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Why Won’t Gmail Send Your Attachments?

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Gmail Attachment Failed: Ways to Deal With Errors

The error message above is certainly known to almost everyone, especially to those, who often need to exchange video recordings. Attaching files does not work perfectly in Gmail. Let’s try to understand why.

Gmail Attachment Size Limit

One of the most common problems is hitting the Gmail file attachment limit. The official documentation says that Gmail currently allows sending files as heavy as 25Mb

The limit set is not per file but per message. It means that a few smaller files attached to the same message must be together not bigger than this limit.

However, the same documentation says that, in case the limit is overstretched, Gmail will still upload the file, store it in Google Drive, automatically generate a link, and attach it to your message.

We know a better way for doing this. First, we move to the next common Gmail attachment failure.

Unable to Attach Any File in Gmail

Sometimes it looks like Gmail just has a strike or something against you, as it won’t work without any reason. For instance, the attachment button won’t do its job or won’t appear at all.

IT gurus say that it can be an extension blocking Gmail’s functionality or a wrong browser. Therefore, the users should just deactivate all extensions or try to use Gmail in a different application.

Gmail Attachment Not Showing

Let’s imagine that you managed to upload your attachments but you cannot see them or your recipient cannot find them. 

In this case, as the official documentation recommends, the two previous methods must help. If not, you should try to clear your browser cache and cookies. 

Fetching (Downloading) Attachments Won’t Work

The next stage in the progress line from sending a Gmail message to getting to its attachments is to fetch and download them from the message.

Users experience troubles at this stage, too. Again, the previous three methods must help. As a last resort for uploading and downloading file attachments, Gmail recommends turning off all of its advanced settings. You can do this by directly opening this page (you need to be logged in to your Gmail account before).

How to Encrypt Attachments in Gmail

One of the biggest concerns is whether your attachments are in secure hands?

By default, Gmail uses a TLS encryption that has a few weak points:

  • Your message can be intercepted and tempted with.
  • The encryption is useless if the recipient’s provider does not support it. 

As an alternative solution, Google offers a so-called confidential mode. It must be turned on for every message, which makes it prone to human mistakes.

Moreover, the mode only tries to imitate a 2FA authentication by either sending the recipient a password in a separate email message or as an SMS. For the latter option, you will need to provide the phone number of your counterpart. 

Does it really sound like a cool solution?

Attaching a Video to Gmail Messages Securely

Well, we have a better solution for those who want to send a video as a Gmail attachment. 

Basically, we think that replacing attachments with links is not such a bad idea: you won’t make your hard drive full with the files you never need again or that are duplicates of what you download and save manually. Even with a cloud email box, you will come to hitting some storage limit sooner or later and will have to delete old emails hastily.

Record and Share Videos With dadan-Gmail Integration

If you need to create and share screen and webcam recordings often but do not want to worry about secure hosting, start using dadan

Dadan can be integrated with your Gmail box. You will see a dadan button next to the Send button. By clicking on it, you can start recording your screen, webcam, and micro immediately. Upon completion, the recording will be attached to the email as a link.

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Alternatively, you can attach an existing dadan video.

Both will appear as a thumbnail with a link and a catchy title inside the message body.

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By the way, the thumbnail is customizable. Your recipient will get a hint of what the video is about — and watch it!

How to Get Dadan for Gmail

To get dadan integrated with your Gmail box, please follow these simple instructions

Dadan needs to be used with a Chrome browser. 

Free Screen and Video Recording

You can use dadan for free and integrate it with even more tools. The storage behind it is completely cloud-based, but dadan allows you to download videos and store them offline. Besides, you can edit and annotate your video to use it for teaching, selling, customer support, and other purposes. 

Download dadan as a desktop for Windows, macOS, or use it as a Chrome or Edge extension. 

Focus on creativity and share your best ideas quickly. 


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