Reason

This happens in case a limit is specified for the number of recipients of an e-mail message, and message archiving is enabled. Message archiving adds an extra recipient for the message – the archive mailbox. In case the sender sends the message to the exact number of recipients as specified in the limit, the extra recipient added by archiving causes the limit to be exceeded.

Solution

The solution to the problem

Follow the instructions to fix the problem when messages sent to maximum recipients are not delivered in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003:

Step 1-Open Microsoft Exchange System Manager on your system:

a. Select ‘Start’ and click ‘Programs’.
b. Select ‘Microsoft Exchange’ and click ‘System Manager’.
(The ‘Microsoft Exchange System Manager’ console appears.)

Step 2-Now expand the ‘Global Settings’ container.

Step 3-Choose ‘Message Delivery’.

Step 4-Select ‘Action’ and click on ‘Properties’. (The ‘Message Delivery Properties’ dialog box appears.)

Step 5-Click on the ‘Defaults’ tab.

Step 6- Select ‘Maximum (recipients)’ option from the ‘Recipient limits’ section.

Step 7-Now type in the new limit in the ‘Maximum (recipients)’ textbox.

Step 8-Click on ‘Apply’.

Step 9-Click on ‘Ok’.

Footnotes

Message size limits are an important mechanism to control mailbox sizes, guarantee service availability, and protect from potential denial of serverice attacks.