]: 5.3.4 Message size exceeds fixed maximum
552 mail size or count over quota.
552 message size exceeds maximum message size
552 size limit exceeded
552 too many messages in this mail box.
552 Transaction failed, remote said “550 failed: User does not exist.”

552-Requested mail action aborted: exceeded storage allocationn
552-5.2.2 The email account that you tried to reach is over quota.
552-5.2.3 Your message exceeded Google’s message size limits. Please visitn
552-5.7.0 Our system detected an illegal attachment on your message. Pleasen

552 Virus found inside of the email
552 5.2.0 Remote MTA 74.124.198.61: An URL contained in this message is blacklisted by SURBL. See https://www.surbl.org

Resolving a 552 email error bounceback

The 552 series of errors can sometimes be a soft or hard bounce. For a more in-depth review of what a soft or hard bounce is, and general email bounceback reasons you can read why does email bounce, bounceback, or error?

In our example bounce-back error above the reason the message has failed is because the server for RemoteDomains.com has a fixed message size limit. The attempted message exceeded this limit so it was not accepted and generated this bounce-back error.

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