552 5.2.2 Mailbox full or over quota

What the message looks like

• 552 5.2.2 Recipient address rejected: User over quota
• 552 5.2.2 Mailbox full
• 552-5.2.2 The recipient's inbox is out of storage space and inactive
• 554 5.2.2 mailbox full; STOREDRV.Deliver.Exception:QuotaExceededException

What it means

The recipient's mailbox has run out of space, or the account has gone over a limit. The standard name for this status is "mailbox full".

The 552 reply code makes it a permanent rejection for this message, so the sender won't retry it. Many sending services treat a full mailbox more gently than a missing one, but several of these bounces in a row can still get the address suppressed. The temporary version is 452 4.2.2.

Common causes

• The inbox has hit its storage limit. Large attachments in Sent or Archive folders often count too.
• The account has gone over a sending, receiving or bandwidth limit for the month.
• A shared or team mailbox that nobody has cleared out.
• The account has been abandoned. Gmail adds "and inactive" when a full inbox also hasn't been used for a long time, which usually means nobody is reading it.

If you're the recipient

Free up space by deleting large emails and emptying Trash and Spam, or upgrade your storage with your email provider. Then ask anyone whose email bounced to send it again. The bounced emails won't arrive by themselves.

If you're the sender

Wait a day or two and send again, or contact the person another way to let them know their mailbox is full. If you send bulk email, check how your sending service handles full-mailbox bounces so the address isn't removed permanently after one bounce.

If you use addy.io

addy.io sends 552 5.2.2 Recipient address rejected: User over quota when an account on the Free plan has gone over its monthly bandwidth limit. Forwarding starts again when your bandwidth resets at the start of the next calendar month, or straight away if you upgrade. See What happens if I go over my bandwidth limit.

Senders who got this error may have stopped emailing that alias. See My alias is active but some sender's emails aren't arriving.