How to Send a Large Excel File by Email or WhatsApp

When attempting to share a spreadsheet containing thousands of customer entries or embedded assets, you might encounter delivery failures such as “The attachment size exceeds the allowable limit”.

Here is how attachment limits work and how to easily deliver your spreadsheets over Email and WhatsApp.

Understanding Messaging File Size Limits

• Gmail / Google Workspace: 25 MB max attachment size.
• Microsoft Outlook / Office 365: 20 MB max attachment size.
• Yahoo Mail: 25 MB max attachment size.
• WhatsApp Web & Mobile: 100 MB max document size limit (up to 2 GB via Cloud Document sharing on certain builds).

---

Strategy 1: Split by File Size (Recommended)

Using SplitXL File Size Mode:

1. Drop your oversized spreadsheet into SplitXL.
2. Select “By Target File Size”.
3. Choose the 20 MB (Email) preset or 100 MB (WhatsApp) preset.
4. Click Split & Download.

Each generated part is guaranteed to stay within the allowable boundary, allowing you to attach parts 1, 2, and 3 without triggering mail server rejections.

---

Strategy 2: Remove Invisible “Ghost” Formatted Cells

Excel users often highlight an entire column and apply a background color or border. This instructs Excel to generate metadata for all 1,048,576 rows in the sheet, bloating file size from 2 MB to 50 MB!

1. Open your workbook.
2. Press Ctrl + End to see where Excel thinks your data ends.
3. If Ctrl + End jumps far below your last real row, highlight the empty rows and right-click -> Delete.
4. Save the file (Ctrl + S).

---

Strategy 3: Convert to CSV Format

Excel .xlsx workbooks store extensive XML formatting rules and cell styling. Exporting your data as a clean .csv file often shrinks the raw size by over 60%, making it immediately small enough for standard email attachments.