Outgoing Email Failed to be Sent due to 'Message submission rate for this client has exceeded the configured limit' Error

Platform Notice: Cloud and Data Center - This article applies equally to both cloud and data center platforms.

Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Problem

Outgoing email sending partially failed. Email that failed to send will be visible in the Mail Queue.

The following appears in the atlassian-jira.log

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2015-09-14 10:08:00,077 ERROR [] Sending mailitem To='moga@gmail.com' Subject='(XXXX-47) email notification' From='null' FromName='test.new (JIRA)' Cc='null' Bcc='null' ReplyTo='null' InReplyTo='<JIRA.12132.1442196409000@Atlassian.JIRA>' MimeType='text/html' Encoding='UTF-8' Multipart='javax.mail.internet.MimeMultipart@25bcff64' MessageId='null' anonymous Mail Queue Service Error occurred in sending e-mail: To='moga@gmail.com' Subject='(XXXX-47) email notification' From='null' FromName='test.new (JIRA)' Cc='null' Bcc='null' ReplyTo='null' InReplyTo='<JIRA.12132.1442196409000@Atlassian.JIRA>' MimeType='text/html' Encoding='UTF-8' Multipart='javax.mail.internet.MimeMultipart@25bcff64' MessageId='null' com.atlassian.mail.MailException: com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSendFailedException: 421 4.4.2 Message submission rate for this client has exceeded the configured limit at com.atlassian.mail.server.impl.SMTPMailServerImpl.sendWithMessageId(SMTPMailServerImpl.java:213) at com.atlassian.mail.queue.SingleMailQueueItem.send(SingleMailQueueItem.java:44) at com.atlassian.mail.queue.MailQueueImpl.sendBuffer(MailQueueImpl.java:66) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.JiraMailQueue$1.apply(JiraMailQueue.java:57) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.JiraMailQueue$1.apply(JiraMailQueue.java:53) at com.atlassian.jira.util.velocity.DefaultVelocityRequestContextFactory.runWithStaticBaseUrl(DefaultVelocityRequestContextFactory.java:127) at com.atlassian.jira.util.DefaultBaseUrl.runWithStaticBaseUrl(DefaultBaseUrl.java:58) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.JiraMailQueue.sendBuffer(JiraMailQueue.java:52) at com.atlassian.jira.service.services.mail.MailQueueService.run(MailQueueService.java:30) at com.atlassian.jira.service.JiraServiceContainerImpl.run(JiraServiceContainerImpl.java:66) at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.runService(ServiceRunner.java:77) at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.runServiceId(ServiceRunner.java:54) at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.runJob(ServiceRunner.java:37) at com.atlassian.scheduler.core.JobLauncher.runJob(JobLauncher.java:136) at com.atlassian.scheduler.core.JobLauncher.launchAndBuildResponse(JobLauncher.java:101) at com.atlassian.scheduler.core.JobLauncher.launch(JobLauncher.java:80) at com.atlassian.scheduler.quartz1.Quartz1Job.execute(Quartz1Job.java:32) at org.quartz.core.JobRunShell.run(JobRunShell.java:223) at org.quartz.simpl.SimpleThreadPool$WorkerThread.run(SimpleThreadPool.java:549) Caused by: com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSendFailedException: 421 4.4.2 Message submission rate for this client has exceeded the configured limit at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.issueSendCommand(SMTPTransport.java:2114) at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.mailFrom(SMTPTransport.java:1618) at com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport.sendMessage(SMTPTransport.java:1119) at com.atlassian.mail.server.impl.SMTPMailServerImpl.sendWithMessageId(SMTPMailServerImpl.java:175) ... 18 more

Environment

Jira Data Center

Cause

Exchange server is set to X message rate limit. This means that the Exchange server can only send X emails concurrently. When a large number of emails that exceed the limit go through the mail server, it will fail due to the limitation.

Resolution

Change the receive connector MessageRateLimit from X to 20 or 100, depending on your mail load. From Exchange Server Support forum; 421 4.4.2 Message submission rate for this client has exceeded the configured limit.

Updated on April 7, 2025

Still need help?

The Atlassian Community is here for you.