Virgin Media Community

[Laptopnightmare]

I made the terrible mistake of trying to send an email to a large amount of people last week and ever since have been getting all my outgoing emails bounced back with this message 

Server error: '453 4.1.1 Too Many Recipients (VM502)

Even though I am sometimes only emailing 2 people AND I have cancelled all outgoing messages several times.

Please help. This is really affecting my ability to work.

Thanks

[coenoby]

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@Laptopnightmare wrote:

Server error: '453 4.1.1 Too Many Recipients (VM502)

Even though I am sometimes only emailing 2 people AND I have cancelled all outgoing messages several times

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My understanding is that the VM502 error code indicates you have exceeded VM's daily limit for the total number of recipients you can email in a day.

The email that tripped the error may have only had 2 recipients but it would seem that together with the other emails you had already sent it was enough to break the daily recipient limit.

The only options are to wait until the block has cleared or you could switch to using VM's Webmail service which I understand has higher limits.

The number of recipients is counted when each email is sent so subsequently "cancelling" the outgoing messages will not have any effect.

VM do not publish the details of exactly what the limits are because the limits are intended to stop spammers using VM email addresses  They almost certainly vary depending on geographic area you are sending from although in the present circumstances I assume you are sending from the UK.

If you still get that message even though you have not sent any emails in, say, the previous 24 hours, there is a possibility that a spammer is using your email address and password to send bulk emails remotely. In other words, that your email has been hacked.

If you have reason to suspect that may have happened, you should follow all the advice here: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-account-has-been-hacked 

In the final analysis, VM's email service is only designed for normal personal use so if you need to send a lot of emails, or send emails with a number of cc addresses each day then the answer is to set up an email address with a dedicated email service provider who allows higher limits.

However, most free email services set limits. For example, Gmail only allows you to send 500 emails or up to 500 recipients in a single  day.  https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22839?hl=en#zippy=%2Cyou-have-reached-a-limit-for-sending-mai... 

I hope that helps.

Coenoby

[ravenstar68 · Accepted solution]

I think Coenoby's summed everything up nicely BUT because this happened last week I do have to ask if the offending mail is sitting in your outbox?

If it is then your mail client will keep trying to send it meaning that when the 24 hour timer expires, your mail client will try sending the mail again and trigger the lockout once more.

Tim

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

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@ravenstar68 wrote:

If it is then your mail client will keep trying to send it meaning that when the 24 hour timer expires, your mail client will try sending the mail again and trigger the lockout once more.

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Thanks Tim.

Good point I did not think of that, might well explain why the lock is still coming up 

Coenoby

[Laptopnightmare]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

Yes the offending email is still stuck in the system I think and it keeps trying to resend it and the error message continues. How on earth do I stop it from sending? I have clicked on cancel all several times.

All advice welcome thank you

[Katie_WT]

Hi there @Laptopnightmare

Thanks so much for popping back - sorry that you're still having these issues. 

Have you attempted to log in via Webmail to see if you are able to delete the offending email from there? 

Cheers

[Laptopnightmare]

Hi Katie

I am in my webmail as still cannot send from my Outlook. How do I delete offending outgoing email?

Best,

Yvonne

[Katie_WT]

Hi there Yvonne (@Laptopnightmare)

It should be as simple as selecting the email in question and then click the delete icon (looks like a rubbish bin) from the toolbar. It should then be sent to your Trash folder - if you wish, you can then delete from there directly also but it will be automatically deleted from the Trash folder within 7 days

Cheers

[Laptopnightmare]

Hi Katie,

The email I sent on 25/05/21 is not in my sent folder. It is stuck somewhere perpetually trying to resend. How do I locate it in my webmail?

Best,

Yvonne

[Graham_A]

If you sent the email from Outlook you need to be looking there to delete it not in webmail.

Look in the Outbox folder in Outlook and delete the email from there.