You receive a "This item exceeds the maximum size defined for this folder" error message when you use OWA to post an item that has an attachment to a public folder in Exchange Server 2003 and in Exchange 2000 Server

When you use Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) to post a new item that has an attachment to a public folder in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 1 (SP1), in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 2, or in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 3 (SP3), you receive an error message that is similar to the following error message: This error message occurs when the attachment size is larger than 1 MB. Attachments that are smaller than 1 MB are not affected. This issue occurs even if no limits are set on the public folder store.

This issue occurs because a system folder that is named OWAScratchPad{GUID} is created when a user adds an attachment to a public folder item by using OWA. By default, the OWAScratchPad{GUID} system folder has a limit of 1,024 kilobytes (KB).

To resolve this issue, create and then configure the "Message Size Limit" registry entry to increase the limit of the OWAScratchPad{GUID} system folder. After you configure the registry entry, you must restart the Microsoft Information Store service for the changes to take effect.

Note If the server is in a production environment, you can temporarily increase the attachment limits if you cannot restart the Information Store service immediately. For more information, see the "Workaround" section

If you are using Exchange 2000 Server SP1, Exchange 2000 Server SP2, or Exchange 2000 Server SP3, you must install the Exchange 2000 Server Post-Service Pack 3 Rollup software update to create the "Message Size Limit" registry entry.

For more information about the Exchange 2000 Server post-SP3 update rollup software update, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To create and configure the "Message Size Limit" registry entry, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWEB\OWA
3. Right-click OWA, click New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Click the new registry entry that you created, and then type Message Size Limit to name this registry entry. Make sure to type this text exactly as it appears in this article.
5. Right-click Message Size Limit, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value box, type a number that you want to set the limit to. The number indicates the limit in kilobytes (KB). The maximum limit recommended is 200 megabytes (MB), a decimal value of 204800, or a hexadecimal value of 32000. The default value is 1024. You can use a values in the following value range:
   Collapse this tableExpand this table

   	Decimal	Hexadecimal	Size in MB
   Minimum	1024	400	1
   Maximum	2097151	200000	2048

7. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service.

You can temporarily increase the limit of the size of the attachment that can be posted in a public folder by using OWA. However, if you configure the values that are described in this workaround, the values revert to the default settings or to the value that is configured in the "Message Size Limit" registry entry when the Information Store service is restarted.

To temporarily work around this issue, identify the server that contains the public folder in which you want to post larger attachments, and then change the limits on the OWAScratchPad folder that corresponds to that server. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. Expand Organization, expand Administrative Groups, and then expand AdministrativeGroupName.
3. Click Folders, right-click Public Folders, and then click View System Folders.
4. Expand Public Folders, right-click the OWAScratchPad folder, click Properties, and then click the Limits tab.
   
   Note There may be more than one OWAScratchPad folder under Public Folders. One OWAScratchpad folder is created for each server that is running Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server. To determine the server on which the OWAScratchPad folder resides, right-click the folder, click Properties, and then click the Replication tab.
5. Change the value in the Maximum item size (KB) box under Storage Limits to the limit that you want to use.
   
   By default, the value in the Maximum item size (KB) box is set to 1024. To change the limit, use one of the following methods:
   • Change the value in the Maximum item size (KB) box.
   • Click to select the Use public store defaults check box. The Use public store defaults setting is controlled by the Maximum items size (KB) setting and the Prohibit post at (KB) setting on the Limits tab of the public store database properties.

After you change the limit of the OWAScratchPad folder, you can use OWA to post a message that has an attachment that is the same size or smaller than the limit that you set. The attachment size that you can post is determined by the limit that you set on the OWAScratchPad folder or by the public store default setting, depending on the setting that you selected in step 5.