Common Problems
General AIM Issues (All Platforms)
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| 12/20/2003 | Links added to member profile, away message, start menu, and/or favorites are the result of a trojan that you may have accidentally installed. Click here for steps to fix. |
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| 12/10/2003 | • The same Screen Name signs on to both AOL and AIM at the same time.
• The same Screen Name signs on to AIM in multiple locations (8 simultaneous logins are allowed).
• Your Internet provider temporarily disconnects you and assigns you a new IP address.
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| 08/28/2003 | If you delete or cancel a Screen Name, it may take up to two weeks for the IM Forwarding feature to be disabled. During that time, it will still appear online as a mobile user. |
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| 04/27/2003 | Get information about "Suspended" error messages that you may get upon signing on. |
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| 03/30/2003 | Learn why all buddies on your Buddy List appear offline. |
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| 03/30/2003 | The Mobile Indicator feature does not yet work for all types of wireless devices. |
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| 03/30/2003 | Password problems. Regular AIM vs. AIM Express. |
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| 03/30/2003 | Get information about the warning system. |
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| 03/30/2003 | Read about harassment by another user. |
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| 03/30/2003 | If you are getting an "Invalid screen name or password" error message when trying to sign on to AIM for the first time with an AOL Screen Name, make sure that you remove all web and chat AOL Parental Controls from the Screen Name. Once you have signed on with the Screen Name on AIM once, you can set it back to Mature Teen. (Please note that if your actual Internet connection is through AOL and your AOL Screen Name has its Parental Control set to restrict web access to the Young Teen or Kids Only level, you will not be able to sign on to AIM with any Screen Name. The web Parental Control applies to all Internet activities, not just web sites.) |
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| 03/30/2003 | If you have any groups in your Buddy List that you cannot permanently delete, you should be able to successfully delete them with either the Mac version of AIM, or the web-based AIM Express version of AIM. Access AIM Express here. |
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| 03/30/2003 | If you and your buddy are each behind a different firewall, the following features will probably not work: Talk, Buddy Icons, Send Buddy List, Add-Ins. This is a function of your firewall software doing its job, and is not a bug in AIM. |
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Windows Issues for AIM (5.9.6089)
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12/04/2006 |
Q: After I upgraded to the new version of AIM, I was no longer able to sign on, even after trying different screen names. a.) Personal firewall software on your computer. Many firewalls need to be configured to allow upgraded software to connect to the Internet because they can't be sure that the program is the same. Try temporarily shutting down the firewall to determine if it's the culprit. If AIM is able to login with the firewall disabled, follow the documentation for your firewall software in order to add the new version of AIM to the firewall's list of permitted applications. If advanced configuration of the firewall is needed, set it to allow incoming and outgoing connections for TCP+UDP on ports 443 and 5190.
b.) Corporate firewall configuration. If you are trying to use AIM in an environment such as a business or school, ask the network administrator to set the corporate firewall to allow incoming and outgoing connections for TCP+UDP on ports 443 and 5190. c.) Proxy configuration. If your Internet connection goes through a proxy, the proxy must be configured in Internet Explorer for it to be recognized by AIM 6. To configure the proxy in Internet Explorer, go to Tools : Options : Connections : LAN Settings. Then select "Use a proxy" and input the proxy Address and Port. If AIM 5.9 works and AIM 6 still does not, check the proxy configuration in AIM 5.9 (click the Connection button in the "Sign In/Off" Preference category in AIM 5.9). Note that password-protected proxies are not yet supported by AIM 6. d.) Your computer's date is set incorrectly. To check the date, double-click the clock at the far end of the Windows taskbar (by default this is at the bottom-right corner of the screen). e.) Internet Explorer is set to Work Offline. If this is the case, deselect the Work Offline item in the File menu of Internet Explorer. |
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| • | 7/27/2006 | When IMing yourself, you will not see the wallpaper in the IM history window. |
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| • | 7/27/2006 | When you or a buddy change an expression (an icon and/or a wallpaper) during an IM conversation, the IM form will not automatically update to show the new graphic. The IM form must be closed and reopened to see the new expression. |
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| • | 4/25/2006 | If your IM window has developed display problems or causes AIM's CPU usage to grow very high, it may be a conflict with the recent Microsoft security update KB912812. This will cause severe problems with the IM window if either you or your buddy have both a SuperBuddy Icon and a SuperBuddy Wallpaper.
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| • | 7/27/2005 | AOL Toolbar may not appear until reboot. Should it not appear after reboot, please re-install the AIM client, shutting down all Internet Explorer windows during the installation. |
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| • | 5/16/2005 | At this time, AIM Mail cannot be used with a Screen Name that used to be an AOL Screen Name. Users attempting to access AIM Mail with a Screen Name associated with a canceled AOL account will experience an error message (error code COFE0251). |
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| • | 5/12/2005 | If you try to use AIM.com mail with your AOL Screen Name, the service will return an error to you. Please go to http://webmail.aol.com/ to use the AOL member webmail service. |
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| • | 5/12/2005 | If you are signed into AIM with an AOL member Screen Name, the mail summary "tab" that appears inside AOL Explorer will show a "file not found" error. |
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| • | 5/2/2005 | For AOL members who previously utilized the AOL Toolbar, after installing this version of AIM, you may see two AOL Toolbars appear within IE. Uninstalling either version will rectify this experience.
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| • | 10/08/2004 | If IM windows cause AIM to crash, and Earthlink TotalAccess is not installed, please check for any of the following three programs in the Add/Remove Programs control panel:
• Home Search Assistant
• Search Extender
• Shopping Wizard
If any of these programs are installed on your computer, they may be responsible for crashing AIM. If you are not able to uninstall them via Add/Remove Programs, Ad-Aware may be able to remove them. Ad Aware can be downloaded for free at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/.
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| • | 09/22/2004 | If you continue to see the AIM.com window at sign-on, even after deselecting the "Show AIM.com window at sign on" option in Sign On/Off preferences, click on Add Tools at the bottom of the Buddy List window, and then either close the window that appears or select one of the choices on it.
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| • | 08/31/2004 | If IM windows cause AIM to crash, and Earthlink TotalAccess is installed, deselect the "Use Earthlink Search Service" option in the Web category of the Task Panel Options. Updating the Earthlink software may also fix the problem (choose "Check for Updates" from the Toolbox menu on the Task Panel). |
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| • | 06/17/2004 | If you are unable to type in an IM window, and you have installed both Smiley Central and Spybot or other anti-spyware software, try uninstalling Smiley Central ("MyWebSearch" in the Add/Remove Programs control panel). It has been found that using anti-spyware software to remove certain Smiley Central components will prevent you from typing in an IM window. If you reinstall Smiley Central, be careful not to remove its components with anti-spyware software in the future. |
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05/17/2004 |
If AIM crashes when you go to Away preferences, you probably have an Away message that is too big. To fix the problem, the bad Away message needs to be deleted with the Windows Registry Editor using the following steps:
Warning: You can cause Windows to stop functioning if you make a mistake in the Registry Editor program. If you need assistance, find someone who is familiar with the program to help you. AOL cannot be responsible for any damage you do to your computer. 1. Exit AIM
2. From the Start menu, launch "regedit" from the Run dialog box.
3. Browse to the following registry key, and click on it to select it:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\America Online\AOL Instant Messenger (TM)\CurrentVersion\Users\Your_Screen_Name\IAmGoneList Now you should see your Away messages listed on the right side of the window. 4. Right-click on the big Away message in that list , and choose Delete from the menu that appears. (To save part of the message before you delete it, double-click on it and copy its contents to the clipboard.)
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| • | 04/26/2004 | Images will not appear in the Direct IM history window if the Smiley Central add-on is active. To temporarily disable Smiley Central, click the wrench icon in the Smiley Central toolbar and select "Enable Direct Connect". Detailed information is available at http://help.smileycentral.com/troubleshooting.html. (Smiley Central is not supported by AIM.) |
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| • | 12/10/2003 | If you are auto-reconnected while your Screen Name is signed on at 2 locations, you may be incorrectly notified that your Screen Name is signed on at 3 locations. |
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| • | 11/20/2003 | Links added to member profile, away message, start menu, and/or favorites are the result of a trojan that you may have accidentally installed. Click here for steps to fix. |
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Problems you may encounter while using AIM for Windows
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| 08/28/2003 | If you are experiencing a problem with the current version of AIM, you can download the older 5.1 version here. | |
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| 04/27/2003 | To disable the IM Forwarding feature, go to IM/Chat prefs and click the IM Forwarding button. | |
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| 03/30/2003 |
If you prefer not to have AIM integrated into Outlook Express, go to the Sign On/Off preferences category in AIM and disable the "Make AIM my default instant messaging program" option. Restart your computer if the change is not taking effect after exiting AIM and restarting Outlook Express. |
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| 05/03/2003 | If you do not see the typing indicator for some buddies, those buddies are either using a version that does not support the typing indicator feature, or they may have disabled their preference to allow other users to see their typing status. | |
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| 04/27/2003 | If the Buddy List window is sometimes taking focus from other applications, you can use a setting in the Microsoft TweakUI utility to prevent programs from stealing focus. Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/ and do a search for tweakui. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | Norton Internet Security/Norton Personal Firewall will intentionally shut down AIM. The most likely symptom you would see is that when AIM automatically launches at Windows startup, it immediately shuts down. Norton has a help page for this here. Unfortunately, their instructions to move the Norton "iamapp.exe" application to the Startup folder to resolve the problem does not seem to help. Moving AIM to the Startup folder also does not seem to help. Please contact Norton's customer support for help with this problem if Norton's help page does not work for you. | |
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| 04/27/2003 | Learn why AIM is freezing shortly after you sign on. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | If you are getting an error message referring to a "NEWDOTNET" file, it is caused by a conflict with the New.Net software you installed. You can uninstall that software using the Add/Remove Programs control panel. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | If hyperlinks such as "http://10.2.30.40:8180" automatically appear in IMs that you send, it probably means that your system is infected with the "W32/Aplore@MM" virus/worm. Both McAfee and Symantec have web pages set up with descriptions and removal instructions. As always, please only click on hyperlinks that you know are safe, even when receiving them from people you trust. | |
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| 04/27/2003 | If you are seeing display glitches or buddies are incorrectly shown as being mobile users, it means that your system is low on resources. Restart Windows to fix the problem. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | "ReinitializeCriticalSection" error when trying to launch AIM on Windows NT: See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles: Q155561 and Q142644. (The problem may also be fixed by renaming the RASAPI32.DLL in the Windows System32 directory.) | |
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| 04/27/2003 | "RASMAN.DLL failed to load" error when trying to launch AIM: This will occur if you have uninstalled the Windows Remote Access Server, due to a flaw in the Windows uninstaller for that software. To correct the problem, rename or delete the \WINNT\SYSTEM32\RASAPI32.DLL file. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | "Buddyizer" error message: Buddyizer is part of the "Aimster/Madster" file-sharing application. Aimster/Madster is in no way affiliated with AOL, so we cannot provide you with any assistance on this. You may be able to get help at the Aimster/Madster web site. | |
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| 04/27/2003 | If the Today window content is not loading, press your F5 key when the window has focus, to try to make it refresh. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | · If you recently installed Netscape Communicator and can no longer sign on to AIM, then download and install the most recent version of AIM. | |
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| 04/27/2003 | If you get an "Error 14" message when trying to send a Game/Add-In invitation, go to the configuration for the Game/Add-In within AIM Preferences and remove the URL and Hint text, in order to reduce the amount of data that is transmitted. Please submit a bug report if you are still seeing the problem. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | Read about "Startup.ocm failed due to error 31" error. | |
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| 04/27/2003 | Learn about "Procedure entry point RealMemAlloc could not be located..." error. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | Why do I see "Font selection" or "Point selection" message when exiting? | |
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| 04/27/2003 | If you are seeing a crash in SPTIP.DLL on Windows XP, download the Windows XP Service Pack. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | If you are using Windows 95 and are notified at every login that you have already downloaded the Auto Upgrade installation file even though you turned off the Auto Upgrade option, delete the aim95.exe file (not aim.exe) from your AIM program directory. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | If you select the "AOL proxy server only" Firewall preference, your buddy must also be on the latest Windows or Mac client for file transfers and Direct IMs to work properly. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | If you are using personal firewall software that blocks all incoming connections, you should select the "Outgoing, and AOL proxy server" Firewall preference. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | After receiving a large file on Win98/ME, you may need to sign off and back on before being able to use most AIM features again. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | "Open Direct IM connection" will fail if you have selected the "Outgoing, and AOL proxy server" Firewall preference and your buddy is on an older version of Windows AIM. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | Closing the Direct IM connection from the People menu while a file is being transferred in the Direct IM may cause the Direct IM window to hang or stop updating. You will need to sign off and back on to fix the issue. | |
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| 05/03/2003 | Some brands of HTTP proxies cannot connect to the AIM service. | |
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Macintosh Issues for AIM (4.6)
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| 05/03/2003 | Outlook Express 5.02 for the Mac appears to have a bug that prevents you from sending emails to addresses longer than 88 characters. This will prevent you from responding to an AIM confirmation mail, so you will need to use a different mail client (or a web browser-based mail interface) to reply to the AIM confirmation mail. | |||
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| 04/27/2003 | Read about the "1008-17, -23" error message seen during installation. | |||
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Linux Issues for AIM (1.5)
If your problem wasn't listed or wasn't solved by upgrading your software, please click the "Submit a Report" button below to get started.