Without a doubt, Gmail is one of the most used email services worldwide. Since, being provided by the recognized company Google and because of the excellent technological tools it offers, many people choose to manage their email from there.
Thus, it provides a total of 15 GB of storage capacity for free and offers advanced search. Added to that, has spam and advertising filters, guarantees great order and control, has a permanent connection, can be synchronized with other apps, etc.
And if that was not enough, Gmail allows you to share all kinds of documents through its platform, since supports any format without any limitation. This, through its attachments that it is worth knowing what they are and how they are handled within the service.
What is an attachment and what are all the formats supported by Gmail?
Also know as attachment or email attachment, an attachment is defined as a certain file that is sent together with an email message. Usually they are documents, images, photos, presentations, videos or music files that the recipient can download freely when opened.
In that sense, physically, an attachment works like a message written on a sheet containing a paper clip to hold photos or other documents. That is, there are certain additions that complement the message sent through Gmail, One way or another. For its part, thanks to the fact that this email service facilitates the exchange of different types of files, of course has the ability to support different formats in its attachments.
Among them, the following stand out:
- .DOC or .DOCX: Documents prepared through a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word, for example.
- .XSL or .XSLX: Spreadsheets, tables, graphs and macros that are made in programs like Microsoft Excel.
- .PPT or PPTX: Those presentation documents that can contain text, graphics, images or videos.
- .PDF: Scanned documents that are converting from .doc or .xsl files, in most cases.
- .RTF: An extension related to text documents.
- .TXT: Texts that do not have any type of format.
- .ODT: Format used for the storage of office files.
- JPG: This refers to the standard format for photos.
- PNG: It is a special image format for use in browsers.
- GIF: By and for animated images.
- Svg: Also supports resizable vector images that can be static or animated.
- mp4, .wmv, .3gp, .flv, .mov, .m4v, .mpg and .avi: They are the main formats for attaching videos in an email.
- .mp3, .wav, .mp4, .aac, .aif, .ogg and .webm: To simplify sending audio with full quality.
What is the weight limit for attachments in a Gmail email?
When attaching files in Gmail, it is essential to bear in mind that there is a platform capacity limit. In this case, although it is possible to send one or more attachments from the same email message, these can add up to a total of 25 MB (without exceeding it).
Thus, if the attachment is larger than 25 MB, the Gmail service automatically will transform this into a Google Drive link so that the receiver can open the information through said platform, instead of having the option to download an attachment. Under this condition, it is possible to use up to 50MB storage.
Learn step by step how to send all kinds of documents in a Gmail email
It is considered extremely easy attach any file in a Gmail email, but many people still do not know the procedure that has to be carried out exactly, to carry it out in the right way.
Therefore, in this section of the post, we will explain how to share any document from Gmail as an attachment, step by step:
Login to your Gmail account
First of all, what you have to do, is to enter your Gmail account with the relevant data. This can be done by opening the official site of the email service from your trusted web browser. Although, it is always recommended to do so via Google Chrome.
Click on “Compose”
After the above, head to the top of your inbox and locate the button that says “Compose” to press it. In this way, automatically, the box will appear from where you can create your new email message.
Define the recipient (s)
Next, in the New Message part, it’s time to specify who you want to send an email to, placing their respective email addresses in the box that says “To”. Besides, you also have to add a subject and build the body of the message.
Attach the files you want
Now, at the bottom, you will see several options and among them is the one that allows you to attach documents. Thus, click on “Attach files” containing an icon similar to a physical click and is located after the formatting options.
Once this is done, the File Browser from your computer and from there, you must search for the document, video, audio, photo, image or any file that you want to send via email. To select it, just double click on it and so, it will be attached to the bottom of the message.
Send your new message
Once you have uploaded all the email attachments in your new email, it only remains click on the “Send” button so that it is shared with all the recipients that you have established there.
It should be noted that, if you wish, you can also schedule the sending of your email message easily. To do this, instead of clicking on Send, click on the arrow that contains said button and there, choose the option “Schedule shipment”. Then choose the date and time in which you prefer your email to be delivered with attachments.
We teach you how to send large files through Gmail regardless of the limit allowed by the platform
As we mentioned before, Gmail only accepts a maximum of 25 MB when attaching files in the emails to be sent. For that reason, it is impossible share a document in such a way that exceeds the limit allowed by the Google.
However, following certain tricks, there is the possibility of sharing heavier files, especially, using any cloud storage solution (like Google Drive, for example) to allow recipients to get any information from Gmail, no matter if it exceeds 25 MB.
Consequently, below, we explain the steps to send large files through Gmail without much difficulty:
- Initially, access the email service as you do regularly to log in and enter your inbox.
- Followed by that, select the “Compose” button to open the New Message tab.
- Then at the bottom of the box, click on the Google Drive icon that says “Insert files with Drive”.
- Then, through your drive of this cloud storage service, you have to choose the file or files you want to share and that exceed 25 MB allowed. If you want to select several at the same time, press the “Ctrl” key and click on each of them.
- Later, at the bottom, choose the way to send them, either as “Drive Link” or “Attached file”. The latter can only be used to send files that have not been created with Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets or Google forms.
- Once you click Drive Link or Attachment, you have to press the “Insert” button.
- Finally, in Gmail, only subtract click on “Send” and ready.
Most common problems when sending an attachment What are they and how to solve them like an expert?
Although it is often easy to attach a file in Gmail to send it to other users, the truth is that this process can be complicated in some occasions. Therefore, there are certain common problems when sharing an attachment.
Here, we will specify what they are and how you can solve them:
I can’t attach a document
When you choose to manage your email inbox Gmail using a computer, it is likely that have difficulty attaching a file And ultimately, you can’t do it. Which is caused due to the web browser you are using or the proxy settings of the browser in question.
Consequently, we recommend that you do the following in order to solve this problem as an expert:
- Use a supported web browser to log into your account. Gmail. Either Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer or Safari.
- If you are already using any of these browsers, try another one of them to check whether it is possible to send the attachment from there or not.
- In case you have configured a web browser proxy before, it is advisable to disable it in order to check if you can attach your document in Gmail after doing it.
Lock for security
Another common fault when sharing attachments through Gmail is: blocking for security reasons. Since, in order to avoid viruses, the platform does not accept executable files (such as those that have the extension .exe).
Therefore, if you are trying to attach an executable file, it is best to choose to share another type of document from Gmail, in order to link it within the email. Otherwise automatically you will get a lock for security by pretending to attach it there.
I can’t download an attachment
If you are the recipient of an attachment on Google’s email service, in some circumstances it is likely that it is impossible for you to download one of them normally. Which is probably because your Internet provider or network administrator you have blocked the domain that Google uses to host attachments (This is known as: mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com).
To solve it, it is best that you contact your Internet service provider and expose your problem, so they can proceed to unblock said domain and / or implement the relevant solutions so that you can download attached documents without limitations.
In case they tell you that the fault was not generated by them, you can do the following:
- Clear your browser’s cache and cookies. Well, many times, these are the causes of the problem in question.
- Disable the extensions installed in the web browser what are you using, one by one. Since, it is likely that one of them is causing the problem.