Forcing Mail Drop?

[DaveWT]

Is there a way to force Mail Drop to work when sending large files in an email? From what I have read, it is supposed to be offered more or less automatically when "needed" but my experience suggests this is unpredictable. I would love to have a way to force Mail to use Mail Drop when I want it to, rather than when (or if) it decides to offer it as an option.

Dave

 

[chas_m]

Your Mac should automatically use Mail Drop when you try to send an attachment that’s larger than **your** ISP supports. Follow the instructions here and you should see it being used very consisten bearing in mind the limits for attachments of your provider: https://www.idropnews.com/mail-drop/

 

[DaveWT]

I was trying to send an 88 MB video and it didn't activate Mail Drop. I was using an iCloud.com email address, but sending over Telus infrastructure so not sure whose limits kick in. From what I can see iCloud emails are limited to 20 MB and Telus emails are limited to 25 MB. In the recent case I was sending via my iPhone.

 

[chas_m]

If you are sending a file over the limit for iCloud (Telus carrier not relevant here), Mail Drop is automatic and does not notify you. You can confirm with the recipient.

 

[DaveWT]

Thanks for that thought, Chas,

I will have to play a bit more to confirm this. Previously when I had see Mail Drop working, it asked me if I wanted to send it as an link or just try sending it as is. I can't remember the exact circumstances where I was given this choice.

 

[DaveWT]

This continues to baffle me. In the last week or so I sent a video via Mail from my iPhone to a cousin and as soon as I hit the "Send" icon, it asked me if I wanted to use Maildrop. That worked perfectly. Tonight I am trying to send another couple of photos and videos (total 141 MB) to the same cousin from my iPhone and rather than prompt me to use Maildrop, it just offers me the chance to resize with the "Small" option only getting me down to 133 MB. So I wonder if Apple only has this service available at certain times or is there some other factor I need to consider. Back to reading more about Maildrop online, but that has never been helpful in the past. Perhaps time to call Apple.

 

[chas_m]

Mail Drop limits - Apple Support

Mail Drop lets you send large files like videos, presentations, and images through iCloud. If you shared links through Mail Drop that are no longer available, you might have exceeded one or more of the service limits.

support.apple.com

 

[DaveWT]

I phoned Apple tonight and the tech person quoted all the requirements that I had already read in an Apple Support document. She said I had to update iOS from 4.1 to 4.2 and if the problem persists (which of course, it does) I am to call back. I am no where near exceeding any limits in the support document and two almost identical (in size and content type) emails a week apart were handled completely differently. I am wondering if Apple makes and removes this service availability from time to time and if I just try to send the email in a day or two it may just start using Maildrop.

 

[chas_m]

If you've been trying this multiple times, you might have run into this limit:

"You reached the 1 TB Mail Drop storage limit. Each attachment expires after 30 days, so you can send new attachments after earlier attachments expire and more storage becomes available."

 

[DaveWT]

Actually I found another Apple Support document on this topic... https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/icloud/mm6b1a7a10/icloud
It pointed out a setting in Mail when logged into iCloud.com to "Turn on Mail Drop for large attachments" which I found I had not checked on. But checking it on made no difference and past emails from my iPhone have used Maildrop without issue.

Another call to Apple today got escalated to a senior advisor and he had me press on to go ahead and send the large email after getting the resizing options. At that point it did offer Maildrop. Now if only I could understand why Maildrop was offered right away last week without first being shown the resizing options. Not a consistent experience. But I do this so infrequently that I will just take my chances down the road.

 

[chas_m]

One possible reason you're not getting MailDrop as an option consistently: do you have more than one email address you use?

MailDrop is only offered when the originating email address is a @MAC/@me/@iCloud.com address. It is not offered when you are using a non-Apple email address, or replying to a message sent to one of your non-Apple email addresses.

 

[DaveWT]

In my case, always using an "@MAC/@me/@iCloud.com" address. And (as far as I can remember) from my iPhone. Does Maildrop get triggered the same way if sending an email from Mail on a Mac? I will have to test that...

 

[chas_m]

I routinely send large files and so far (as far as I know) all the recipients have received links rather than the files themselves.

 

[DaveWT]

OK, as a test I started from Photos on my iMac, selected a few video clips and hit the Share icon and selected Mail (exactly as I had done on my iPhone previously.) I set up the email to go to one of my other accounts (hotmail). The email size was show as about 155 MB (very close to the 141 MB file I was sending from my iPhone.)
I hit the send icon and it just went! No warning of large file size, no offer to go via Maildrop. It took a long time to actually go and an even longer time for Hotmail to deal with it but eventually it just showed up. Not sure what would have happened with a really large email that might have been rejected by the ISP.
So, is there a setting on my iMac I need to find to allow Maildrop as an option?

 

[chas_m]

Not that I know of. it's meant to be automatic based on the size of the attachment.