multiple email addresses - how to select

[billhansen]

In a  couple of the groups I belong to, several members use multiple email addresses. Sometimes two or more people use the same address. Even though I have each email address for each person listed in my Gmail Contacts list, Gmail defaults to one of the multiple addresses. I can't force it to choose any of the other addresses. There is no drop-down list of alternate emails for a single individual - though there is a drop-down list for all contacts whose last names begin with the same letter, for example. The only way I can get my email to the intended address is to go to my Contacts list and select the address from there.

Similarly, when two or more people share the same email address but it's important to direct the email to one of those people, there's no way to do that. If I start by typing in the recipient's name, the email may be directed to the name of another person who shares that email address. There's no way to change that, again there's no drop-down list of people who share that email address.

Is there a way to sort all this out, or is this just a limitation of Gmail?

Bill Hansen

[Kenneth Ayers]

Bill,

I too have contacts who have more than one email address. When I compose an email to one of these contacts and begin typing their name, a drop-down appears showing all the email addresses for that contact. I don't know why it's behaving differently for you.

As for two different contacts who have the same email address, you may as well merge the contacts and give that contact a shared name, e.g., "Bob and Carol", because it's going to just one email address which, apparently, is accessible by both of them anyway. Then in the text of the email you can address it to the specific person to whom you're writing. I hope you weren't expecting that you could do something with your contact list or compose window that would make the email private to just one or the other of them.

Kenneth

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[Andy]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 9:20 AM, billhansen <billhan...@gmail.com> wrote:

In a  couple of the groups I belong to, several members use multiple email addresses. Sometimes two or more people use the same address. Even though I have each email address for each person listed in my Gmail Contacts list, Gmail defaults to one of the multiple addresses. I can't force it to choose any of the other addresses. There is no drop-down list of alternate emails for a single individual - though there is a drop-down list for all contacts whose last names begin with the same letter, for example. The only way I can get my email to the intended address is to go to my Contacts list and select the address from there.

Don't combine the addresses for the same person into the same Contact.  Make a separate Contact for each of their addresses.  Then when you type their name, each of the Contacts should come up and you can select which one you want.

That's what I do, and it works for me.

Andy

[Marko Vukovic]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 9:27 PM, Kenneth Ayers <justk...@gmail.com> wrote:

I too have contacts who have more than one email address.

​This is one of my bugbears; people who share a single email address, making more work for the sender to address them properly.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter. Many email clients don't even show the 'To:' header anyway. You just address the appropriate person in the first line of the email body e.g. 'Dear Bob' or 'Dear Carol'. You may wish to follow that with 'Please get your own email address.'

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Marko

[bill hansen]

I have even made two separate contact names, and I still don't get that drop down list. For example, "Mary" might have a work (business)  address, a home address, and a university address. I've tried creating three different contact names, like "Mary 1" "Mary 2", and "Mary 3" (without the quotes of course), but I still only get one email address. About half the time, none of the contact names containing numerals are recognized as addresses, so none of the available addresses come up. It's not even consistent - sometimes I'll get a single address, but that can never be traded for any of the other addresses - "Mary's" business address may come up today, but tomorrow all I can get is her university address. Once an address appears in a Gmail form, it can never be traded for another address (which should have appeared on the drop-down list - that drop-down list which doesn't exist).

I guess this is just part of Gmail. I'm surprised that nobody else has found it troubling, or that nobody has figured out a workaround.

[bill hansen]

Just tried the multiple contact names as you suggested. It works, sort of. If I type in just the right number of characters, maybe the first three, I get the correct name. If I type in the fourth (or fifth) character of the contact name, I get either an incorrect email address, or (yes!!) an address for that contact which is outdated and was deleted long ago. Very strange, and clunky. But I can live with it.

[bill hansen]

HaHaHa - good thought Marko. It's good to know this can't be sorted out in Gmail. The solution which you and others have used, directing the email in the Subject line or the greeting, will work.

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[bill hansen]

Thanks - I think my last post to the group may have crossed yours. I have made separate contact identities for each of the addresses (of the people who have multiple addresses). Maybe I did it the wrong way; I used numerals to make the identities separate "Mary 1" for business - "Mary 2" for academic and so forth. I'll try using the actual words "business" and "academic". Maybe that will work. Still, it seems a bit lame that Gmail can't give us a workable dropdown list.

Bill

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 12:00 AM, Andy <AI.e...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Marko Vukovic]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 2:05 PM, bill hansen <billhan...@gmail.com> wrote:

I used numerals to make the identities separate "Mary 1" for business - "Mary 2" for academic and so forth. I'll try using the actual words "business" and "academic". Maybe that will work. Still, it seems a bit lame that Gmail can't give us a workable dropdown list.

​Not sure why you are doing it this way, you can have many different email addresses for the same contact, e.g.

​

​Now when I compose an email and begin typing Mary, I get a drop-down where I can select which one I want​.

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Marko

[Andy]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 8:14 PM, bill hansen <billhan...@gmail.com> wrote:

I guess this is just part of Gmail. I'm surprised that nobody else has found it troubling, or that nobody has figured out a workaround.

​Maybe that's because many of us (if not most of us) don't seem to have that problem?

Could it be that some of those Contacts are not in your "My Contacts"?

I don't even use numbers or words to keep them separate.  I just use "Mary" for all of them, and then select the one with the address I want.

Andy

[Andy]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 8:14 PM, bill hansen <billhan...@gmail.com> wrote:

​...

 "Mary's" business address may come up today, but tomorrow all I can get is her university address.

​...

​Very strange.

I wonder if you are being served by different Google servers that are not all programmed the same or do not have access to the same personal records for you.  Though I've never seen (nor heard of) that before.​  That kind of thing happens with Yahoo, but I've never seen it with Gmail.

Andy

[Marko Vukovic]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 8:01 PM, Andy <AI.e...@gmail.com> wrote:

Maybe that's because many of us (if not most of us) don't seem to have that problem?

I'm not seeing what the problem is either. Even if I add multiple contacts e.g. Mary and Bob, each with the exact same address, I simple start typing their name and ​​I get a list. 

In the example below, the marynbob contact is a separate contact card.

Here is the contact Bob, with the same email address.

If I start typing the email address, I get both cards.

Perhaps Bill you just need to do the 'ol Clear Cache and Cookies step. 

​Have you tested with another browser?​

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Marko

​​

[Marko Vukovic]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 8:04 PM, Andy <AI.e...@gmail.com> wrote:

I wonder if you are being served by different Google servers that are not all programmed the same or do not have access to the same personal records for you.  Though I've never seen (nor heard of) that before.​  That kind of thing happens with Yahoo, but I've never seen it with Gmail.

​This sounds more like his browser or its cache is b0rked. ​

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Marko

[bill hansen]

I'm glad it works for you, and for others.

Yes, all of those Contacts are in my Gmail Contacts list.

[bill hansen]

Marko - I do know an individual can have many email addresses in Gmail. I agree that Gmail should work the way your attachment shows it - I should be able to select from a dropdown list which shows all three (or more) addresses for my intended recipient. But it doesn't work that way, for me.

My point is that when I need to send an email to a person who has multiple gmail addresses, there is no dropdown list to select which of those multiple addresses to use, in an individual email. Most of the time, only one email address is displayed. Occasionally two addresses will be displayed, but not the third, which may be the one I want at that moment. Worse, once that single email address is displayed, there is no way to choose another address, other than going to the Contacts list, choosing to send an email to the desired address, copying the email I've just written into a new email form.

The workaround suggested by another user - creating a completely separate  "name" for each email address, works - sort of. If I type in just the right number of characters for the name(s) of my recipients, I get the list. If I type in even one extra character, I get no list, but only a single address, which may be one I don't want to use for that email. Example: Addressing an email to "Archibald Orange" - if I type in "Ar" or "Arc" I get the list. If my fingers overflow and type "Arch" I get only one address, which cannot be changed unless I go to the Contacts list and manually select another of "Archibald Orange's" addresses, open a new email form, and so forth.

Apparently at least one other gmail user is having problems similar to the one I'm having.

It's not right - but as I wrote, I can live with it.

Bill

[bill hansen]

Both good ideas. I'll do both things and report back.

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[Marko Vukovic]

The thing to remember is, Gmail is essentially a bunch of code running on top of a web browser, an app if you will. It stores a lot of this code offline for efficiency, instead of loading the full code every time.
It is more likely that this offline cache on your browser is corrupt than the Google code itself being broken for only a few users out of 26+ million.