Not able to add multiple email addresses to a Gmail label / group? Here's a potential workaround

Google often experiments and tweaks features/functionalities of their services to enhance user experience. While most of times they are vocal about the changes they implement, there are times when they remove features silently.

One such case has now caught our sight and it has to do with the company’s contact management tool Google Contacts, which is part of their free e-mail service Gmail.

For over past couple of months, Gmail users are complaining of not being able to add (by copy and pasting) multiple email addresses at a time to a Label (or Group). It now has to be done one at a time. Take a look at how some of the affected users word the problem behavior across Gmail Help:

I often have to create new contact groups with many contacts in them and I used to be able to copy all the email addresses from a sent or received email and add them all to a group. Now it seems the only way to add contacts to a label is to individually select the contact, use the drop down to add to a group, select the group and confirm. This has turned a task that used to take seconds into something that can take over an hour.

In the old version of Contacts it was possible to add multiple contacts to a group (now called Label) by going to the group and pasting all the email addresses into one field. Now, the only way seems to be adding individual contacts and then checking boxes one by one next to the names to add them to a label. This now takes FOREVER and I can’t believe Google did away with the old way.

Basically, the inability to copy multiple email address and paste them into a Label is troubling a lot of users. Regarding this, back in April, a Gmail forums product expert informed that the company is aware of this glitch.

not at present and google are aware of this issue

However, a few days later, the same product expert added there’s no ETA for software bugs to be fixed. Then recently, they mentioned they’ve escalated this problem to Google.

That said, it’s worth clarifying as forums product experts aren’t Google employees, there’s no clarity as to whether the company is even considering to fix the bug (if at all it’s actually a bug) or to bring the feature back. Rest assured, we are looking for more information on this.

In the meantime, here’s a user shared workaround that you can give a try:

• Paste all email addresses in a spreadsheet and save it as a CSV file> Go to Google Contacts> Click on More among the options inn the left hand panel> Select Import> Choose the CSV file.
• The CSV file will create a new label within contacts called Imported on (can be seen in the left hand side panel)> Click on that group and rename it to the label that you want (using the pen icon). You’ll finally have a group/label with all copy pasted contacts

Those of you looking for a solution to the problem discussed here, give this workaround a try. And don’t forget to share with us how it goes.

NOTE: For more Google related new and stuff, you may head here.

Follow @PiunikaWeb

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.