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Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

shutter
Community Veteran
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Registered: ‎06-11-2007

Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

I used to be able to send emails, with pics attached, I remember sending one email with 10 pics attached all small size files,  total was less than 800Mb... for the past couple of days, any email with an attachment has a problem, and "hangs" at 95% ... with an eventual message saying that the message failed due to time out on the email server , or something similar.

 

Once I have removed the pics, the email goes off immediately... which is fine, to a point, but the pics are really the main information of the email, or important "clarification" of the subject matter.

 

Using Thunderbird ( and have been for about 5 or more years with no problem)..

 

Is the problem with Thunderbird, or is it something that the Plusnet Mail server is doing?


Any suggestions as to how to overcome the problem would be appreciated.

Thanks.

51 REPLIES 51
spraxyt
Resting Legend
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

How large are your attachments? Bear in mind that when Mime encoded their size increases by about 30%.

Using Thunderbird I've just sent a test message with one 96.8kB .png image attached. This was to an external address. I had no problem sending it and it arrived promptly at its destination.

David
shutter
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

The one, and it was only one pic, that I wanted to send last night, is only 72kb on the disk... 68.6kb as spec by "properties"..

 

Previously I have sent as many as 10 pics on attachment, with a max of 800 kb each...

( I normally use FastImageResizer before sending picture files) 

shutter
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

Just tried again, with a different 68kb jpg attachment...   here is the message after "hanging" at 94% for 2 minutes

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Sending of the message failed.
The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) relay.plus.net timed out. Try again.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

I don`t suppose using "PaleMoon" as my internet browser makes any difference to how Thunderbird operates the email system ? ? ? 

 

Both are the latest versions...

 

shutter
Community Veteran
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

strange..... when I had no browser open on the desktop.... the progress bar shot to 100% immediately, (as per normal) but then "hung" for a couple of minutes, as before.. with the same non delivery message

 

Tried with Firefox open on Google, and back to the same as Pale Moon   up to 94% on the progress bar, and the same non delivery message...

 

shutter
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

Even more strange................ two of the messages that "failed" according to the above messages, have now appeared.... unfortunately, I did not put any "identifier" into them to say which system was being used to send .. ( i.e. with/without browser activated/not activated.

 

So,... it is still a problem, because of the unreliability.....

 

Any one from PlusNet Staff, got any ideas ? ?       it seems nobody else has....

colourqueen
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

For what it's worth, I have exactly the same issue and it started on Sunday night. I have not been able to send emails with attachments since them. On Sunday night I didn't notice an email hadn't gone from the inbox but in fact the recipient got copies at 10 minute intervals throughout the night until midnight when it all stopped and no more were sent (fortunately!) - 40 copies were enough.

I can send ordinary emails but nothing with attachment - either via Outlook (even repaired the pst) or via webmail.

 

Looking for a fix too.....

JimLep
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

I have been having the same problem since yesterday (and similarly a few days ago) trying to forward an email with a pdf attachment. I use Mail on a Mac, and eventually was able to send an attachment using my iCloud account instead of PlusNet - so I think it's a PlusNet problem that they need to look at. I understand they also have a long-standing problem with their webmail service, so it's a bit frustrating at the moment.

bobpullen
Community Gaffer
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

@shutter @JimLep, can you give things another go and let me know how you get on please?

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

JimLep
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

Last night I tried after rebooting the computer and only running Mail, and that seemed OK. This morning, with more programs running, using my Plusnet account was OK, but there was a delay emptying the Outbox using my iCloud account. This evening it was the same, so the Plusnet problem seems to have gone (I hope so, as I have a lot of mailing to do tomorrow!). I sent the same pdf attachment of 2.4 MB in all these tests. Ironically, just now I had an error message pop up saying there was a problem with Mail accessing my iCloud account!

shutter
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

I got fed up with getting an "It`s not a plusnet problem" from the 2nd live chat guy, after the first one said he knew what it was, and would I try again after 4 hours, when he hoped he would have it fixed...   2nd guy said 1st guy was "over complicating things".. cos he didn`t check anything first..  2nd guy insisted I send an email to myself via the webmail, which I do not use, at all,  and did not think it would prove anything, except that webmail worked, whereas my preferred, and usually reliable Thunderbird didn`t... his answer, after I managed to send an email with a small attachment, via webmail, was.... (roughly)    "see,. Webmail uses the same servers as thunderbird, so it`s not a plusnet problem "... end of...

 

No alternative or helpful suggestions... such as..try this... do that.. perhaps you could do this...  left me to my own devices... 

 

After some time still trying to send  test messages to myself... some, managed to arrive a while later than normal... so to me that meant that there was a problem with the Plusnet side of things...  

 

I decided to download a new copy of Thunderbird, but did not uninstall the original, and just installed it again....

(Which SHOULD have been suggested by the 2nd guy, after he had "proved" that webmail works ... )


After doing that, I have had no problems...

 

However, that COULD have been due to the fact that the Plusnet side had been "tweeked" or the bug had somehow disappeared. and not necessarily because of the re-install.

 

spraxyt
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

I think installing a fresh copy of Thunderbird might have refreshed your profile and cleared the problem.

I'd forgotten doing this but I now recall doing this myself a few weeks ago after what I believe was a failed update caused problems with a POP3 account.

David
DTEG
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

I seem to be having the same issue. Sending via my 1&1 SMTP server on port 587 is failing (timing out at 99%) this evening for even trivially small attachments. Using a different non-Plusnet connection, it seems to work fine, suggesting the fault lies somewhere within Plusnet's traffic management rather than 1&1. Behaviour reproduced on both desktop Thunderbird and mobile email, so not client-specific. Incidentally, attempting to use Plusnet's own relay also appeared to fail when attempted, but may have been coincidental.

DTEG
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

Whoever may have been at fault, the issue seems to be quietly resolved this morning for me. Hopefully the same for others?
shutter
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Re: Problem sending (trying to send) email with small pic attached

Nope... it hasn`t been "quietly resolved"... it is still the same this morning... I have just tried to send an email to an american friend with 6 pics attached... total 980 kb and it has returned the message.... about Plusnet server timing out..

 

AGAIN>>>>......Angry

 

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************

Sending of the message failed.
The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) relay.plus.net timed out. Try again.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

 

NOTE>.... I have just re-installed Thunderbird ( since the above )....  AGAIN... and I still get the same message after it hangs for about 90 seconds at 95% 

 

So... definitely NOT FIXED.....Angry

 

 

 

ANOTHER NOTE>>>>>

 

WEBMAIL pages are extreeeeemly slow to load up...over 35 seconds for the "compose a message page to appear"... Angry

 

Another note....... can`t seem to be able to add my pics on webmail... just doesn`t "do it ".... Angry