Aug 17, 2020

Edit Member Names Google Group

How to change a Member Name in Google Groups.

1. Right click on the Member Name.

2. Choose Inspect.

3. Highlight the Name in the mass of hypertext that you see.

4. Choose Edit Text. Make your changes.

5. Hit Enter.

6. The name is stored in the hypertext.

7. When you add a new member, Google replaces all the names with the e-mails.

There must be a way to disable the replacement. That would be an easy fix. Test to see if member not new and leave it alone.

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Create and manage groups and members,Other Browser,Web

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david.king

Gold Product Expert

Volunteer since 2011 (not a Google employee)

Aug 22, 2020

Hi Phil,

The inspect tool only changes the content locally, it is not saved to the server. You're not actually making changes to the stored data by doing this.

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Barry 5373

Apr 10, 2021

I have also had success with creating a new group with names.

Provisos - It was a small group (only 10) and I added them one by one.

I was also only using first names. So First<address> as a member only - not owner etc,

subscription email -with Directly add members selected.

I typed first name - no space then < then pasted email address then >

When I paste in Welcome message and go back to member name - the first name has disappeared BUT after I click add member - Lo and behold - the name and the email address appear in the member list on two lines.

Not only that, but they are in alphabetical name order!!

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Paul Horton 7271

Apr 16, 2021

I thought I was wasting my time looking here about once a month, hoping for a solution. Big thanks to those who posted about it. The format that worked for me was with spaces: Jane Doe <gibberish@anymail.com>

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All Replies (224)

david.king

Gold Product Expert

Volunteer since 2011 (not a Google employee)

Recommended Answer

Aug 22, 2020

Hi Phil,

The inspect tool only changes the content locally, it is not saved to the server. You're not actually making changes to the stored data by doing this.

Product Expert Alumni LMcKin51- G-Suite-Product Expert recommended this

Jay Byrd 567

Apr 16, 2021

It is now working the way it use to prior to Aug. 2020. Name <email.com> . Stores the name and email address. Thanks Google for the correction.

William M. Mason

Apr 16, 2021

Dear Fellow Googlegroup Administrators,

As we know, here is what used to work for direct adds:

"Surname, Given Name" <emailaddress>

with each entry separated by a comma if there was more than one entry. The resulting member list was sorted alphabetically by surname. Like many other administrators, I need both the surname and the given name, because my group is large and there are instances of the same surname and, separately, the same given name. There are also instances in which the email address does not obviously suggest the owner's name. An email address by itself is unsatisfactory.

After reading the latest posts and then playing around, here is what currently seems to work:

Surname-Givenname <emailaddress>

There can be a space between the name and "<". The entry separator remains a comma. If you type

"Surname,

the comma is interpreted as an entry separator and you never get to complete the name. The partial entry is interpreted as an invalid email address.

What about hyphenated surnames? I tried

SMITH-JONES-Albert<sjalbert@anymail.com>

which returned a single-line entry with SMITH-JONES-Albert as the name. That's sufficiently functional for my purposes.

I also tried

Surname Givenname <emailaddress>

which also worked.

I stopped there, but the takeaway seems to be that

The comma is used to separate entries;
A hyphen or a space, and perhaps other separators, can be used within entries.

The result is that it is possible to maintain a Googlegroup mail list in which each entry contains a surname and a given name.

I've done modest checking, such as closing the Chrome browser, re-opening my Google Groups account using a non-Chromium browser, and checking the entries in the group I was playing with. My additions remained in the list.

I welcome verification from others. I am as far as can be from being a Gold expert.

In a better universe, this kind of thing would be documented by the programmers who wrote the code.

My thanks to all contributors to this thread.

Zbigniew Lisiecki

Apr 17, 2021

Dear Google Administrators, somebody claimed editing member names could cause GDPR and CCPA issues, as username is visible to all group members. Unfortunately the condition to participate in the group, which I own is full identification by proper name. We deny access for anonymous members. This has certain reason. Allowing me to edit member names solves the problem. It is easy to make users to accept this rule by accepting the membership or to deny, in which case they'll not participate.

Therefore an argument with GDPR or CCPA is an illusion.

Mirza Raheel

Apr 17, 2021

What's this ???

Please explain me about this .....

Dean Ouellette

Apr 19, 2021

I can confirm this works with a Member name that includes a space that I entered like this while direct adding a member to the Google Group I manage:

Robert Smith<sammyjones99@gmail.com>

Bradley Wind

Apr 19, 2021

I tried all formats listed above i.e. whatevername<anyemailaddress> , etc. -- to create a new member that actually shows a name. None with any additional formatting will allow me to "Add the Member"(button remains grayed out)

My only option still remains to paste/type an external to our org email address and Not have the name show.

I'm confused by those who say it works for them.

Are they using a Groups that isn't within a Google for Education maybe?

Robert Hannum

Apr 19, 2021

After much frustration trying to get full names to show up in the members list of a group, I discovered today that if I use Chrome rather that IE or Edge, that I can add members just like I used to add them with the old Google Groups, i.e. John Doe <johnd@anywhere.com>

Kaytee Anderson

Apr 20, 2021

Its all too confusing?

peppersports

Apr 21, 2021

Did anyone manage to bulk upload a csv file with group members through the admin panel INCLUDING display names. Did this ever work?

dupton

Apr 23, 2021

Someone just told me that if the person you are adding is in your google contact list, when you add that person (type the name and contact will be pulled up) and then add member, you get the display name. I tested and it worked. So before adding a member, set them up in your contacts list, then add. You can delete from contacts list after that if you like.

Hugh Wallis

May 3, 2021

Looks like Google has now fixed this so that the old format of Text Name <email address> now works the way it used to

Google user

May 14, 2021

I have tried every which way with the "" no "" spaces and no spaces. No matter what I do, the names don't show up for my group members. This is crazy - seems like such a basic thing that a group manager would need to know who is actually in their group! For the record, this USED to work for me very recently, but no longer does.