How/Why does Mail Merge create an outlook E-mail over 30MB in size

Question

Hi there,

Another person in the office had attempted to use Word to create a Mail Merge to send out a reports to about 100 recipients. Back in Feburary, they were able to use the same word template and google sheet document to fill in the address recipients and information then send out E-mails without issue. Each individual E-mail was roughly a little over 2 MB in size.

This time, they had used the same word template and edited google sheet to perform a new Mail Merge in April but all of the E-mails were 32MB in size, which caused issues as the E-mail was far beyond the maximum size for some domains and returned a "Failure to deliver" E-mail.

I looked at the contents of the e-mail. Each one was about 2-3 paragraphs worth of text and no attachments. Could someone possibly explain maybe what had happened to make the E-mail so large to begin with? is 100 people considered too large of a Mail Merge?

Answer 1

Hi @Matthew Bird ,

According to my research, here are a few possibilities that might have caused this:

• Changes in the Word template or Google Sheet**:** For example, if new columns were added to the Google Sheet or if new fields were added to the Word template, this could increase the size of the emails.
• Images or graphics: If images or graphics have been added to the Word template or Google Sheet, and these are being included in the emails, they could be significantly increasing the size of the emails. Check for any new images or graphics.
• Embedded objects: Sometimes, objects embedded in a Word document (like Excel charts or other OLE objects) can take up a lot of space. If new objects have been embedded since February, this could be the cause.

As for your question about whether 100 people is too large for a mail merge, the answer is no. Mail merge is designed to handle much larger numbers of recipients. The issue you’re experiencing is likely not related to the number of recipients.

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