Gmail – Oops… a server error occurred and your email was not sent. (#103)

Sep, 15, 2008

Posted by George
25 Comments
GMAIL OOPS ERROR 103 UPDATED: Click link for more recent updated post.

After doing some Googling I wonder if this Gmail error really means “Oh nothing happened, this error means that there was no error”. Humor aside here’s the error message I got twice, once while while trying to forward and once while trying to reply to the same email:

Oops… a server error occurred and your email was not sent. (#103)

The Gmail’s blog’s We feel your pain, and we’re sorry post point to resources for Gmail problems:

…if you spot a problem with your Gmail account, please visit the Gmail Help Center and user group, where the Gmail Guides are your fastest source of updates.

In the end I had 2 answers for my #103 Gmail error:

  1. According to a user in a Google groups post dated August 8th of this year (2008), you should check your Sent Mail. When I did the emails I was trying to send were actually there, evidently sent despite the error message
  2. The Gmail Help Center suggested I try a) logging in at https://mail.google.com while they were looking at the issue or possibly b) using “old” style Basic HTML Gmail if the problem persisted.

For me 1 and 2a worked, and I  didn’t have to resort to using old Basic HTML Gmail.

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Posted in Email by George | 25 Comments

25 Comments "Gmail – Oops… a server error occurred and your email was not sent. (#103)"

  • Mark Zieg says:
    September 17, 2008 at 11:26 am

    (2b) solved my problem…thanks for posting!

  • Saketh says:
    October 12, 2008 at 10:44 pm

    Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately none of the suggested solutions above worked for me =(

  • Yves says:
    October 21, 2008 at 6:51 am

    Solution B) works for me only to send off basic email.However i dont just want it for that purpose as I cannot send a any pictures as attachments and cannot do the usual chat online which I find handier during working hours for quick replies.

    Please help as this is now becominga pain….!!!

  • Gmail Error 103 - revisited says:
    October 22, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    [...] on September 15, 2008 I posted “Gmail – Oops… a server error occurred and your email was not sent. (#103)“ but re-reading it today I felt it needed to be more about fixing the error instead of being [...]

  • Juan says:
    October 27, 2008 at 2:02 pm

    It has to do with using HTTPS versus HTTP.

    when you are in the Gmail page, go to “settings”, at the very bottom, select “always use https”.

    problem should go away

  • Prashant Khanal says:
    November 17, 2008 at 11:40 pm

    solution ‘a’ worked for me. I used to get this problem only when there was an attachment with the mail.

  • Vikas says:
    December 1, 2008 at 2:06 am

    “Oops… a server error occurred and your email was not sent. (#103)”

    This error occurs when attachment of size more than allowable is attached to e-mail and user try to send this e-mail.

  • George says:
    December 1, 2008 at 7:28 pm

    Thanks, Vikas. More useful information in that vein can be found here:
    Google Groups Post.

  • dexter says:
    April 4, 2009 at 4:32 am

    hi guys,
    i also face same problem , same error msg when i send or reply any mail.

    Oops… a server error occurred and your email was not sent. (#103)

    plz can u know me about this problem plz i need help me…
    thanx

  • dimps18 says:
    May 11, 2009 at 12:52 am

    I too faced this problem a couple of times. I could neither save nor send email, in both the situations, the error was ..”Oops…a server…#103″. However, it got resolved when i refreshed the page. Please note, while refreshing, the mail that was typed is not saved so one has to copy the contents typed before it is refreshed.

  • pissed says:
    September 18, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    The problem started happening with me when I bought a new laptop, nuked Vista, installed XP and am using Opera as my browser. There also seems to be some page load issues. I have to hit refresh a few times before it loads

    As for the error 103 crap, it normally works when I switch to basic HTML

    Trying the switch to HTTPS damn thing won’t save

  • George says:
    September 18, 2009 at 7:47 pm

    Considering Gmail has launched Google Chrome which has one of the fastest, or the fastest javascript engine. I’m not sure it will help, but Chrome does have that fast javascript engine PLUS the tabs crash separately instead of crashing the browser + all of its tabs.

    It may not fit your “style”, but I use Chrome specifically for Gmail and a few other tasks,leaving other browsers for everything else. If anyone tries Chrome, please let us know if it helps or not.

    Download Google Chrome

  • Pavan Somu says:
    December 5, 2009 at 1:49 am

    Thanks for the useful post buddy. From last two days am unable to send mails through proxy. This post helped me out of the issue.

  • Magesh says:
    December 8, 2009 at 3:52 am

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    I’m having this problem since last two days. I am a software professioanl when i try

    send mail the following error has occur and no one mail was sent anyone.

    Kindly check and solve the problem as soon as possible.

    The Error:
    ————-

    Oops… a server error occurred and your email was not sent. (#103)

  • Matt says:
    December 16, 2009 at 10:58 am

    This “Google 103″ error can pop up when JavaScript is disabled, via the Web Developer Firefox extension for example.

  • Bitterpopsicle says:
    January 21, 2010 at 10:02 pm

    Experienced this very same problem on one particular computer in a very particular environment, where none of the suggested solution works. Never seen this problem anywhere else.

  • George says:
    January 27, 2010 at 11:51 pm

    @Magesh – I wish I could fix that for you, this is just a helpful post, I’m not a Google employee, just a Google fan.

    @Matt – thanks for the info!

    @Bitterpopsicle – if I understood you right and your Gmail works fine from “everywhere” except one particular computer, then that computer/browser/settings is your issue. You could try the Gmail Support

  • Mike Reilly says:
    January 31, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    [With I.E.8] Here’s what I did. I dropped my browser’s home page choice three days ago and went to “about blank”. Made a huge difference in the speed of my Gmail opening and all functions thereafter. Haven’t seen a “oops #103″ since. But I do still have my fingers crossed.

    Maybe Google does not want to lose it’s #1 status as homepage king but that’s just too bad.

    T’care & good luck to us.
    Mike

  • Sunil says:
    May 17, 2010 at 3:37 am

    thanks buddy… 2nd method worked for me… thaks a lot for ur advice…

  • mahsa says:
    August 18, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    my email was not send(#103),but i can read it

  • Royce says:
    September 5, 2010 at 11:40 am

    Changing settungs to https corrected the problem

  • George says:
    September 7, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Mike Reilly, hey I’m not sure why that helped with your Gmail, but it sounds like it did something for you, and that’s great! I’ve done the same on my IE8 so the sucker opens faster, I just get tired of waiting for a new tab or browser instance to open! I use IE as a testing browser, or whenever I have to. Firefox just runs faster for me.

    Sunil and Royce, glad to hear you also found a fix!

  • Bagiyaraj says:
    September 13, 2010 at 9:38 pm

    Thanks for the solution tips. 2a worked for me

  • aditi says:
    February 15, 2011 at 2:23 am

    i was able to send the message by 2b) :)

  • George says:
    February 16, 2011 at 9:30 pm

    Glad to see this post is still useful!. I’m a bit surprised Gmail Error 103′s are still popping up, except for those who need to use Basic HTML.

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