What is Apple Mail Drop and how does it work?
Discover this fantastic functionality of the Apple ecosystem.
We recently published an extensive iOS 15 guide on all the features for sharing content from your iPhone. In it we talked about how AirDrop, SharePlay, Audio Sharing and the share button of native Apple applications work.
This time we will focus on Mail Drop, a feature in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, and PC that allows users to send large files via email.
The function is integrated in the application Mail of Apple devices and computers and offers the ability to share files up to 5 GB. In this tutorial we will explain, in great detail, what Mail Drop is and exactly how this feature works. iPhone, iPad and Mac.
What is MailDrop?
Apple introduced Mail Drop in 2014 alongside the release of OS X 10.10 Yosemite for Mac. A little later the functionality also landed on the iPhone thanks to the software update of iOS 9.2. So Mail Drop has been with us for a few years now.
Email services generally have a size limit for sending attachments. Some services like Gmail have a maximum limit of 25 MB.
For Apple’s Mail app, the file size limit for sending files via email is 20 MB o 28,3 MB in some cases. However, the company with the bitten apple logo recommends an alternative option: share your emails through Mail Drop.
Mail Drop takes care of uploading large files to iCloud cloud services, sending only the link to the attached file to the recipient of the email. In this way users do not require the use of storage space in iCloud.
Next, we will talk about how Mail Drop works and what are the features of this amazing feature for iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC.
How does MailDrop work?
The operation of Mail Drop is very simple. As we mentioned previously, the functionality has a maximum size limit of 5 GB and is enabled by default on most versions of Apple operating systems. This means that as a user, you won’t need to touch anything to activate this feature on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Regardless, we’ll explain how to turn Mail Drop on and off from the Mail app preferences later.
On the other hand, it is also worth mentioning that Mail Drop has a 1TB total limit. What does this mean? Well, the maximum size limit for sending an individual email with attachments is 5GB. But users can send as many emails as they want. As long as, however, your emails do not exceed 1 TB.
Mail Drop services are available only and exclusively during 30 days. That is, when a sender sends an email to a recipient with a large file, the email will be available for 30 days for the recipient to download. Therefore, when the 30 days have passed, users will once again have a 1 TB limit for sending attachments.
Lastly, it’s vitally important to note that Mail Drop only works through Apple’s Mail app. Before we indicated that Mail Drop was also compatible with PC, but to access this feature from a PC it is necessary to do it through iCloud Mail in the browser with either an iCloud, Gmail, or Outlook account, as long as you’ve added your email account to your Mail app.
How is Mail Drop enabled on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS?
Mail Drop functionality is enabled by default on both iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
iOS 15 and iPadOS 15:
To send an attachment up to 5 GB through the Mail app on iOS and iPadOS, follow these steps:
1. Open the Mail app.
2. Press the button to send a new email.
3. Write the email address, the subject and the message you want to send.
4. Then click on the Photos button or on the Files button to add your attachment.
5. When you press the button to send your email, if the attachment is larger than 20 MB, the system will recommend you to use Mail Drop.
Use Mail Drop on an iPhone.
As previously mentioned, the recipient of the email will be able to download the file through a link for a period of 30 days.
Additionally, you can also use the share button of Photos, Files, Safari and other applications to send emails via Mail Drop.
macOS 12:
Mail Drop is also activated by default in the Mac operating system. Therefore, when you send an email with an attachment larger than 20 MB, the system will skip the step of asking you if you want to use Mail Drop and will send the email directly.
If for some reason the Mail Drop feature is enabled on your Mac, you will need to go to Mail > File > Preferences and select the “Send large attachments with Mail Drop” option within the “Accounts” category.
Screenshot of Mail preferences.
Finally, it is interesting to point out that Apple allows its users to compress their photos and videos through the Mail application, indicating at all times what the real size of the file is and what the resulting size is after compression. A really useful feature for iOS and iPadOS, since users tend to transfer a lot of files from their smartphones and tablets.
Sometimes we don’t realize how lucky we are when it comes to features like this. And it is that a couple of decades ago it was extremely complex to send an email with a 5 GB attachment. What do you think about Mail Drop? Do you regularly use this feature on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS?
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Reference-ipadizate.com
