Why doesn't mail see my contacts' smart group?

[Howard Brazee]

On my Monterey M1 iMac, my contacts has three smart groups. One is named "Last Import", and appears to be my wife's address found in Siri. I don't see a way to edit it. The other two are smart groups I created. I can right click on them and send an e-mail to the people on that list.

But if I go to Mail and type in the name of those smart groups, no match is found. I have a non-smart group that does get matched. When I look at contacts in my iPad or iPhone, I also don't see those smart groups.

Why can't I see those smart groups?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

I don't think you can enter a smart group name in the Mail app on a Mac to address an email, just the manually created groups. You can open Contacts, right-click on the Smart Group, and choose Send Email to "smart group name".

Email a group or Smart Group in Contacts on Mac

I don't believe the Smart Groups sync either, as they are local to the Mac, and aren't available to be created in iCloud via the web or on iOS devices. Apple also removed the ability to create manual Contacts groups on iOS devices. They can only be created/managed on macOS, then synced through iCloud.

C

 

[Howard Brazee]

I've done that. What I can't do is forward a message to that smart group.
I have two work arounds:
1. I could create a manual group, and copy everybody from the smart group. But then I'd better remember to delete it as it won't be kept updated.
2. I could start a new message to the smart group, and cut and paste everybody to the forwarded mail.

Fortunately, I don't use my phone or pad for mail. (Well, I occasionally forward a message to an email address nobody knows about when I need a message on my device).

It sure would be nice if Apple would make contacts more powerful.