Gmail
Gmail 552 5.2.2 — "The recipient's inbox is out of storage space and inactive"
552 5.2.2
Gmail rejected the message permanently because the recipient's inbox is out of storage space and the account is inactive. Gmail storage is shared with Google Drive and Google Photos, so an account can fill up without much email. This is different from 452 4.2.2, the temporary over-quota deferral that Gmail retries: 552 5.2.2 combines a full mailbox with an account nobody is using, so it won't clear on its own.
How to fix it
- 1
If you're sending to a list
Treat 552 5.2.2 as a hard bounce and suppress the address. An inactive, full mailbox is effectively abandoned. Repeated sends to it add bounces that mailbox providers read as poor list hygiene.
- 2
If it's a person you need to reach
Contact them another way. They need to free space or buy more Google storage, and start using the account again, before mail will be accepted.
- 3
If it's your own account
Check storage at one.google.com/storage, delete large items across Gmail, Drive and Photos (empty Trash and Spam too), or upgrade storage. Then sign in and use the account normally.
- 4
Check you're not confusing it with 452 4.2.2
If the bounce says 452 4.2.2 instead, the mailbox is temporarily over quota and your server will keep retrying. The over-quota fix page explains that case.
Meaning current as of 2026-10-24, cross-checked against the provider's own documentation. Providers do occasionally redefine codes — if this doesn't match what you're seeing, the source link is the authoritative reference.