If you have large files in a content source that is being indexed by Sharepoint you might run into the following error message:
“The file reached the maximum download limit. Check that the full text of the document can be meaningfully crawled.”
This is usually caused because SharePoint’s MaxDownloadSize setting is set lower than the size of the file you are attempting to index. You can increase this value, restart the service then kick off a full crawl in order to fix this issue, but SharePoint 2007 and 2010 have different methods for accomplishing this task.
Sharepoint 2007
Open up the Registry editor and increase the MaxDownloadSize value to a number (in MB) higher than the largest file being indexed. You can find this at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Search\1.0\Gathering Manager
After you increase the size, cycle the search service and kick off a full crawl of the content source in question.
Sharepoint 2010
With SharePoint 2010 you can use PowerShell via the Sharepoint 2010 Console in order to change the MaxDownloadSize. Execute the following commands to update the value:
1: $ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
2: $ssa.SetProperty(“MaxDownloadSize”, <new size in MB>)
3: $ssa.Update()
References:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287231
http://blogs.technet.com/b/brent/archive/2010/07/19/sharepoint-server-2010-maxdownloadsize-and-maxgrowfactor.aspx