How To Send An Email Link To A Web Page in Safari (OSX Mavericks / El Capitan / Sierra)

UPDATE: have confirmed that below works identically in OSX Yosemite, Mavericks, El Capitan and Sierra.

You’ve probably noticed that in the last couple of OSX updates, some pretty standard things in Safari have changed. One that has annoyed the hell out of me is the “removal” of the ‘Email Link to this Page’ option in Safari. So here’s to to send an email link to a web page.

It turns out the option isn’t removed, just buried. To get the option, you still go to the File > Share menu in Safari, where you’ll see the ‘Email This Page’ selection. Just hold down the shift key and it’ll change in front of you:
Share_and_File`

I’d be interested to hear from you: do you more often want to email a link to a page rather than the whole damn page? It seems to me Apple have it backwards in that you should hold down shift to email the whole page, with the link option the default. What do you think?

Comments

  1. Thank you. Just tried it and it works. I have been going GRRRR for the last week. I agree, Apple has the hierarchy exactly backwards. Sending the page by email is useless; most of the links don’t work. You are a genius.

  2. I will add that this seems to work only when you do it from the File menu. It didn’t work for me when I tried the “Share” icon in the Safari toolbar.

  3. egravenb says

    Thank You, finding it drove me crazy!!!! What are these OS folks thinking??

  4. Exactly – it’s a silly move by Apple. Glad we helped you out though.

  5. cliffordrenovations says

    WOW..now I’m happy again …thank you sooooo mucho!! “Email This Page” was worthless. Send a link was one of my favorite features in my Mac mail. So happy you shared simple tip with us!
    Thanks again!!!!!

  6. Glad it helped 🙂

  7. lynne Gabbutt says

    I agree- it has driven me mad!
    After just getting a new I Mac with Mavericks, i couldn’t get what i was doing wrong- and it was driving me crackers.
    This you found the answer- thanks the lot!
    I am happy again now and not frustrated.

  8. Mike Thomas says

    What you are forgetting is that the user-interface guys at Apple modus operandi is ‘What can we do next to screw things up for everyone’. But they think that the sun shines out of their backsides and that they can do no wrong.

  9. Thanks David,
    Just upgraded to Yosemite and immediately wanted to send a link to a story from Google. Couldn’t do it! Could only send the who damn article on the email which with my slow internet connection create delays – especially if I want to forward the story to others with my very slow upload speed its a killer. Now I can just hold the shift key to get the link only.

  10. David, thank you, thank you, thank you!!

  11. Very welcome 🙂

  12. Thank you. It’s been driving me bonkers as well. Sending a page is a PITA for someone you know is receiving it on a smartphone and just wants the link to save for a later time when they’re on their computer. Like when I run across something interesting while on my work computer at lunch and want to send myself the link to check out later when I’m at home. Now, I just have to remember to hold the shift key! Totally agree with the poster who says Apple has this hierarchy all wrong.

  13. I am late to this but I still say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! And Apple does have it backwards. Ninety percent of the time I want to do is email the LINK, not the page.

  14. Thank you, David! I spent far too many minutes trying to solve this inane change to the OSX after finally upgrading from Snow Leopard straight to Yosemite. Thank goodness for the Internet — that gives us a platform to solve such issues “for the rest of us.”

  15. No problems glad it helped! 🙂

  16. You’re welcome Ray!

  17. Yes! Another “thanks” to you.

  18. Thank you for this. Some Apple engineers just don’t get it! Don’t they use Safari themselves? Apparently not.

  19. And I tried it and it DID NOT work. The reason I came here is because my previous successful way of doing this just does not work any more. So I followed your exact instructions, and the created link was for the home page of the website, not the page I was trying to send as a link. If that is not clear enough… The page I am trying to email as a link is 4 levels into a music website. So after going to that page I want to link…and doing what you suggest…the link that is created is the link for the home page and not the link for the page 4 levels into the web site. 4 levels means that you 1. go the the home page of the site, then 2. click on something on that first page to go to another page of the site, then 3. do the same thing to go to another part of the site, and then 4. arrive at the page I want to create a link of. Following your instructions exactly while on that 4th page, File>Share>Email this Page..hold down Shift..Email link of this page…results in me creating a link of the first home page of the website.

    Does anyone know why? I have the latest MacBook Air with Yosemite.

  20. you’re a genius, thank you so much! Just got a new desktop with Yosemite pre-installed – what a drag to have to send the whole darn page! Why does Yosemite even offer both the share and mail button in the toolbar if both do the same thing? 3 ways to send the page, and only 1 (hidden) to send the link. Nuts.

  21. I’ve switched to Yosemite only because I kept getting messages telling me to upgrade Safari which I did but I kept getting the same damn messages. In addition to this problem of needing to send the whole damn page I think every change to Yosemite is for the worse. NONE are an improvement and it seems to me that everything is slower. Thanks for this great tip on sending only the link. Every other change is a PITA.

  22. Thanks, I just traded out my old 2007 MacBook for a new Mac Air and was irritated that I couldn’t find Email link to this page in Sierra.

  23. Mike Engelmann says

    I can’t believe it took me so long to ask for help on this-thank you. You are absolutely correct-Apple got this backwards, but why don’t they just add this line as another option instead of trying to hide it behind the ‘shift’ key? What purpose does that serve?

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