AOL changes its web based email

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[Charlie]

Just in the past day or two my wife’s AOL email address brings up a new, different email page, and apparently a whole new website redo.  Neither of us like this new format, and we can’t insert pictures or photos (jpg’s, gif’s, etc.) into the emails we send out on this new format.

So far my AOL email address has not brought this new webpage up, but I’m thinking it’s only a matter of time.  Yuck.  Does anyone have any information about this?  We called but didn’t get much help, and are currently waiting for one of the higher ups at AOL to call us back.

Any info. will be very much appreciated.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

• This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by Charlie.

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When Verizon bought AOL and decided to use AOL’s servers instead of its own, I still maintained my two @verizon.net email addresses. I also decided to buy two domain names to use instead of @verizon.net, so I r-a-r-e-l-y log into AOL.

Having read your post, Charlie, I just accessed mail.aol.com and logged in to each of my @verizon email addresses. Things looked as I remembered; however, there is a link above the left column of folders stating “Try the new AOL Mail” … I suppose this is a hint? I’m surprised that AOL didn’t announce something in advance.

I hope you get a response to your and your wife’s liking.

Win 7 SP1 Home Premium 64-bit; Office 2010; Group B (SaS); Former 'Tech Weenie'

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Charlie

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We didn’t want anything new and we didn’t click on any of their nags, which included a full screen picture everytime we log in.  Thanks a lot for the reply.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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SueW

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People on AOL really are not happy.  Here’s some of the feedback for anyone who’s interested.

https://aol.uservoice.com/forums/936618-aol-mail-nodin/filters/new

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth, SueW

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Yikes! Not one comment is in favor of AOL’s “new” format! I hope — somehow — you won’t be switched over

Win 7 SP1 Home Premium 64-bit; Office 2010; Group B (SaS); Former 'Tech Weenie'

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Charlie

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AOL, is it 1994?

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Actually it was 1993 when I signed up with AOL and have been with them since, mainly for their email service which was excellent.  They changed their program around 2016 and I read lots of bad things from AOL users about the new program, so I used their Web-based email service which though not as good as their original program, was adequate.  My wife liked it too, until they now have changed their Web-based program!

In spite of this, we don’t know of a better email service than AOL.  And yes, we’re both in our 70’s and both computer savvy, but not professionals.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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SueW

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I’ve had my AOL since 1995 too and as they say, “if it ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it”   30 years of clients, friends and family have that email address, why mess with it??

And like you, I HATE the new thing that just happened TODAY.

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Cybertooth, Charlie

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I’m sorry to hear they got you too.  They listen, but don’t do anything.  In their minds, this new format is great and apparently no amount of telling them it’s not matters.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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the new format really sucks

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Charlie

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lost all my saved emails, never signed up for any new format, very dissapointed

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Cybertooth, Charlie

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How did you lose your emails?
Did the new format cause the issue?

cheers, Paul

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Paul – after reading Clive’s comment about losing saved emails, I just checked my account and many of my saved emails are missing. Thankfully, not all.

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And the response from AOL?

cheers, Paul

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My “Insert” button is missing. I have to do a lot of visual screenshots where I insert the photo under written instructions. It only allows me to “Insert GIF’s and Emoji’s (WTF???)”. I am a 49 year old business woman. If I send them as attachments, everything gets jumbled.  Does anybody know where the new Insert Photo option is on the new AOL??? Thank you for your help.

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Charlie

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As far as I can tell the “Insert” button has been done away with. I’m looking for another way, maybe copy and paste pictures into emails, but haven’t had the chance to fool around with it.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Totally sucks – and I never say this word – because I am involved in street safety in my city and use the insert photo all the time to show others what locations I’m referring to, in the body of an email, as I’m “telling the story.” Attaching photos does not tell the story. This sucks.

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Jane, after some time I found that I could Attach a picture or photo to an email.  If I wanted to I could hover over the attached picture and it would allow me to Insert the picture into the email.  Read or skim through this Topic and you will find more solutions to the New AOL.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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You can actually paste photos from the clipboard in the new format, which, in my opinion, is a lot easier than needing to save them in a file.  However, I am haveing a BIG problem with carriage return.  Sometimes it works. Sometime it doesn’t.  I have resortd to copying carriage return into a text doc and pasting it into my email when I need a new line.

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OH NO! I attach pdf’s in my business and everyday and I insert photos all the time to everyone! My emails are disappearing as soon as I open them and read. If I reply or not does not matter. They do NOT go to old mail, and I do not have the chance to put into folders. They are GONE! Where do they go?

I absolutely MUST have the INSERT button and the attach option, too. Doesn’t every email program have these options? I have used AOL email since late 1990’s. Nobody could ever find me at another email provider. This is a travesty and I thought the email saying they were changing it “TODAY” was SPAM! I did not think a national company would give a 1 hour notice to completely CHANGE without my permission. I HATE THIS!

I DO NOT DELETE, so where are my opened emails going? How do I send invoices, photos, etc.?

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If you drag a photo into the compose window of the email, it will automatically insert. We are no longer given the option to attach via dragging, but the insert should work for you

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I never hit anything and was just switched over. I HATE IT. I’ve had my AOL account for 30 years! How could they? How do I get back? UGH UGH UGH

 

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I hate it too and I’ve had my AOL account for 23 years. Bring back the old format please!!!

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My advice to all is to complain en mass to AOL.  This has been going on for some time.  Go to the link in Post #2563554 above (4th post down from the top).  It’s hard to believe AOL could be so stupid, especially taking away the picture insert button! Tie up their phone lines with complaints.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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As far as I can tell the “Insert” button has been done away with.

My “Insert” button is missing. I have to do a lot of visual screenshots where I insert the photo under written instructions.

Try an image “drag & drop”.  I don’t use AOL mail, but I use it all the time in gmail, yahoo, proton email, and others.

Make a couple of carriage returns (enter key) to make space between written lines where you want to place your image and make sure your cursor is flashing in the same line in which you want your image to appear.  Then try dragging and dropping a screenshot to this spot within your email.  After a “drag & drop”  insert, you can bump the image around with the enter key or space bar/delete spaces.

Only works with images, not files (pdf, docx  etc).  Other files will appear as an attachment.

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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Is Drag & Drop the same as Copy & Paste?

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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On the same drive, drag and drop moves what is highlighted (from one place to another).
On a different drive, drag and drop makes a copy of what is highlighted (two of them). Drag and drop from the drive to email, in this case, makes a copy (as if two drives).

Try it.

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Charlie

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the new aol is absolutely terrible… i have had aol since 1997 and this is the worst”improvement” ever.  1)  I do not want my emails in my inbox separated but the day of the week they arrived  2)  the move button has an “up” arrow which is totally the wrong intuitive direction for the arrow – it should point down – 3)  moving an email takes two clicks now when in the past it was one & it is easy to forget to hit apply & then the move doesn’t happen… 4)  the send button at the bottom in very inconvenient 5)  THE ABSOLUTE WORST is now it is two clicks for delete – I do not want to verify every time I delete something that I actually meant it …..this is just the beginning of my complaints. THIS new version is awful.  Who ever made these changes clearly never used aol mail.

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Cybertooth, Charlie

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To J Blohm:  Did you come up with a way to remove the “dates”?

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I was able to copy and paste a picture into my email.

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Charlie

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I am extremely upset because I cannot access my email like i did before today! I hate the new format. I may go to another email company. I don’t have time for this. I cannot even figure out how to go to settings to change the format!! Any ideas??

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I’m thinking that AOL has decided to follow the Chrome and Gmail route and give us less than we are used to.  Chrome and Gmail don’t have all the nice things that AOL has had even in its Web-based email.  So going to them probably won’t make you happy, but you’re welcome to try.  This whole thing is a very sad state of affairs!

Once you find settings, they give you a so called choice of going back to the “Classic AOL”.  This however IS NOT THE OLD AOL you had and liked though.  It’s actually worse!  I’ve stuck with the new AOL mail and have managed to make it look and feel better.  My biggest beef is that they’ve taken away the “Insert” button and I can’t find anything that works like it.  That’s why we’ve been talking about Copy and Paste to put pictures into emails.  The problem with that is you can’t resize the picture to fit into your email the way you may want.

I’ll be spending more time with the new crappy AOL mail and pass on whatever I can find to help all of us AOL victims.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth

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Mine auto switched in the middle of the day yesterday.  I went to check my mail, had the AOL open in a tab, when I clicked on an email, a new window opened with the crappy new format.  I can’t find anything.  The best part about AOL was I could easily search and find any old emails that I kept or deleted within a few months.  I hate it … adds hours to my work day as I use this for certain clients, my personal home billing items.  Hate it!

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Charlie

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Thank you Charlie. We truly ARE VICTIMS. Seems what happened to me is exactly what happened to others posting here. Opened an email & suddenly it went to the “NEW AOL” where I cannot even FIND any mail I opened yesterday or today. I even checked my spam and found over 800 conservative and “Act for America” and many others in just the 2 months’ they keep! Spam used to be bad stuff which I could delete fast or mark as “NOT SPAM”. Tricky how they let a few of them through from same senders.

There was an email chastising me for “Ignoring AOL efforts to get me to try the new AOL” and that they were going to force me out, was in my SPAM! How pitiful. They put their OWN email they sent me into my spam file!

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Charlie

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Kaye A. wrote:

There was an email chastising me for “Ignoring AOL efforts to get me to try the new AOL” and that they were going to force me out, was in my SPAM! How pitiful. They put their OWN email they sent me into my spam file!

This sounds incredible!  It seems you were spammed but it’s not like the AOL I knew to do something like “force you out”.  This is the first I’ve heard about that.  If the “new” AOL wants you, they just assimilate you!  Resistance seems futile.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I hate it.   I can’t add a new list like I did previously.  Have tried several times, and most of the list just gets deleted.  I can’t save it at all. Longtime user!!!

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Pam wrote:

I cannot even figure out how to go to settings

It will be much quicker to find settings and learn the new layout than changing email providers.

cheers, Paul

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Pam wrote:

I cannot even figure out how to go to settings to change the format!! Any ideas??

The Settings icon is a little blue gear at the upper right (I think blue is default).  I would advise not going to “Basic” but that’s my opinion, the new is actually better. Same goes for “Classic”. You will not be able to get it back to the original AOL we all like, at least not for now.

If you don’t have Fonts, Colors, etc., click the “more” down at the bottom of Compose which will bring up more options. These include the “Format bar” which has all those things.  If you do something you didn’t want, click the blue “Go To New AOL” in the upper left to get back.

I hope this helps a bit.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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i have had AOL since the 90’s and just last week-i opened it and it was totally changed with no option of changing it back-only accepting something even worse called ‘NEW AOL’…..i looked at that and it’s even worse so now, i have no fonts, colors, ability to send pics. NOTHING and it’s horrible-you will find MANY posts just like ours but AOL doesn’t seem to care.

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Funny.  I started with AOL years ago (my first email format) and liked it until I started using Gmail.  Then I hated AOL.  I think I disliked AOL because I started to have some security breaches that seemed to come from access to AOL.  My husband, though, uses AOL and hates the new look.  He didn’t actively change his either and although he tried to go back to the old, he too found out it IS NOT the old AOL that he liked.

I’m still trying to get him to switch to Gmail (he does has a gmail account because we use Chromebooks).  BUT, I’m now trying to use Proton Mail.  It’s hard to get used to anything new, but allegedly Proton is a much safer email system and there are no ads.  And, I hated seeing AOL’s “news” items whose wording is mostly slanted to the left.  Let me decide for myself whether something is a “conspiracy theory” or factual information AOL!  Let me decide if something is actual “election denial” or an honest assessment attempting to get to the truth.  I found that I was being assaulted every time I  logged into AOL!

I’ll give you something though.  The old design and layout of AOL was very appealing and better than any of the other email formats.  As a person who appreciates graphic design, I still think that AOL is the easiest on the eyes of all the other formats.  But, you can get used to others.

These days it’s hard for one individual to make a difference and let their voice be heard.  We don’t have to take up arms and risk life and limb to fight the British for our freedoms like our founding fathers did.  But, we can leave formats that don’t respect us or our values, and we can boycott stores and products that choose to promote fringe ideologies rather than sticking to selling their merchandise.  The number of companies I associate with are rapidly dwindling due to my unwillingness to be led by the nose and submit to their agenda.  But, I feel that in my own little way I am joining the ranks of our patriotic forefathers and fighting for my right to exercise free will and act and think for myself.   You can too.  Take a stand.  Leave AOL!

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Cybertooth

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The new AOL has a “Feedback” thing you can click on.  Give them an ear full!  That’s one thing we can do.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth

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how do you access the feedback feature?

just found out that the new ‘upgrade’ doesn’t allow the enter key to insert a blank line or split lines on my desktop computer. Laptop works ok.  Go figure.

 

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For those that have issues with the return or enter button not allowing to create a space or split lines, check your Adblock. If you have it set for AOL to block ads- then you will notice this issue. They have changed the settings so it seems no longer possible to block ads, but instead it starts to mess with your functionality. Pause the ad block for this page and hit refresh and your enter/return button will work again.

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YES!!!  Thank you. This worked.  What a crazy fix.

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How do I pause adblock?

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It’s very hard to understand why AOL or whomever now owns AOL would change the good web based email they had into something so bad that it’s making people want to quit them. Many of these after being with them for a long time.  Like so many things these days, it doesn’t make any sense, that is unless they want to be out of the email business.

Edit:  See Post #2568663 above for some things I found.  Wish I had more but I’ll keep at it.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth

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When you Copy and Paste a picture into “The New AOL” email, make sure you have a name in the To: line and a subject in the Subject line.  Once you have the picture in the email, if you hover over the picture, you should see a light grey line surround the picture and a circle with 3 dots in it in the upper right corner.  Click on that circle and it lets you choose full size or small.  That’s it, no medium that I could see.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Some late news:  My wife tried sending a copy & pasted picture into a email to her brother and he replied that the email text came through, but no picture, just a bunch of gibberish.  Her sent mail showed the picture okay!  So much for that idea, attaching pictures seems to be all that’s allowed now no matter what you do.  They’ve done a superb job of messing things up!

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Can AOL mail be downloaded to your PC, therefore bypassing the web interface? Most email providers support downloaded email via IMAP and/or POP3.

Does this work?
https://help.aol.com/articles/how-do-i-use-other-email-applications-to-send-and-receive-my-aol-mail

Perhaps a desktop client mail program would have a better UI than the new AOL web interface and perhaps change less frequently.

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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Yes, but the original AOL Program (think AOL CD’s of the past) was changed years ago when AOL was bought the first time.  They really screwed up that install program too back then.  The web based AOL was still adequate and worked the way it should.  Now they’ve really screwed that up too.  They don’t know when they’ve got a good thing going!

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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windbg wrote:

Can AOL mail be downloaded to your PC, therefore bypassing the web interface? Most email providers support downloaded email via IMAP and/or POP3.

Most definitely, yes.

Mail to my AOL (actually, CompuServe) address gets downloaded here via the email program eM Client. In the past, I’ve used Thunderbird for that email account with no problems.

Similarly, my Verizon email (AOL has been handling Verizon email accounts for a few years) goes into Outlook.

Just make sure periodically to log into the AOL webmail page, because they have their own (mediocre) spam filter that might intercept mail that you actually want.

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SueW

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It’s absolutely awful in so many ways!  Try moving email addresses to CC or from BBC to CC of vice versa.  Try going straight to BBC: You can’t.

Need to forward the same email to several groups of people?: It’s a whole bunch of extra steps.

And it keeps malfunctioning where it won’t allow me to put in a carriage return to create a new paragraph unless i cut and past from another word processing program.

Need to use a variety of text sizes?: Not possible!

Don’t want the iPhone/iPad/Apple grammar of lines down the side of forwarded messages?- Too bad!

Want to show all messages from a particular sender?  It’s lots of extra steps.

The format is much more intent on collecting data about who you are emailing: Try to transfer a list of addressees into a new email? It’s going t want you to create a new aol contact for each of them first.

It’s much tighter control and much more limited freedoms.  It’s still possible to figure out some work arounds but it is time consuming and takes effort.

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Charlie

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Oh what an awful shock today: all this new nonsense and no option to refuse it.  Like everyone else, I feel the previous version wasn’t broke and didn’t need fixing.

I could, reluctantly, get used to it BUT all my contacts have been thrown together!  I had them in separated files (or lists or whatever the terms is) for a reason and there’s no way to restore the files.  The contacts are there, but I cannot go to the file to select one or more contacts as I did before.  It will take a long time to try to recreate these.  I am most unhappy.  That’s litotes.

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Found out today they changed my contact list.
Hit contacts, on top line see top, all, list. Hit list to find your groups.

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I don’t seem to have a SEND button anymore…. How could that happen???

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They moved it all the way down to the bottom.  When it comes to computer software, it seems they don’t want us getting too happy and familiar with it.  There must be some unwritten rule that things must change every so often, even if there’s no good reason for it.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth

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I cannot bold anything in my email’s anymore!  What happened to the REAL basic version of AOL??

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If you don’t have Fonts, Colors, etc., click the “more” down at the bottom of Compose which will bring up more options. These include the “Format bar” which has all those things.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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The new aol email format is absolutely terrible and the way they just forced us over to it is just so poor.   In addition to the feedback link noted above at https://aol.uservoice.com/forums/936618-aol-mail-nodin/filters/new where there isn’t one positive comment at what is now over 10K comments,  I called customer service (“Call Phone Number 1 (800) 827-6364”) who said that they will continue to migrate the full user base over to this new format and there is no option to go back.  He mentioned that this change is for the stability of the email services and that it has more features.  Sounds like the corporate line and totally tone-deaf to the fact that we liked the simplicity and efficiency of the service as it was and this new clunky version that misses the simple quick things like the total number of emails in a given folder, dragging attachments to your email, etc. is what we stick around for.   Just so lame.

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Charlie

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I am having the same problem. I can’t attach pictures like I did. Hate this new version and thinking about changing what I use for email.

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Ditto on all the horror-filled posts about AOL which for me changed only yesterday.  2 worst horrors:

Not being able to insert.  I’m an illustrator and constantly insert my illos for fun and for business.  And insert other scans for reference.  I can’t drag an image into the email, I need to leave it for future use. BUT, after several tries [ thank you previous poster to this page ] I minimized AOL and chosen scans folder and copied and pasted scan into the compose pane and there then appeared a choice for size !  So minimizing [ half-screens ] works.

The message pane.  This idiotically now either fills / replaces the inbox or is tiny but not moveable or sizable.  For correspondence, I need several messages open to see what I said previously or copy info into the new message.  If you try to click on a message showing around the tiny pane, it thinks you’re leaving. My solution right now is to have AOL open TWICE, separately.  So I open reference emails on one, new compose on the other [minimize one].  Any other suggestions ?

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Yes, for the message pane problem, i.e., not being able to see more than one email at a time to copy and paste, there is a solution that I’m now using.  It’s not as good as having as many emails open at a time as you want in separate windows, but it works well enough.  Go to Settings, scroll down to Message Tabs and enable it (“Turn on tabs to multitask.”)  What happens then is that every email you open (including one you’re composing) opens both in the message pane and in a tab above.  When you close it in the message pane, it’s still accessible in the tabs, so you can move back and forth between emails to copy and paste.  However, the tabs start building up quickly, so every once in a while you have to hit the down arrow to the right of the tabs bar and select Close all tabs.  Hope this helps.

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To AOL or whoever you are now, I hope you are reading all this!  You’ve blown it big time.  No one likes your “New AOL” format and you are committing Cyber-suicide!  What a shame, you had a good Email program and you ruined it.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth

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To all of us who want to “Insert” a picture into an email:  I just tried this – you have to “Attach” it first, then hover over the attached small picture and click on the grey circle with dots which gives you the option to embed the picture into the email.  There you can again hover, click the circle and resize the picture (only Small, Large, or Delete is allowed).

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I also had my usual AOL email turned upside down over night.

The new AOL has a user-UN-friendly format that is clumsy as well as unattractive. Luckily, I have a computer tech guy who assists me whenever I encounter a computer tech challenge and, the new, no-warning, AOL is definitely a tech challenge for me. The Classic AOL was insane, so my tech guy and I settled on the Standard version which, at least, has a layout that is a bit similar to the original AOL which the tech geniuses in their infinite wisdom decided to ‘upgrade’.

In addition to a challenging layout, the free AOL also came with ADs! Well, that lasted just ONE day until I switched to the $4.95/month version. It’s not a lot to pay to get rid of those mindless, distracting ads in my ‘New Mail’ page.

The reviews for the ‘new AOL’ have been less than ‘glowing’, so I guess I’m not alone in my dissatisfaction with the ‘new AOL’.

There now, I feel so much better.
Thanks for listening to my little tirade…

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Good to hear you were able to get it to work, even if compromised, and you’re almost satisfied with it.  It does seem that’s all we can do now is learn how to do almost everything over since the change for change’s sake.  That’s what I’m attempting to do.  Good luck.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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windbg, Cybertooth

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New format is horrible, when I look at unread mail I see EVERY email   The old mail folder disappeared,  suggestions???? Im an old woman, ready to cry or scream whichever.  I had previously been able to switch back to the old style now I can  PLEASE HELP

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When I try to open an attachment I am sending, I get a message that says could not access documents…    Access is denied and I can’t double check or change the doc I want to send.

Does anyone else have this problem ?

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For those of us who’ve had their AOL webmail interface changed for the worse (I haven’t yet, apparently), you may want to consider using a local email program to download and store your mail on your computer. Typically, these programs are full-featured and you won’t have to worry that your mail is disappearing into cyberspace.

The best known of these applications is Microsoft Outlook, but I certainly understand that’s not everybody’s cup of tea for a number of reasons. So instead, may I suggest using Thunderbird or eM Client. I use both of these programs and have no complaints.

Thunderbird is completely free of charge, while eM Client has a free version that you can use for up to two email accounts, as well as a paid version with no limit to the number of accounts you can use it for.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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windbg

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A major industry problem is changing user interfaces (UI) incorrectly. More steps can be required. Sometimes the new UI is so bad, previous functionality is missing entirely.

The best hope is to choose companies who are sensitive to customer feedback. And choose companies who don’t change UI’s for the sake of change and change UI’s infrequently.

You could vote with your feet and change vendors. For email, sometimes you can [permanently] forward your email to another web mail provider. Does AOL support this?

Instead of the major hassle of changing / migrating your email address you can try other solutions:

You can switch to a local email client and download your email as mentioned previously twice.

Sometimes a vendor will produce new interface documentation. Reading documentation can sometimes help, but takes effort and time. Did AOL document the new UI? (Sometimes you have to buy a book or download a PDF manual.)

A plus for any product is a user forum for that product, where you can complain and/or learn something and/or ask a question. Does AOL have a searchable user forum for the new web UI with answers?

Another plus is the ability to call the support line and wait a long time for a human to answer. Even then, first line support may be no help. (Some products/services don’t have any humans to answer a support question.)

No matter what you choose to do, there is much effort and lost productivity in learning a new user interface or even an interface with minor changes.

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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Cybertooth

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Has anyone found the “Favorites” on the new AOL version?  or the heart?

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Well, they got me today.  Before, it was just my wife’s AOL email address.  I spent most of the afternoon making my AOL Email look and do things the way I want.  I didn’t have any problems changing what I could change to suit myself.  It can be done, it just takes some time, patience, and fortitude.

They’ve added in a lot of new customization, some of which is not too bad.  I’m not saying I like it, and it will still take some getting used to, but it’s working okay for me and my wife as of today.  I’m now in a better position to offer answers to problems we victims may have.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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SueW

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Just received this email at one of my Verizon (AOL) inboxes:

If this is some kind of malicious email, as Thunderbird seems to think, then the bad actors have selected the perfect moment to do their thing, as AOL users are getting bombarded and confused by the UI changes. My money is on that they’re exploiting the confusion AOL has created.

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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SueW, Charlie

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Yeah, this does look phishy.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth, SueW

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@Cybertooth, I also have verizon.net email addresses (2) and just today (lucky me!) received an AOL email at each verizon.net email address:

From: AOL Mail Team <AOLMailTeam@email.aol.net>
Subject: New look and feel, same amazing inbox
:
:
Footer:
© 2023 Yahoo Inc. All Rights Reserved.
770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003

I agree with Charlie: it does look phishy!

Win 7 SP1 Home Premium 64-bit; Office 2010; Group B (SaS); Former 'Tech Weenie'

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Cybertooth

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Jim Lanzone CEO AOL YAHOO Tell him what you think of the new AOL.

jim.lanzone@yahooinc.com

Mr. Lanzone,

I hope you understand that you have approved a DISASTROUS change to AOL mail. It is so BAD!!! Please go back to the Old Classic AOL mail.

This is what AOL users think of your “new” AOL.

Fire everyone responsible before you are fired yourself.

https://aol.uservoice.com/forums/952867-new-aol-mail/suggestions/46627915-undo-the-changes

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I did sent an email  and someone called me from AOL.  I  have not called back yet!  I will be though and I am an idiot who pays for this service.

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I HATE change when it is unnecessary and without my consent!!!!!! I, and as it seems, most people, were happy with AOL Mail as it was. You gave us NO Choice!!!! I am SOOOO frustrated. It is infuriating to now be stuck with this inferior version of AOL. WE were NEVER given a choice and now have no OPTION to choose our version!!!

Maybe it is time to leave AOL!!!!!!!!!!! I AM NOT HAPPY!!!!!!!

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You can download another email client and use it with AOL.  Have you tried Thunderbird or em client?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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One thing that I haven’t given any thought to is how this new AOL might appear on a smartphone.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I have seen no difference on the phone, which is good

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I was researching this problem for a friend, and I don’t understand why so many people are still using AOL and Yahoo and I’ll add Comcast to the list. These email platforms are so inferior to Gmail. It’s beyond explanation why people have stuck with these other email servers.

Every university in the country uses Gmail as well as tens of thousands of businesses. Take another look at Gmail.

“Gmail is still the most popular email service provider in the world, with over 1.8 billion users. 2. At the end of 2020 – and into 2021 – Gmail owned 43% of the market share for email service providers. Jun 6, 2023″

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windbg

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Speaking as an AOL user, as of right now I can’t argue with you about the “New AOL”.  However, in the past I’ve used Outlook, the old AOL 95 computer program, and the Web-based AOL.  I’ve only used AOL for email, not web surfing, and I’ve found that AOL’s email was at least equal to Outlook’s email which I used at my job and liked.

Oh and one last thing – Gmail is coming out with a “New” look too.  One thing I will say for Gmail is that they apparently let you go back to the previous version if you don’t like the new one.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I am not impressed with Gmail.  Keeping an old email address is so that people you may not have connected with in awhile (or are no longer on your contact list) can still find you.

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Sure but you’re probably not a baby boomer who’s been in business for over 25 years –

So for all those folks that would normally  my aol pop up when composing an email, may not bother to include me or if they need me, are they going to take the time to Google me? Probably but should I change my Bill Boards too?    Good for you in moving to the next step when it was offered!  I bet you have the latest version of an I-Phone too!   Be Blessed & I hope you’re having nice weather wherever you live:)  tmd.

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You can still insert images in the body of the email, although the icon is missing from the toolbar. While composing, go to your pictures folder and right click the picture and “copy”, then go to the body of your email where you want it inserted and right click “paste”.

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I am only able to attach a picture to an email. When I tried copying & pasting or using the “show picture in email” feature (by left clicking on the attached picture) people don’t get my emails.  This is the one thing AOL did that really messed things up for me!

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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You can on your end, but I believe it will send it as an attachment and not embeded.

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Like so many others I too hate the new AOL email.  It is hard to believe that AOL would release a software revision without any user notification.  This may be the final straw for AOL. Time to change……………

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i was almost in tears last week when my format had changed… i could not get anything to work the way it use to be and they took AWAY so many small BUT IMPORTANT features. I called & asked for navigation… spoke with a really nice guy in the Phillipines;) and he kept going back to “This new improved AOL will be better for you & all changes in life are difficult at first” — seriously, this is what i’m sure he was instructed to say for all of frustrating calls…. DOWN TO THE COLOR OF YOUR INK. This is important to me because the dark navy blue in the old version matched my Signature. Now I get a muddy cornflower blue option. You can’t have your emails default to CC and BCC… so it’s another step with simple emailing… if you google how to fix, it gives you instructions on the OLD WAY…. i’ve had this email for 28 years & the only reason I haven’t changed is because my referral database of thousands of people could find themselves not being able to get in touch with me…. i’m so pissed. We don’t need this kind of BS when America is stressed ANYWAY. AOL should be ashamed for not giving notice & the timing of it all.

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I can really sympathize with you. If you haven’t, read through all the posts in this thread and see if you can pick up some help here.  Some things like Send buttons, have simply been relocated from the top to the bottom of the screen.  I know – very dumb.  I myself am still having problems – I can’t send an email with an attached picture to my own brother!  Yes I’m ticked off too but I’ve either got to learn it, complain a lot (don’t settle for the first stooge you get, ask for a supervisor) or just get another email service.  Best wishes.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I am sympathizing with all the struggling AOL users. I was forced to switch. Aol would not let me keep the old program (cost $7.99) and slotted me into their new program for which I am being charged the same. On top of that, I have now been assessed another $4.99 a month because I said I didn’t want Ads. They said I would have to pay more for absence of ads. Is that even legal? I am also curious what other people are paying per month, because I also see ads to sign up to AOL for free. I have had AOL for years and I have liked it because I could make up my files and hold documents like I wanted to and find them easily. With Google at first it seemed like they would remember for you if you could remember a search word. Now I know it’s possible to also create files there. The trouble with transferring to Google, it is my understanding that google will only transfer emails, not other history. The irritating thing is that I still have to go through logging in every time, even though I have it as my homepage and would like to have it just open up. Any suggestions about price or transferring to google?

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For what its worth, I had a real brainstorm yesterday.  I sent myself an email with a picture inserted in it using the New AOL email to my other second non-AOL email account.  It came through perfectly okay, picture and all!  Not sure if this was just luck or what but it proves it can be done.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth

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[..I try to inject a little humour in my posts..along with ranting and raving..; it’s just my ADD..]

I think Shakespeare, if he were alive today, would amend his quote (Henry VI, Part II*) re lawyers to something like:

  “…the first thing is…let’s <insert banned word for termination> all the CxOs of  ‘software development’  who make egregious changes without consulting their users…”

Agreed, the New and Improved AOL Email stinks. I think I found the updated SEARCH to be helpful, but… MAILTO no longer works (haven’t seen a comment about that), the fonts are too large, and the left-hand navbar’s putzed. One good? feature is the right-click drop-down having a plethora of options, one of which is a ‘search-and-destroy’ (BLOCK SENDERS) function, that handily clears out much debris but only it’s one-spam-at-a-time. Still, better than nothing.

YES, what idjit decided to move the SEND, SAVE, DELETE buttons to the bottom… and ya can’t SORT on STARRED EMAILS any more. Duhhh.

Some of these shoulda been implemented YEARS ago, hey. And (ALL) websites should publish user feedback suggestions (they’re on some server, somewhere, I betcha) so we can feel better that GMTA (great minds think alike). Or the other version, PMTA… look it one up.

Sorry, I digress. A lot. A nugget for y’all, what can we say besides T G I F.

T G I G B F

Thank God It’s GONNA BE Friday.

OH, PS. You can have both OLD and NEW versions up at the same time in separate tabs or windows.

There ya go.

*..see

https://lithub.com/what-did-shakespeare-mean-when-he-wrote-lets-kill-all-the-lawyers/

I disagree with their conclusions about lawyers inhibiting totalitarianism, though, they do have a purpose.  Technically, they’re a cult, like any organized group of folks imbued with professional myopia–

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Cybertooth, Charlie

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So many really important things that need to be done, and time and resources are wasted on changing an already fine AOL.  Try and go figure.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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terry bakowski wrote:

OH, PS. You can have both OLD and NEW versions up at the same time in separate tabs or windows.

Really?!? If so, then please provide explicit instructions as to how this is possible!!!

Thank you!

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As of Aug 2, 2023, when I use my cached or newly entered aol.com and hit the old email button,  I get this instead:
Page not available

The requested page is not available on Mail.
Learn more

Go to Inbox

Anybody else gettting this nuisance and is there a way to correct? TIA!!

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I get it all the time.  It’s meaningless, just an added step to get to inbox, but very annoying.

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It’s been around a month now and I still can’t send an email to my brother in Virginia.  His ISP is Shentel,net.  I can’t seem to find any info. on why this is.  He gets email fine from all my other relatives and friends.   

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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It’s AWFUL!!! SO SLOW!!!

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i stumbled across this site when i was looking for a way to drag and drop text in a written email in AOL, and can only cut and paste.  you used to be able to drag and drop written text, now the only way i can see to do it is cut and paste.  extra unnecessary keystrokes.

hats off to Charlie, or whomever came up with the line – The smarter we make AI, the less it will want to do our jobs.

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Charlie

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AOL had an undo button that popped up on the screen when you deleted an email.  It’s gone now.  Did anyone lose theirs? Does anyone know how to get it back? I’m using the app on my phone

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It still appears on my desktop and laptop computers.  I don’t have AOL on my phone so I don’t know about that.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I’ve had an aol account since 1995. A couple of years ago my daughter insisted that I migrate to gmail, so I opened a gmail account but had my aol history, contacts, folders and all emails forwarded to my gmail account. I regularly continued to check both accounts daily because if I used my generic mail app, the read messages would continue to be marked as unread. But still it was convenient to  only look in one place to read what I needed to. Then I could return to the aol app and just hit delete for the email’s I didn’t want to keep, an everything wsa marked as read. Until July when the aol mail stopped forwarding. I had to reprogram it and it started working again. But 30 days later in August it stopped again. Now when I tried to fix it, there was a message that the forwarding is only in effect for 30 days. Why? When I did this last month I activated Gmailify so it would continue. Now that isn’t an option. Is this an aol rule or a gmail rule?

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Instead of forwarding your mail, set Gmail to access AOL and download the messages.
See the post above from oldfry. Don’t forget to check AOL occasionally for spam that you may have missed.

Using this setup you can also delete messages from AOL automatically (“delete messages after X days” setting).

cheers, Paul

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Help!  How do a create an email list in the new sucky aol?

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If you had AOL before the change you should find your email list in “Contacts”.  If you don’t see a list in there then you can develop a new list by simply sending new emails.  There also should be a way to enter email addresses directly into Contacts, but I haven’t had to do that.  I’ll check that and get back to you.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Okay first, Contacts is under Views on the left hand group of items. You may need to expand it by clicking on “more”.  If you click on Contacts you can add a new contact by clicking on the little “person figure with an arrow”, or you can click on the “three dots” and the first item there is “Add a Contact”.  The “List” item is for groups of email addresses, and the “Top” item is the most recently used email addresses.  It would have been nice if they would have put a little label that appeared when you hover over Top and List.  Hope this helps.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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When I hit the “Compose” button now to create a new email, the “From:” field says “E~MAIL SERVICE” along with my email address. When people receive my email with that as the source they think it is spam or junk. Why does it put “E~MAIL SERVICE” in the “From:” field and how do I fix this? Any ideas?

thanks

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I’d like to know when AOL is going to stop sending their annoying full page AD with the grey haired man and his laptop wanting me to click on “get the New AOL”.  I already have the New AOL and don’t need to be annoyed every time I sign in!

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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DIYINSB wrote:

How do I pause adblock?

You go into extensions and disable adblock

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I was just trying to find why this is going too. It looks like a Word doc/pdf page that comes up when you click on the Lin to read an AOL story.
Here I thought I did something on my computer to make this happen. Maybe it’s part of an “improvement” for AOL. Well I don’t like it AT ALL. Bring back what you guys had please.

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Well here we go again with not being able to attach pictures on Aol.  It looks like they’ve messed around with the site again.  I get messages telling me what they can’t do.  They don’t have the really good background stationary anymore either.   I wish they’d stop monkeying around!

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth, SueW

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I called Aol and spoke with a supposed “Tech support guy” who I could barely understand. This person was no help at all and didn’t seem to be able to understand me either.  It may be that when you call, you have to start off with Cancel My Account!  Maybe there’s someone who will understand that.  Oy Vey.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Microfix, PKCano

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Charlie wrote:

It may be that when you call, you have to start off with Cancel My Account!

If you really want to keep your email address with AOL, and according to post https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/aol-changes-its-web-based-email/#post-2569462 it supports POP and IMAP, I recommend you consider a desktop client like Thunderbird by Mozilla. I use it and there are some addons that let you hide it to systray when closed, and add Google calendar with your appointments and Holidays. It has all of the features you are missing. You can attach or insert files and images. It’s worth checking out.
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/

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Charlie

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Thanks for the reply PL1.  As of about a week ago my Web based Aol Email was working just fine.  Then all of a sudden it started not sending emails with an attached picture.  Everything else (so far) works okay and I can send plain, text only emails.

I went through these shenanigans a while back right after Aol made the Big Change. Eventually, they (Aol) worked the problem out.  Now it seems it’s back.  There’s only one other thing I’ve done in the past week and that is to change my ISP from Netzero to Verizon FIOS. It (FIOS) works fine in all respects.  I wouldn’t think that should goof things with Aol but nowadays, who knows.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Charlie wrote:

There’s only one other thing I’ve done in the past week and that is to change my ISP from Netzero to Verizon FIOS. It (FIOS) works fine in all respects.  I wouldn’t think that should goof things with Aol but nowadays, who knows.

It shouldn’t matter. I have Fios myself and I’ve never had an issue with any particular site. AAMOF, Verizon owned AOL at some point, so it doesn’t make sense that there would be any interference from them.

On June 23, 2015, AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications for $4.4 billion. On May 3, 2021, Verizon announced it would sell Yahoo and AOL to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion.

 

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Charlie

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I’m seeing hundreds of posts on different websites telling the woes of using Aol.  Come on Aol!  Get your act together and fix your website, webmail, etc.  I’ve been through some bad times with Aol, but none like THIS!!

I’m a patient person, but you’re pushing the envelope very hard.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth

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Well, here we go again; AOL is harassing me to use the 2 step sign in every time I try to sign in.  It’s like the Amazon problem.  I have AOL’s 2 step sign in turned off and yet they will not sign me in unless I do their danged get a code number rigamarole.

They tell me there’s a “security problem” and when I look at it the “security problem” turns out to be that I don’t have the 2 step sign on enabled.  I’ve been through this before and thought I was done with it.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Charlie wrote:

They tell me there’s a “security problem” and when I look at it the “security problem” turns out to be that I don’t have the 2 step sign on enabled.

If you get any emails that contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII), you should re-consider using two-factor authentication.

Online email accounts are hacked frequently.

The “something you have” factor is the PIN, which the hacker doesn’t.

 

 

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Charlie

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I have an email name and an email password.  I don’t get many emails that have PII in them and if I do get one I read it, maybe copy any info. that’s worth saving, and then delete that email.  I paste the info. into Text Editor or AbiWord and save it in a file that I put on a computer that never sees the Web, a network, or the Internet.

Your comment did make me think that I should check my emails just to be sure I didn’t miss any.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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new aol took away my choice of the size lettering (font)i want to use and also the choice to pick bold, italic lettering.  i want my old version back.

how do i get my old email for sending emails. i have no choice of fonts and the boldness of the lettering.

Moderator Edit: to combine similar posts from same User.

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When you are in Compose, go all the way to the bottom and click on “More”.  In there make sure that the “Formatting tools” are turned on.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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