When I attempted to use a Smart Group in addressing my mail nothing happens. A regular hard coded group works fine.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)
A workaround for sending an email to a group in Contacts, might be right-clicking on a group and choosing Send email to "{group name}".
A workaround for sending an email to a group in Contacts, might be right-clicking on a group and choosing Send email to "{group name}".
thank you Etri for this work around! This worked for me. Cheers
The solution by Etri works, but it only puts the names in the TO: field. You can then cut and paste them to the CC: or the BCC: fields.
A better solution was provided by MacVA - it is as follows:
1. Open Mail (not in full screen mode)
2. Click "New Message"
3. Make sure there is a toolbar with the "Address" silhouette showing (it looks like a head and shoulder silhouette of a man). If necessary, go to the View menu and click "Show Toolbar" and click "Cusomize Toolbar..." and drag the Address silhouette to the toolbar.
4. Back in the New Message window, click the Address icon.
5. In the Addresses window that opens, click the name of the Smart Group you want to use.
6. Place the cursor in the right side of the window with the list of names and Command A to select all.
7. At the top os the Addresses window, click the To, Cc or Bcc icon and the names will go to the address bar in the New Message.
8. finish your Subject and text and send.
It seems complicated, but once you work through the steps it is really easy and a great workaround to a glaring problem.
nice tdworden. another work around that works! thank you
When I send to a Smart Group in Mavericks, it does not appear that the email will be sent because ther is no bold or address group displayed, as <group name>. However, if I go ahead and send to the group, it really does go. You can test this by making a "test group" Smart Group in you contacts and only include your own email address. Now compose a message using "test group" in the To line and hit Send. You will get the message. It really does go when you Send. 😮
The one thing that I cannot do is Expand the Group, as I could in OS X 10.8 and prior.
I have a group that has sub-group in it. Previously, when selecting these gorups, mail would expand all the sub-groups within the group, so that I would have one big list of email recipients, which was perfect for my purposes.
Since upgrading to Mavericks, this no longer works. In fact, when using this group, it simply populates the field with the actual email address in the group and completely ignores the sub-group.
Now I have to individually add each group to my recipients list - how is this making things easier?
Is this a bug or WAD?
Thanks for this workaround.
I have the same problem with Smart Groups. Normal groups are okay, just not Smart Groups - and they won't autocorrrect in Mail.
This workaround is effective, but really a retrograde step from what used to work.
And why should Mail see a manually created group any different to a Smart Group??
Something to do with iCloud syncing maybe??
Tim
Hi,
If you create a new group within Contacts - and select all from the old group that no longer works, and drag into the new group - the problem is fixed and it acts the way it used to. That is, you can expand groups etc and it looks like it used to.
Amanda
Hi Amanda,
I've tried recreating the groups. While it works with manual groups and presents and expands them as before. It IGNORES smart groups completely and you cannot get them to come up by beginning to type in the "to:" box.
Further more, I use sub-groups within groups so that I can use a hierarchachy of contacts. Previously, this worked fine and all contact and the sub-group was expanded when selecting this group. This no longer works in Mavericks and, while I can select the top group, the sub-groups in them are ignored.
Geoff
Geoff,
I'm unsure if you read my post above or not. Smart Groups in Mail still work but when you start typing the name of the group is where they differ from what you saw in earlier OS X versions. If you go ahead and type the group's name into the To: or Cc: or Bcc: line and complete the typing of the Smart Grouip you want to send to, it will not look like it will work but it will. Try it. I suggested making a "test group" above inputting only yourself into the Smart Group so as to not send a frivolous email to one of your real Smart Groups. There is obviously a problem but the ability to send to your old Smart Groups is still there. It just will not look right until after you Send and then look at the incoming email.
Outgoing to test group (note it does not look like it should go but it will)
Incoming email to me
The test group will not expand but it will Send. I am unsure if your subgroups will work or not as I do not use subgroups. There should be a fix to this coming but if you want to still use your Smart Groups you can.
joe
It is true that the email seems to go to the smart group even though it doesn't show up in the address field. But it doesn't let you know that you got the group name right until you try to send, and you can't review the names and delete or add if you need to. Very frustrating! I assume there will be a fix for this soon?
It is good to know it will send, but it does not give one a sense of confidence that you typed the correct name. I feel much more confident when it expands into all the names I have it coded for. One of my Smart Groups is "Golfers" - was that "Golf" or "Golfer" or "Golfers" or what if I spell it wrong as "glfers". I would really like to see it flesh out with all the names.
It will allow you to add other email addresses individually to the To: line and it really does go rather than "seems" to go to the Smart Group. I verified this by sending to a Smart Group of several people and received a response back from most of them. If you want to add more addressees, use the ➕ on the far right on the To: line to add more people from you contacts.
Until this app is fixed and if you cannot live with it the way it is, possibly you should make a "New Group" from the File Menu of Contacts and then drag and drop your names from the Smart Group into that group. Regular groups still work and you can expand them if you desire.
There seems to be several anomolies in Mavericks Mail and I'm sure most if not all will be addressed by Apple in a future update.
I agree but it is what it is until fixed!
mavericks mail smart groups fail
