Help: Email Links Not Working

Below you will find instructions for ensuring that clicking on an email address link on the Kenyon website automatically opens a Gmail compose window with a pre-filled To: email address field.

Please note that any issues are most likely caused by your personal browser settings as opposed to an error in the email hyperlink itself; however, if you believe that a specific hyperlink is causing the problem, please contact Emily Lindo, associate director of web strategy, at lindoe@kenyon.edu.

Solution 1

Google has provided basic instructions for making Gmail your default email program. These instructions are for a Google Chrome browser only. 

Solution 2

If the instructions provided by Google don't work, it may be easiest to contact Kenyon's Helpline for additional support (especially if you're not using Chrome as your browser).

Solution 3

Courtesy of timeatlas.com

1. Open a Gmail tab in your Chrome browser. From that tab, type chrome://settings/handlers into the browser address bar.

2. Remove delete the current mail handler by clicking the three vertical dots to the right of mail.google.com (or whatever other handler you may have for mail).

3. Turn off all handlers by clicking the blue switch next to the text "Allow sites to become default handlers for protocols."

4. Toggle the blue switch again to turn the handlers back on. You should see the service handler icon () on the right side in your browser's address/search bar.

5. Click the icon and select "Allow."

6. Find out if the solution worked by clicking this link: lindoe@kenyon.edu.

TROUBLESHOOTING

If you follow the Google instructions and solution 3 and still don't see the service handler icon () on the right side in your browser's address/search bar, you can troubleshoot yourself with solution 4 below, although it is more technical. Try solution 4 and solution 3 in several combinations. If nothing works, contact Helpline.

Solution 4

Courtesy of Paul Irish

1. Open up a Gmail tab in your Chrome browser.

2. Open your developer console (cmd-opt-j on a Mac, ctrl-shift-j on a Windows) and at the bottom of the sidebar that opens, to the right of the > symbol, enter:

navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto",
"https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s",
"Gmail");

View this image for further assistance. You'll see the developer console on the right with a yellow arrow indicating the > symbol where you should enter the code snippet above — enter it in the space covered by the long black bar in the image.

3. After you've entered the snippet, hit enter and accept the confirmation from your browser, which should appear in a pop-up box.

4. Find out if the solution worked by clicking this link: lindoe@kenyon.edu.