Unable to paste multiple addresses into Mail to: field

I know this is an old tread, but I just came across it as I was having the same issue. Last year I created an email list on Microsoft word for a holiday card. It worked great, just copying and pasting the email address, but this year, it made the entire list one address.

But I figured out how to fix it. I copied all the addresses into Pages and then from there I copied all the addresses from Pages into email and it worked.

Hope this helps someone!

More on this issue....

I've been pasting lists of e-mail addresses into Mail and sending them for 10 years.... i.e., since Mail was first released. This has always worked easily and painlessly. Suddenly with Mavericks and the current build of Mail, it no longer works. Apparently either Mail, Mavericks, or the clipboard transfer process .... strips whatever delimiter was previously in place that made this work. I find the situation exists whether copying names from Numbers or Excel. I imagine the problem also exists transferring from Word as reported above.

This is a simple "Functionality" issue that Apple engineers ought to SEE and REMEDY quickly. Colleagues have suggested numerous ways that I could insert commas after each e-mail address so that they will parse correctly when moved to Mail. This is crazy and should not be needed!!! The Mail application should be smart enough to parse pasted in e-mail addresses. Alternately, the clipboard or OS should be smart enough to "understand" this most simple and commonplace of actions.

One of the things we all agree makes the Magic of the Macintosh is that "it just works." This is a simple feature that worked perfectly for 10 years. Fix it, please, so we can get back to work.

I've been a Mac user and Evangelist since the 128 K Mac in 1984. I've also posted this issue on Macintouch.

I've discovered this too. I've also discovered what I think is causing it and a workround.

If you have anyone anywhere in the list whose address is in the format Mick Burrell<mick@****,com>, then you get this issue, You need to remove all but the email address so it's in the form just mick@****. There's one more thing. Mail requires multiple addresses to be separated by a comma then a space. Pasting your list will insert the space but not the comma so each email address has to be in the format mick@****, (note the comma after the address. Also, note that here, the small envelope icon is inserted by the forum and is not part of what you have to type).

I too have this problem after the upgrade to Mavericks. I used to copy and paste rows of my employee's e-mail addresses from Google Spreadsheets into the BCC field but now it's not possible for group messages. I was hoping that the update to Mail recently would fix it but still no good.

Fortunately, I am still able to copy and paste the addresses directly into G-Mail, which is my workaround for the moment.

Apple - please fix ASAP.

Lori Kozey wrote:

If anyone has a workaround (other than individually copying and pasting each individual address — that's obvious)

In excel, you can:

In the cel next to the email adddress, enter =A1&","

...and then paste that col into mail

If the email addesses are plain text, copy, and in Terminal run:

pbpaste | sed 's/$/,/' | pbcopy

I almost lost it when I realized I couldn't paste multiple addresses anymore! There is a fairly easy fix, although, we should'nt have to do it. The problem is that the email program can no longer make the distinction between addresses when there is more than one.

In order for it to work the way it used to, you need to add a comma between each address. If you are working in excel and each address has it's own cell, you can add a comma in the cell to the right of the first address, then use the 'fill down' tool to take you to the the cell right of your last address. Now you have a list of 2 columns, column A with email addresses and column B with commas. Just copy and paste into the macmail address bar and they will instantly turn into proper addresses. I don't this Mavericks thing...too many bugs....

I continue to be amazed that Apple has broken something so simple and so basic to thousands of users. Moreover, they have done this without any notice or any warning to people who use their software. Thanks to several of you who have posted work-arounds here. But the simple truth is that this is a clumsy, backwards way to handle software engineering.

Is it not THE MOST BASIC idea of inter-operability that a user would want to store names in a database or spreadsheet and then move them quickly and seamlessly into a Mail program? Obviously it WAS considered a basic and simple matter when Mail and Pages were under development ... because it worked quickly and easily for 10 years. Now to BREAK IT and not even notice the break??? Come on, Apple, you can do MUCH better.

Today, I discovered the same problem: not being able to copy and paste a number of e-mail adresses out of Excel into Mail. I was told to add a comma to each address.

I do it this simply: select the whole column of e-mail addresses, go in Excel to the function Replace, and have every address ending e.g. ".com" replaced by ".com,". Do it for all other possible endings. Then copy and paste into Mail end it works.

Thanks to all who commented on this. I just chatted with Apple Support - who were helpful to a point, but made the comment that Apple can't support apps wrotten by Microsoft! The fact that it's been working perfectly up to now

didn't make a difference.

They suggested I make a comment at apple.com/feedback, but I searched and can't find anywhere like that.

Can anyone help me with this? I don't want to complain, but for me, this a MAJOR flaw.

I hope this issue is sorted quickly!

See: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5509928

mwhitby wrote:

They suggested I make a comment at apple.com/feedback, but I searched and can't find anywhere like that.

Apple Feedback: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

I agree. The Mavericks version of mail is a downgrade!

Thanks Tony! I just did that for my spreadsheet in Google and it worked. It's not pretty, but it's sufficient until hopefully Apple releases a fix.