04th Nov2014

ISPConfig/Dovecot Fix: message exceeds temporary size limit

by Gyro

A simple ISPConfig/Dovecot Fix: message exceeds temporary size limit.

I just setup a dedicated server as a webserver using ISPConfig as the control panel following pretty much this guide:
The Perfect Server -- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (nginx, BIND, Dovecot, ISPConfig 3)

Everything went smoothly, until I setup and tested email addresses.

Thunderbird kept giving me this error popup when trying to send an email:

The size of the message you are trying to send exceeds a temporary size limit of the server. The message was not sent; try to reduce the message size or wait some time and try again. The server responded: (IP, Sender) first encounter..

So, I searched Google for that exact phrase as well as part of it, like "The size of the message you are trying to send exceeds a temporary size limit of the server" or "message exceeds a temporary size limit", and so on, then I finally found a small post that (accidentally?) contained the solution, a parameter that was missing in my config file!

It took quite a while to find the answer, so hopefully this post will help others to get the solution quicker :)

FIX: message exceeds temporary size limit

edit /etc/postfix/main.cf and add this (missing) line:

virtual_mailbox_limit = 0

Final step: restart dovecot:
$ service dovecot restart

Done, enjoy! :crazy:

Sources:
http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1325
http://www.postfix.org/postconf.5.html

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