Groups in Apple Mail

Question

Groups in Apple Mail

I think I have tried this before but given up on it. I can create a group in Apple Mail easily enough, but although I choose the option to send an e-mail to the group, and Mail opens with an e-mail window - but without any addresses in it. The cards are in the group but no e-mail is created, so why have that option at all?
And another thing; each of the members of the group has several e-mail addresses but it doesn't seem to be possible to choose which one to be used.
Yes, it says that you can "edit the distribution list" but when I choose that, and select the group, the cards are listed, but I cannot see their e-mail addresses to the right as it says I should be able to.
This whole thing seems highly non-intuitive to me and plainly useless. Perhaps they want to avoid spamming and that is OK, but why have the option to send an e-mail to the group then? And why can't I edit the distribution list as it says I should be able to? Quite annoying really.
And I guess the solution is simple and obvious but I don't see it.

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2), Final Cut Pro X, Canon HV30

Posted on Oct 6, 2018 2:00 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

76,634 points

Oct 12, 2018 3:51 AM in response to Wilfred Hildonen

I tested and it seem there is a bug, as you say.

If you try this from Contacts:

then I see the same thing you do, and it does not seem to work:

But it DOES work - you have to click back to the address area of the mail message, and if you press enter ONCE, you will see this:

Press a SECOND TIME, and you get:

It WORKS. You can see the actual addresses by clicking the little downpointing arrow:

HOWEVER, you do not need to go to Contacts at all.

In Mail, create a new message and start typing the name of the group.

It is that simple, and you probably do not need to type the whole name, as Mail will offer to auto-complete. Press enter (just once) and there you are.

Reply

Answer 2

Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

Oct 8, 2018 11:14 AM in response to Wilfred Hildonen

Hello Wilfred,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

I understand you are having issues creating, editing and sending emails to groups. Take a look at the following two support articles that will walk you through setting up groups in Contacts and then sending emails to those groups.

Create groups of contacts in Contacts on Mac

Email a group of contacts in Contacts on Mac

Best regards.

Reply

Answer 3

i_rina

Community Specialist

Oct 11, 2018 2:52 PM in response to Wilfred Hildonen

Wilfred,

Thank you for the clarification.

At this point, I would suggest you reach out and contact Apple Support directly where they can determine exactly where the process breaks down.

Cheers.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 8, 2018 11:41 AM in response to Joseph_S.

Hello Joseph and thanks for the reply, but I suggest you read my post again. Then you will pr0bably see that I have no problems in creating a group, but when trying to send an e-mail to the group, a mail window opens, but with no addresses in it.

Also, you will see that the contacts in the group all have more than one address, but following the steps in the articles you linked to - which I had read already - didn’t give the result as explained. I couldn’t choose default addresses because no addresses showed up to the right of each card.

So I’m sorry, but the problems persists, but I’m grateful for your attempt anyway, but it would help if people read through what is written before replying.

Reply

Answer 5

Oct 12, 2018 3:32 AM in response to i_rina

Well, Irina, I don’t think it’s worth the hassle. I know that Apple support is really trying to do their best to help, but my experience is that they aren’t always able to help, although the solution should have been simple.

Example: I had problems with my iPhone when the battery drained very fast although I didn’t use the phone. I even received a replacement but the problem persisted.

I finally found the solution myself: I had a work address added to Apple Mail. This was based on Google

Mail but with a specific domain belonging to the newspaper I’m working for. For some reason Apple

Mail kept on sending requests because of this, constantly, causing the activity to go sky high and thus draining the battery.

Solution: I used the Gmail app for that address and removed it from Apple Mail. Problem solved.

Before this months had passed and I had several conversations with their support and although they were very nice, supportive and friendly, they weren’t even close to the solution. I think the diagnosis tools which is included in the OS should have been able to register such an activity and even pointing to the cause of the problem, but obviously it didn’t.

I guess this this is something similar. I’ve read posts from others who have had similar problems with this feature, so I had hoped that some users had stumbled across the cause for it, and perhaps even a solution.

But I’m not going to spend hours upon hours on the phone with Apple support again, although they’re nice people.

Hopefully some user have come across the solution.

As it is, it’s not that much of an issue for me, but I’m just curious as to why it doesn’t work as advertised when I do as it is described.

Reply

Answer 6

Oct 12, 2018 4:39 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you, Luis. I’ll have to wait till I come back home to see if this is the solution, since I’m away now and bringing only my iPad Pro with me - and it seems like groups aren’t being synced across devices. I’ll check it out next week and will come back to you, either to confirm that it solved it or then not.

Reply

Groups in Apple Mail

Similar questions