Mention AOL these days and you’ll usually hear some strong feelings in response. Sometimes you’ll hear a sense of nostalgia. Other times you’ll hear some combination of mockery and shock that it still exists. But for so many of our clients, AOL continues to be an essential and user-friendly pathway to the technological world. The most important aspect of that has always been the AOL Desktop software. For years it’s provided a consistent screen interface and an alternative to the confusing layout changes often imposed by other free e-mail providers.
However, a major transformation appears to be coming to the way AOL will operate going forward. AOL has recently begun informing users that their current AOL Desktop software will stop working in mid-April. To continue using the AOL Desktop software, users will need to pay $3.99 a month and upgrade to a new, supposedly “more secure” version of AOL Desktop called AOL Desktop Gold. The subscription will also include free software updates and 24/7 technical support. It’s not clear why AOL is doing this, but it’s safe to say the recent acquisition of AOL by Verizon may have played a role. This change will not affect users who access AOL e-mail via the web or via smartphones or tablets – that will continue to be free.
In any event, for our AOL clients this means there will be a big decision to make – either pay the $3.99 and hope the AOL Desktop Gold software is as familiar and user friendly as the original, or give up the software entirely and begin accessing AOL e-mail via a web browser.
Which way to go really depends on just how averse to change you are, and whether you’re okay with being a “guinea pig” while AOL works out any (inevitable) initial kinks in it. Early indications are that the software is extremely similar to the AOL Desktop that you know and love (or tolerate, depending on who you ask). This means that switching to using AOL e-mail via a web browser will certainly be a more daunting transition then moving to AOL Desktop Gold. The 24/7 tech support is also a very nice perk, and if all things are equal I see that as adding some additional value to the $3.99 a month price tag.
As always, we welcome your thoughts.
Tags: AOL, AOL Desktop Gold, E-mail Providers
Ughhh, I downloaded the Aol Gold at the last moment, and when I tried it, it was extremely slowww to load and looked more like what we are able to access via their regular website regarding the mail access except that the mail box on the page was very large and clumsy looking (I kid you not, I waited for 5 minutes for it to load then noted it froze lol!). Also, forget your buddylist (small box up on the right that was unobtrusive). You have to go to Keyword, type in “Buddylist” and up comes your AIM if you have it installed which takes up a third of the page. Add that to the fact that this newer “improved” version constantly freezes then you realize you are back in the 90’s and decide to delete it. Don’t bother. Just check your mail via aol.com or on your Aol phone App which loads fairly quickly. People wonder why we still like aol. Well, the 9.8 Desktop Version was very up-to-date and easily viewable all at one glance with your news, email, buddylist, and one was able to check movies, listen to music, videos, etc…. all on one screen (rather than with Google or firefox which makes one open several tabs). It also had massive email storage which a lot of other email providers don’t offer. Besides that, I liked that it stored my opened (old) email for up to two years in case I had to refer to an older unsaved email. Anyway, AOL Gold is AOL OLD (think back to the Dark Ages of the Internet). Sigh. I hope they bring back free aol desktop. It really was the best despite all the ads they threw at me. You would think they were making enough by selling Ad space as well as charging the elderly $20 a month for dialup and for broadband online assistance lol!!! I read where they something like 2 1/2 million people still paying that amount so surely they are still a rich company????
Thanks for sharing your experience. I know there are many others out there who would agree with you. We contacted AOL support recently regarding the various bugs in the new software and were told they are aware of them and working to resolve them as quickly as possible. They also recommended anyone with issues submit feedback through the new software (which you can get to by clicking help). Hopefully they will take these concerns seriously so they do not alienate the remaining loyal users they have.
Yes Matthew… I have talked to three different people at the Tech Support and was told about the same as you stated. They keep saying their ‘developers’ are working on the issues.
Look at the two replies from Matthew and Jan, dated April and May 2017. Today is November 1 and not one issues has been fixed. Aol Gold is a fraud.
Gold to awful. I use it as my business account and have had AOL since the beging of time. Now I am being bill for AOL that is awful. Thanks Verizon. It’s all about money to hell with good service
EVERYONE, please call Verizon’s headquarters in NY and COMPLAIN. I’ve been an AOL user for 17 years and hate the Gold, the nerve to charge for something that isn’t yet working properly, never mind charging for something that was free. And, if you look at the Gold emails—they’ve added ads to them, along the side of the emails, and you’ve now got to stretch the email to read the content!!!!!!
I usually resist posting about anything, but this really irritates me. I have had AOL since 1994, and I even worked at an AOL call center for 2 years. That was back in the good old days.LOL I recieved MANY messages telling me to switch Gold, or I would be driven from the world of AOL and all the wonderful things that involves. Knowing how these things usually go, and realizing that my Mother, who also has an account, has not received any warning or mention of Gold – to this day, My account is under the free Broadband My mother, however, is on a plan that charges $3.95 and included tech support, which my plan does not. On Aug. 2. I got email telling me it was the last warning to switch to Gold, and if I had not switched by 8/7, I would have not access to AOL or my filesl This time I took them seriously, and downloaded Gold on 8/4. I’m fighting my way through trying to reset all those settings that would not be change with the new version. The latest thing I found is that you can’t sort your email by sender, or subject.
I believe that AOL didn’t expect to retain a large percentage of their membership. There will be members who stay on because they don’t want to learn something new – guess what? They have to learn something anyway.; at least they won’t have to re-create their contact list.
With fewer members, there is a lower need for support personnel.
Could it be that AOL is planning to focus on a Mobile platform? Whatever is left of the desktop products would eventually fade away or get swallowed up.
I have supported and defended AOL for many years, but it looks like that is over.
Good Luck to all!
AOL Gold is horrendous. When you open each e-mail, the words disappear in a second. We spent hour on phone with Phillipines – they told us to shut down our Windows Defender and Malwarebytes. Of course that did not help. We will probably just use the web based version, as we do when traveling with our laptop. Losers !
M — just use a different vehicle to access AOL and you will have all your old stuff with no cost —- good luck
Mehner, you say that AOL was free to you. How did you manage that? I’ve been paying $11/month for years. The only reason I’ve held onto AOHell is because of the Filing Cabinet and Favorites which I’ve used extensively for years. This ‘new and improved’ Gold sounds like a nightmare. I’ve not made the change yet and have only be notified about it for approx. a month and the current date is 11/14/’17. Go figure!
Yes, i feel the same as you all do about gold, don’t like it. it has to many ads, to slow, want my ole soft ware back, besides it cost to use gold.
My wife downloaded the gold because regular AOL stopped working yesterday. Nowhere did we see that they are going to charge us $3.99 for this. A lot of the games we play are not working and we downloaded the latest version of JAVA to no avail. This looks like the end of AOL for us!!!
I now have 7300 that’s right 7300 emails and I can’t delete them the way I use to and as quickly. The person or persons who developed gold should be looking for a new job.And Verison keeps on perpetuating the problem.I wish I could find some othere way to access the web other than AOL. HELP
I’m with you Bill. I too have been using aol desktop (paid version) since the beginning of time. All my business contacts, links, files, etc are there. Until I figure out how to save or move them to another company (any company that is NOT AOL) I’m just stuck with the high monthly bill I’ve been paying.
So why am I paying $19.95 for AOL and others have been using it for free????
When I tried to log on this morning I couldn’t get there, was told I had to get AOL Gold. What a rip!
I also have hadAOL since three beginning and I am very upset about this. I will not be installingAOL GOLD, unless they bring back the free. I have mail sane for some Cory documents that were safe on myAOL, now I habe no access. I left Verizon for the readin of too expensive and now leaving AOL because of the money thing.
WTF AOL HAS PORN? I WILL GIVE THEM $5.99.
Just kidding.
I have a few AOL accounts too, and the same thing happened to me. Two of them got signed off on different dates in July, and another one hasn’t even received any form of notification. Here”s the thing, I don’t use AOL browser for porn, I believe it has to do with frequency of use. The accounts I used more were signed off faster. The one I only used a couple times is still going strong on free 9.8 software. The fishy part is that they stated they were going to discontinue the software, but obviously the haven’t. All they are doing is blocking access to the software on certain accounts. hmmmm.
BTW Google works better for porn.
Some accounts are not getting the upgrade notice because they are on older operating systems. I am still on Vista which AOL Gold does not support so I got no notices.
I am still on Windows XP. I was notified that I had to download aol shield or I couldn’t get into aol after 12/15/17. No more Buddy List and I will be loosing a lot of my info that was on there, because of their changes.
I have to go through Google Chrome Or Firefox to open a lot of my mail, because it won’t open on aol anymore, nor can I play any of my games, and I pay for this garbage. Going to make a change and that is that! I don’t care for the other browsers, because I am use to AOL. I have a new Windows 10 and have never used it or set it up, but now I won’t have a choice. I don’t like how you have to send Email in other browsers. I am really getting fed up with all of it. Thank you!
FISHY is absolutely right! I smell a tort lawsuit on the horizon. Ive been paying a lot of money for aol for years and years. Same software some people pay nothing or very little for. Now Im forced to use that crap called AOL GOLD when I know for a fact that for some people they are still using the other versions (which work well) and have never received notification that they must switch. something stinks
Hi Jennifer & All of you unhappy AOL users,
I agree with all the comments that I’ve read so far. I used to use, as I and many others Brits did for their emails ‘Freeserve’ which was taken over by AOL.
Then before broadband arrived we had to pay AOL each month for a dialup landline phone connection to be able to access our emails.
Then broadband arrived and I (and I suppose many others) stopped using dialup landline and used broadband and still carried on paying AOL each month for what I thought was the cost of not just the dialup connection but also the cost of using AOL (how stupid was I).
AOL carried on taking the money when everyone had now switched to using broadband and I thought that I must just be paying to use AOL.
Then after many years of paying each month by direct debit (DD) AOL suddenly stopped taking the DD. My interpretation of them stopping taking the DD is that they, AOL had reached a point where by they had realised that they had been taking me for a ride long enough and it had to end.
More recently, I received emails from AOL saying the desk top service would come to an end and that I should change to ‘Desktop Gold’ but as I only use AOL for emails and the email filing cabinet I didn’t want to change anything (as I was more than happy with the way it was) so I did nothing.
Today 10 Jan 2018 I tried to login to my AOL only to discover that AOL had true to their word pulled the plug on my AOL desktop.
I feel that in the past I’ve paid AOL for many years mistakenly for a dialup connection that I never used and accordingly don’t want to have to start paying them money again – especially when all the other email providers don’t charge.
All my emails were well organised in the AOL filing cabinet – it’s a shame that this good system has come to an end – I really could do without all of this hassle!
Good luck to you Jennifer & all you disgruntled AOL users – Best wishes to you for 2018
Hey John, At a certain point in the 2000’s (mid-late) AOL gave a FREE option that no longer required you to pay the monthly fee. They relied on advertising budget for this which helped cut the cost for us. We just had to put up with the annoying advertisements as a result. I was fine with that for not paying $10/month any longer. This might be what happened when they stopped charging you?
As of right now, my Desktop still works. Around 12/15/17 I received pop up messages saying that some time in January that would stop being the case… however I just signed on now and it still runs. Chat rooms are still running as well. Just no AIM any longer.
I think something is off with the aol gold I have more than one email address on aol and not all of them would get the sign off telling me I need to download aolgold seems like only the ones I looked at porn on were required to and infact I was able to create new screen names with the old accounts
I can’t email my Peach Invoice from this new gold. I called and was told to scan a copy as a document, then go to aol gold and write. Then attach my document and send. Can’t get that to work eather.
This is by far the most useless, frustrating piece of garbage I have ever had the misfortune to navigate. It’s slow and freezes constantly. You’re right, the 9.8 was hands down more efficient. I have always liked the AOL layout which was why I kept it, but lately have been needing to use Chrome just to access some sites that no longer work under AOL gold. They need to trash this and go back to what they had.
it sucks big time I don’t want it , they need to go back to the old version
your so right go back to the way it was, omg I lost all my folds and files and all my recipes I had on . this aol sucks big time
You shouldn’t have lost everything. They asked several times if you want to import them. Yes, it took a couple of hours for them to do it but it saved everything perfectly.
Debbie, you are incorrect. Did you actually check the files they imported back? I have been with AOL since the inception back in the 80’s when they sent the floppy discs in the mail. I have been a paying customer for years to maintain tech support. But when they imported my Gold after they denied access to 9.8.2, they lost two full years of my personal filing cabinet, the last two years of my favorite places, and my most recent toolbar. I have spent hours on the phone on four different occasions, as well as hours on chat, they have had access to my computer in order to fix the problem for nearly six weeks now. With negative results. Since I am a writer, I will be writing about the dud they foisted on their customers and seeing if I can get it into a syndicated online news site like Huff Post and MSN Online News. This is wrong!
cancel I was using aol for business and I got released from 4 companies due to aol problems and they just don’t care
I have not tried the aol gold. I’ve been on aol since the very beginning and have not paid for it. I will not use the desktop version. (The software for this version is no longer available anyway) I use aol only for email and I can get that on aol.com. If I had not used my aol address for so many sites, I would just not use aol at all. I use google chrome and it works very well.
Same for me. I just tried to get chat help. My request was cancelled for lack of an agent. I can’t reinstall Gold and I guess I will loves my Favorites List if I cancel.
The letter I got said that if you do not upgrade, you will still be able to access your email via aol.com but will not be able to send or save any new emails and everything you may have saved in an email will not be accessible.
Kathy,
I have been fighting with the old and latest version for two months and only realized 3 days ago it was also pulling down my Firefox and IE software. I have been unable to find any help on-line to tell me why this is happening. But, it was taking up to a minute for firefox and IE to come up and be used. I was getting constant “program not responding” and freezes lasting a couple of minutes. I never made the connection in my mind that this was the saem problem I was having with Desktop and had to uninstall it once a month, to get it to run right for a few weeks. I tried verything I could think of and everything AOL,MS,Firefox, and all the other suggestions on line. Finally, a couple of days ago I did my monthly uninstall and was distracted. I never reinstalled the desktop. I worked on my PC for a couple of hours and noticed how fast FF & IE were running. I installed Desktop and it dragged my entire system down again. I uninstalled and it has been fine. I do not know what kind of games AOL is pulling that hs them tapping into IE and FF. But, I will not reinstall until somebody can tell me what is happening. Forget about their customer support too. The links to email and chat have been broken. However, I did complain back in April about the $ 3.95 and they told me it did not apply to me. ????
It isn’t just GOLD that is horrible. Its the entire COMPANY AOL or OATH or VERIZON. Something just doesn’t smell right. We all need to LAWYER UP!
Jake,
In the past two years I have been fighting with AOL Desktop just like you have stated. AOL Tech support was totally useless. Every month like clock work Desktop would gradually slow down to a crawl and then freeze. That is when I noticed that it was for some unknown reason also causing my Firefox and IE to slow to a crawl.
I also, noted that when it did the task manager would show me 7 or 8 AOL and WAOL programs all running at the same time and consuming 75% of my 8 GB’s of ram & a good chunk of my CPU. I would at that point do a uninstall reinstall (the only thing tech support suggested) The 3.95 charge was just the final insult. I installed Thunderbird and never looked back.
I agree with Kathy and many others. AOL Gold is horrible and can’t seem to link the account to my tablet.
They really need to revert to the last version.
Agree! Same experience here.
tried aol gold for a week 30 day free trial, started typing in it today and the whole thing disappeared. No idea other than they are working on the account. What BS is this. If they want to charge 4.99 per month why cant we keep the same 9.8 desktop version. The aol gold is slow, freezes and is a POS as it stands now.
Agree with Rich, here – and most other posts. Call me nostalgic and old. And,I may even consider paying the $4.99, IF I can continue to use the 9.8. I can’t even pull up my PFC on Gold! That’s a lot of information that’s going to lost to cyber-space, if I can’t figure something out. I can’t even cancel the Gold crap!
Now they have 9.82 I just got that about a month ago, I just called and then downloaded it. I’ve only had GOLD for about 3 days, but I’m going to delete it. Like some of you I’ve been with them for 24 yrs. I guess I’m spoiled, I hardly ever use anything else. Some time I go to Chrome to get to my AOL account, it works a little better. I guess all we can do is complain every day for a while that might them think twice. Wonder who came up with this idea. I never got an email about it, a few days ago it popped up on my screen and ask if I’d like to try it, I have but after tonight it’ll be off my computer, they only have about 8 Fonts too no choices at all.
My grandson set mine up for the aol gold and two days later it was gone. I didn’t like it anyway because It didn’t have my friends list in the right hand corner where the other aol had it. so it got gone over night for whatever reason. I like the one I have always had because it is easier to do what I need to do on it. I also had to redo my icon
to my desk top which sucked. They need to stay on what we already have and leave well enough alone.
I am paying 9.99 per month!!!
I can’t add anything in favorite places and most of my old favs are missing!! Not happy
this is what I mean by “fishy”. Ive been paying 7 times that much for years! How does that work I wonder?
Well, I’m glad it’s not just me! I was beginning to think I needed to replace my laptop with how slow AOL Gold was! I have used it since 1992 and relied on it heavily when starting my own business in 2003. All my client files are stored (on my PC and not on AOL — perhaps that was stupid on my part) so I feel I have to stick with them until I retire (which, at this rate, will be a lot sooner than I had originally planned). If I could, I would change to ANY OTHER email out there but I can’t move those client files over. I am just gobsmacked that they literally shut down the old AOL and are forcing us to pay $4.99 for this nonsense. Really?? After all these years, you can’t design a good, working product and iron the bugs out ahead of time??? Can ‘t wait to retire and drop you AOL. You’re a joke.
I totally agree
I am the elderly that has paid AOL since 1998. I find it is the easiest website there is plus they give me tech help when I need it. I pay $9.99 per month.
You have been repeatedly ripped off – you should try to get your money back. i have been a member since the beginning also. They stopped charging years ago – not until recently they want money for their desktop gold. Use aol mail on google – its free and you can keep your email address – Good Luck
People using dialup still paid a monthly subscription. There are still many on dialup, including elderly people who never bothered with it or people who live outside broadband service areas.
It doesn’t surprise me the program is buggy – they have not had anyone who knows what they are doing work on it in years.
I have nothing but problems and I’m sick of it
I just called them and was told it is 4.99 a month
aol gold SUCKS!!!!!!
A “typical” VERIZON maneuver…..fees for everything except
for them telling you how wonderful they are. Greed.
Has anyone figured out a way to KEEP AOL desktop without paying? I’ve had it since 94 and paid for years- I can’t stand they way aol web mail is and i refuse to pay again for email. After reading several posts about people who have gone to the Gold version-it sounds like a total disaster- Wish I was a lawyer-I’d start a Class Action Lawsuit! This is soooooo AGGRAVATING!!!!
Yes it is aggravating and I don’t think it is legal. They are discontinuing some of the 9.8.2’s but letting other non aol payers keep theirs. I thought maybe they were doing this state by state. Starting with CA of course. They took ours away 2 days ago and won’t let us sign on, so I went with the Gold but don’t like it. It signs off automatically and won’t even sign back on. I may have an email ready to send and it freezes up and signs off then I reopen aol and the email is gone. ugh!! Frustration.
i am in california and i ‘just’ lost mine on dec. 15 and my AOL was free. i loved 9.8 and i ‘almost’ tried gold but after reading all these horrible reviews here and that there is no more buddy list-i just access my mail now from mail.aol.com but i sure do miss opening AOL every morning. ‘they’ really screwed up a good thing.
THAT is exactly what we need to do! Start a class action lawsuit!
mine is so fast. almost instant loading except my buddylist is missing.i gotta keyword it every time
I don’t want Gold AOL but I need to restore my AOL desk to account to clean it out and then I will eliminate AOL now you have me as hostage which is not acceptable hate you AOL.
I agree! I want the LAST AOL Desktop, back! This gold one, is too slow! I can’t delete my 5000 e-mails so when I try I don’t finish. PLEASE AOL. I am paying for this $6.95 and I don’t like going to Aol. like I used too. Please give me back the old one. It has features, this gold doesn’t and I loved the old AOL DESKTOP PS Some still have it, and didn’t lose it. Why is that?
Plain and simple – save everything you want in favorites and emails then run. It is the worst desktop you’ll ever use. Terrible tech service which finds it easier to dump all your info to reinstall it’s software because they can’t fix it, After the 5 time of looking up all my passwords on different sites,I gave up. I am now aol free. PS: THEY WERE CHARGING ME 4’99 NOT 3.99. Mr ARMSTRONG KMA !!!!!
When they were going to charge me $6/mo I called and was sent in circles when I asked what for? Tech service would not answer unless I bought a tech payment.. billing sent me back to tech service.. and the circle went on and on. Pathetic> Nobody spoke English but I think they said I would lose my favorites if I did not pay> Do you know if that is correct? I am thinking of switching to gmail but I have used aol for 30 years.. lots of accounts to change… and I do not know if gmail is easy or worth the change?
I also have been a long time user. I just received notice to upgrade to Gold on 9/26/2017. I have been paying $9.99 for at least 2 years?I will have to call them at 800-827-6364 to see what’s up. wish me luck with that1 i have already used the “contact us” via email for a different matter ( add the print icon next to the favorites Heart icon)..no answer yet after 2 days. i still can use “Ctrl & P”
Perfectly said! So glad it wasn’t just me!
I made the mistake of trying to download the AOL “Gold” (more like tin!) software. Wouldn’t load despite multiple attempts AND the “Help” wouldn’t work either! Ditched it and am using Google to access email under old AOL email addresses. Oh, and BTW the $3.99 advertised price somehow turned into $5.49 on my MasterCard bill!
AOL Gold is beyond awful. I installed it in August and took it down the same day because the performance was awful. Today when I signed in I was informed that 9.8 is gone and no longer supported. Three hours after trying to use Gold it is even worse than before, Does anyone have the e-mail address for the CEO from Verizon. We need to bombard his mailbox with messages from our gmail accounts. Why would they discontinue 9.8 when it obvious that this is an inferior product
I agee Mike it is awful and I have been a customer for 17 years. If you get the email or contract please post
Thanks Is there a class action lawsuit brewing ?
Thats a great idea Mike! Im going to see if I can find it…….email address for verizon ceo. Im also a long time verizon customer and Im getting ready to ditch them all!! because of this mess. held hostage indeed.
I sure wish they would let us have the 9.8 version back. This Gold totally sucks.
You also loose the hover for drop down on your favorites list. Now you have to click Favorites open and scroll to where you want. I really miss the hover.
i was ‘debating’ downloading/paying for gold because like you, i have had AOL since the dial up days and it’s what i’m used to and what i like. the buddy list is ALL i’m really concerned with because i have ONE friend who i care about who i will miss seeing there. i decided to google it first and ended up here and after reading your post, i’ll just say ‘ditto’………i won’t pay for something that isn’t there. i hope maybe, AOL will read/hear the complaints and bring it back free.
I am and have been paying $39.00 a month for AOL 9.8.2 for years and years. Will I still pay that fee of $39.99 PLUS an additional $4.99 for AOL GOLD?? A letter I got said my AOL Desktop would be obsolete and to download GOLD.
What Americans need to realize is Aol Is falsely advertising.
Since verizon now owns. Aol advertises FREE EMail/ WAKE UP america it is no longer free.
Sorry cant find any other place on here to post a comment, so Im replying on your post. We have AOL Gold downloaded on our home computer (1) COMPUTER. My husband subscribed to this about 6 months ago and is paying 4.99 a month. Before I was able to use the one download on here which was originally set up under is user name. Under that name he also has 3 other user accounts. Those accounts have access to Gold mine doesnt. Saying my account is separate from his. So now they are saying I would have to download another AOL Gold on my computer and pay the 4.99 on my own account? So one computer, 2 different downloads paying twice ? Is this a rip off or what?
This is spot on and it’s now mid Dec 2017. Obviously they’ve done nothing to improve this. I just download the Gold and all it does is freeze and slow down the entire computer.
Verison is a nefarious company which can never be trusted and AOL should have remained independent and maintained it well known and “well used to” original AOL Desktop TO MAINTAIN IT’S REPUTATION.
try resetting the computer and reenstalling aol gold its impossible
Thanks for your info. I have decided to stay with the free version, and I have AVG for a firewall.
I was ‘forced’ to upgrade to AOL Gold and am not happy at all !!! I agree with Gette about the ‘mail box’, it loads very large and you have to ‘resize’ it every time you access it if you want to see the entire box. I mostly use the desktop version for chat room access., that is not available at this time. I am very disappointed in AOL treating their users like this !!! I also say Verizon has something to do with this. Good Luck to all ‘guinea pigs’.
Jan, Finally, someone as annoyed about the “advertisement mailbox” as much as I am. Can you believe they shrunk our mail (the only reason we sign on) so we could instead see annoying advertisements? Its like they’re trying to go out of business. Well, seeing how Verizon just bought them, that might be the plan, to bomb aol and make us all pay for verizon somehow. What a shame. AOl desktop gold is a total joke, a joke they’re charging us for. I need to find another work space because this is ridiculous.
Its ugly, its clumsy, its slow, its not customisable, no buddy list, the chatrooms are all empty. I have been a part of the aol online role playing community since 2003, its all but dead now and this will be the final nail in its coffin.unless there is a vast improvement vastly soon i will cancel after the free month. first they killed our profiles in yet another way they mistreat their cusomers in the name of ” progress” and” improvemernts” now this, i hope their greed bites them in the backside very soon.
Gena, yes they did away with the ‘buddy list’ as we know it. It is now “AIM’, click AIM at the top and that will open for IM’s. NOTE: the way they ask for your name is ‘misleading’, put your screen name in, many of us are showing up with our ‘real name’ !!
AIM has always shown your real name or the name you created your aol account under. Go to aim.com on a different browser like google. From there your full aim account comes up with setting and IM preferences. Click on the little arrow next to your name. A list of options come up and one of them is “edit your name” You can change and save it.
I too got the letter to upgrade to AOL Gold but after reading comments think I am going to let the deadline pass and see what happens. If I can still get my e-mail which is basically all I use it for think I will just hang on to the old and see what happens.
Cathy… you can access your aol mail from any browser ( believe you go to aol.com) I have aol as my homepage on my browser and the mail is at the top of the page. The desktop allows multiply ‘windows’ the other way does not.
Cathy, That is what I plan to do also. This is utterly Ridiculous. I get AOL free BUT I pay $4.99 to be able to get Tech support.(Whom I usually can’t understand what they are saying). I have been on AOL for 16 yrs. I am 73 yrs old, and CERTAINLY don’t need a change!! And, I, too think it might be Verizon sticking it’s 2 cents worth in. I have a Verizon Cell Phone (Old flip one) and If this turns out to be a big mess or flop I just might get rid of my verizon phone too!!!!! I say NO TO AOL GOLD!!!
Cathy I have been with aol for over 20 years and I agree you can’t understand them (tech support) and they don’t know what they are doing. Wave goodbye to aol !!!!
I too have been with them over 20 years, and have been paying them for 7 years. The ease with which multiple e-mail addresses could be handled was fantastically amazing! Not at all now. My wife (I’m in my 60’s) is not at all tech savvy, and loved the ease with which she could get online. I loaded GOLD on my laptop first and based on it’s behavior, there’s no way this is going on to the main computer in our home. I was proud of having the same e-mail address for so long as others have had 5 or more in the last 2 decades. I do eBay and all my friends, family, and financial accounts have my AOL address(es), but I’m going to start the migration process. I’ll continue to pay, as I can’t stand the disruption at this time, but I’m going to give them 90 days. We will access from IE during that time. But judging from the age of some of these posts, it looks like they’re not going to change AOLGOLD. Us long-time AOL’ers have been pretty much exempt from a lot of the change that’s been going on out there, but boy are they rocking our world now, and not in a good way! A memory-hogging, ad laden, non-responsive program is NOT an improvement! Come on, Verizon! Know your demographic or lose them!
With so much reading on this topic, I want to be sure I am understanding correctly when my current AOL desktop software is shut down … I can still receive and send emails through aol using mail.aol.com on another browser (like Google Chrome).
Is that right ?
Also, will I still be able to use the AOL app to access my mail?
Thank you for having this board, the information is much appreciated.
That is correct. You can send and receive new e-mails via mail.aol.com on a web browser, and the AOL desktop app will (according to AOL) continue to retain all your old “Saved on my PC” e-mails indefinitely. Glad you find the article helpful.
Whew, thank you!
New day, new question lol
Mine is the primary email address, my sons both have their own email addresses on aol, will they be able to access their email as well?
Hey .. that wasn’t Jack that posted that last question it was me! How did that happen ?
but not your saved on AOL emails which is where all of mine are
If you’re e-mails are “saved on AOL” you can get them via the web version of AOL mail. Just click on the left side where it says “Saved Mail”
What about mail folders we’ve created? Will those still be accessible through aol.com.mail?
Yes if they were created in the category of “Saved on AOL” they will be accessible through aol.com mail.
I was doing the same thing. Finally this morning when I clicked on the desktop app nothing happened. After reading the problems with the “Gold”, I’ll probably just ukse aol.com to get mail though I don’t like the format. Hard to teach an old dog new trick 🙁
That’s what I’m thinking as well. I’ve been an AOL user since it’s beginning. I don’t want Gold, it’s not free. I paid my dues back when it was $19.99 a month, now Verizon comes along and wants their pound of flesh…hell NO. After reading these comments….double Hell NO !!
I agree with you Carroll ! I also paid my dues back in the day. This Aol Gold sounds scary and awful. To change something that was working to something that doesn’t…. is not progress !
Anyone who has issues with Large mailbox and needs to resize , its not a problem with the software , your monitor settings are at fault , either you are running a low resolution or your DPI (DOTS PER INCH) is 125% + , these can be adjusted easy , just call tech support and tell them to verify Resolution setting and DPI settings.
Thanks for the tip George. This is a pretty common issue we’ve come across as well.
Can you verify my question to George…. are my settings appropriate ?? thank you
There are NOT enough hours in MY lifetime to mess around with this new aolGold!! It is the pits. I was thrown off aol 9.8, which worked just fine for me a week ago. I signed up for the “new and improved” aolGold. What a nightmare. Thank you, but no thanks. I am sooooo totally disappointed with aol for screwing this up big time.
so very true…how and why are they screwing millions of people and getting away with it.. someone has to shut them drown or make them do right by all the people who trusted.them all these years… very upsetting.
thank you George. I checked my screen resolution and it is set at high: 1366×768, the DPI is 100%. Any suggestions ? also, are you using AOL Gold ?? Thank You.
it’s not the mail boxes…it’s signing on and to many other things to talk about very sad and so very dissappointed
It’s all Greek to me
AND WHY ARE THESE COMMENTS NOT IN CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE?!
The comments here generally are in chronological sequence. New comments are always on the bottom, except if they are replies to earlier comments. Those replies would be underneath the original comment. That is standard practice in most blogs.
Because you are replying to someones comment.
AOL Gold is horrible. They lost the mail folders on my main PC. The number of messages in my other mail addresses no longer shows. When I try to save pictures from the web it fails to download and invites me to try software which does not work. My old signatures were lost. The refresh and share icons on the toolbar are gone. I have been unable to load the new version on my laptop. I can’t hit TAB on the the write mail so I have to space to start a paragraph. The list goes on and on. I will submit feedback as the online rep suggested but what fool would pay for this travesty. I want the old desktop version and all my features and files returned. Otherwise I have to copy all my saved information and go to another browser.
AOL Gold is an embarrassment for Verizon. They promoted it as faster, and all it does is slow down my computer, and occasionally freezes it altogether. At times my email becomes extremely slow or totally non-responsive. Other times, I receive duplicate emails from every sender. Tech support blames my computer, and tried to sell me their product that cleans computers. I refused their offer because my computer works extremely fast and well with every other program I run, including the previous version of AOL desktop! Every window contains giant ads that use up a tremendous amount of screen space on my laptop making it impossible for me to get my work done without a great amount of difficulty and frustration! And I am paying you $4.99/month for this horrible experience every time I use AOL Gold. Shame on you AOL!
I have been reading these comments about how bad aol Gold version is for about an hour and I have yet to hear one person tell us what other provider we should switch to in order to get away from aol and receive better service.
The easiest solution is to ignore desktop gold and instead check your email via http://mail.aol.com. It’s free and you can keep your current address. If you want to dump AOL completely my recommendation would be Gmail. It’s the most secure and reliable of the “free” email providers but it is quite different from AOL so there will be a bit of a learning curve as you transition to it.
What about those of us who live in places that do not have a broadband Internet service provider like the cable TV and phone companies? We still use AOL for Internet connection and cannot log in to aol.com as a web page. Are we now going to lose our Internet connection unless we buy this AOL Gold?
Pat – that is a great question. I can’t say for certain because we haven’t heard any feedback from other people who use still use dial-up AOL. However, my feeling is that you probably will continue to be able to do so (at least for now). And all the existing paying AOL customers who have been told to switch to Gold were able to do so without paying anything extra for it.
Forced me to download the desktop Gold. I dont like it and I like to unistall and install the previus version. AOL you can not force the AOL users to upgrade anything. Yes if you like you can charge $3.99 monthly but to keep the previous version, not the Gold.
Please tell me how to unnistall copletelly and to reistall the previous one. Is better for me if you email me the link to click correctly. Yes i unistalled yesterday from the control panel and i istalled the 9.8 but still it was not working so i found the way hoe to install again the Gold just temporally
Please help me and or forward to AOL team
Thank you
Nick – unfortunately I don’t think that is possible. AOL has been deactivating all previous versions of the software, so even if you were to reinstall any of them you would probably just get the same notice again forcing you to upgrade to AOL Desktop Gold. That said, I can completely understand why being charged $3.99 just to have unwanted software imposed on you would be infuriating. My best recommendation would be to contact AOL customer service at (800) 827-6364, and/or to use the “submit feedback” option inside the new software as I have suggested to others. There are certainly no guarantees, but the more AOL hears from their users the better the chance they will address these issues.
I came across an article on AOL’s website, which says that the previous versions of AOL Desktop will function, but “will not be able to send or receive new email.” In other words, you would be able to use it to access e-mails “Saved on My PC”, but probably not much else. https://help.aol.com/articles/what-happens-to-my-email-if-i-do-not-upgrade-to-aol-desktop-gold
OMG Matthew, thank you so much! I have numerous files in “Mail Waiting to be Sent” that haven’t pulled over into ‘Draft’ via AOL.com mail.
At least I can copy and past !!! Same with billing receipt emails I put in “Incoming/Saved Mail. I was going to give the Gold a shot to retrieve these things…now I shouldn’t have to.
Totally agree with you. I HATE ‘gold’ version of aol. 6/1 I was unable to get on to aol. The previous version (9.8) would not sign me on. I was forced to download ‘gold’. HATE it. My buddy list is half gone, HUGE on the page now and IM’s are cumbersome. Sounds don’t work and when I try to enable them, I get a message, “working on this”. My favorite places are gone or arranged and chat rooms are gone. Did I say, I HATE this version of aol. If they want to charge, then charge. I’ll pay. But not for ‘gold’. This isn’t gold…..it isn’t even lead. HATE IT.
Whats your email address it doesn’t appear on here.
They have blocked our accounts from being able to use the old version 9.8 but they have discontinued the software. I can tell you how to create a new account that you can still use the old version 9.8 with, but it wont have any of your original account info or emails on it.
would love to hear how!
email me that info please. candoservices@aol.com Thank you!
1) When is the deadline for non-fuctional desktop?
What is a solution sin the gold version has email issues.
a) I need my old emails
and
b) I need new emails.
Is it possible to pull AOL mail into outlook or Gmail or Yahoo? Or will they also stop receiving email?
I think the only solution is to go to Gold version if you want to stay with AOL? I have 10 years of AOL mail I don’t want to loose. What to do??
From what I have observed, the deadline appears to be different for different users. Some of our clients began receiving notices about AOL Desktop Gold at the end of March. Others have not yet received any upgrade notices. It’s almost as if AOL is arbitrarily deciding when to pull the plug on the old software for each individual user. As far as a solution goes – keep in mind that you can get all of your e-mails (old and new) via http://mail.aol.com. You can do this right now, regardless of what decision you make regarding the AOL software. And AOL webmail will continue to be free of charge. The only exception are old e-mails that are “Saved on My PC”. Those e-mails will not be accessible except inside the AOL Desktop software, which will continue to function for that purpose. It is also possible to pull AOL mail into other e-mail services, but that would be the more complicated route. The easiest thing would be to begin using the webmail, and just keep the old desktop software in case you need to retrieve any old e-mails that don’t appear there.
….some of “our clients” you say? now who’s clients would those be do tell?
Our clients, meaning Computer Camaraderie Corp’s clients. We provide IT support and service, and the frustration of many of our clients with AOL Desktop Gold was the inspiration for this blog post.
I have not updated to gold but have setup my two aol accounts on outlook 2010 and on GMail. AOL has not cut me off yet on 9.8.2 but if and when they do I am going to see if the outlook and Gmail options work. If they do I am going to see if there is a way to move “saved on my pc folders” to either gmail or outlook. Looks like there is some software out there to do this. Emails stored on the aol server can be moved to outlook or gmail. I have already done that but they are not in folders because I was storing them on my deasktop in folders way back to when I started with aol way back whenever.
I can not believe aol is doing this but I am getting ready after my gold notice was received. They already have a lot of mad people out there. This has been a challenge for me not being a computer person. It is still a work in progress but Verizon is going to suffer over this stupid mistake. Waiting for my cutoff.
You can’t even copy your email addresses – it says, “coming soon” Also I’ve used other fonts than they offer – what’s that all about – I hate them and they don’t seem a bit interested in fixing their mess.
Matthew… I want to Thank You sooo much for this webpage !!!
Anytime – glad you find it helpful!
AOL Desktop Gold is HORRIBLE…slow, slow, slow…no chatrooms, mail page takes up most of the screen, AIM buddy list takes up 3/4 of the screen….downloads are impossible…and once AOL has you locked into Gold you cannot sign onto any other computer using your screen name, AOL has you locked out of everything…..It’s like a conspiracy between Windows 10 and AOL Gold, you can’t have one without the other and AOL sucks……….they claim they’re giving you a one month free trial period then start charging you $3.99 a month, don’t care about the monthly charge, but would love to have the chatroom features back..AOL claims they’re working on IT but I don’t foresee that happening…the days of the aol chatrooms are gone forever on this lousy Desktop Gold….IF you don’t have Windows 10, DO NOT download AOL Desktop Gold….
I have Windows 7, and aol still would not allow me to download an older version.
Yes, the forced upgrade to AOL Desktop Gold seems to have nothing to do with the version of the operating system. We have heard of cases that affect Windows 10 as well as Windows 7 users.
jan, I also have windows 7 and would like to keep the AOL version I have. I haven’t received the notice about AOL GOLD—-YET!! But I am sure I will. For 2 days this week, I still have my windows 7 BUT I could not sign on so I called AOL help. First I chatted, then she gave me another tech, etc etc.
Before that I had gotten a pop-up saying I could not sign on and didn’t have connection to my broadband (ISP). When I called My ISP they told me to call that I had Absolutely no problem with them. She said to call AOL So I did, and she said A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE HAVING THIS TROUBLE. She went remote and said (and I quote) “We are experiencing many troubles by lots of people.” She said she would write up a ticket on my problem and give it to her TOP SUPERVISOR TECH and he would call me back when it was fixed!! Did he call? OF COURSE NOT!!!..But the next day I came in here and had no trouble at all signing in to my old Version of AOL. Something is fishy and I don’t like being the “worm”..I say NO TO GOLD!!!!!! Thanks, and everybody keep complaining!!!!!!
I upgraded to Gold yesterday and found that my Favorite Places, of which I have many folders and favorite places, were no longer in the same order plus there were duplicates from an older Favorite Places. I was not happy! I signed off and back on again and saw my Favorite Places were now in a different order. I signed off and was out for a few hours. I then signed on again and now I no longer have any Favorite Places, all I have is the bold word Loading but nothing loads. I have signed off and on a few times but with the same results. I am not happy with Gold!!!
I called Gold support and the Tech attempted to transfer my PFC from just before I updated to overlay the jumbled Gold PFC but could not. As you probably know the “Manage” button at the bottom of Favorite Places window is not available yet or I would have replaced the file with a thumb drive backup I did just before I upgraded. The Tech said there was nothing he could do. I asked when the “Manage” button would be up and running and he had no idea. I asked to stay on the older version of AOL until they get if fixed and was told I could not. Told him this was a very poor way to roll out a forced upgrade when it takes the user backwards.
I deleted a lot of my Favorite Places and put most of the remaining folders back in the sequence they were before. That works fine if I sign off and then back on again BUT if have found that if I close the Gold version when I start it again my Favorite Places are jumbled again.
Tonight, since AOL tossed out my old account so I would set up Gold, I tried it. I would have been happy to pay the 5.99 it costs if it had been worth anything…even if it had been as good as the old sort-of-okay desktop.
It was horrible. Clumsy. Froze my computer. Froze itself. No way to adjust the visuals on the desktop. Mailbox did not load properly and the letters were overlarge and ridiculously out of proportion to the Mailbox. No buddy list. Could not get buddy list. so no IM. It was just so amateurish and badly done. They had offered me two free months but upon trying it I just canceled. Not worth the struggle. I am a 20-year subscriber so I do not want to lose all my mail, favorites, addresses, and such….but I will access that on Web.
My opinion …. just use webmail , you can set favorites / bookmarks on chrome or any other browser … before you get blocked save the SAVED ON MY PC to saved on aol so you don’t loose them , Gold is not even beta , it has to many problems even with basic DPI or resolution settings , and just so you know Gold is based on chrome , so basically its just google chrome with a skin but poorly made , lets not forget the security update that was not tested and messed up everybody’s computer …. it’s not worth it even free let alone paying for it , in my opinion just drop it , this is just a cash grab tactic … just think about it , who makes premium software full of ads ?
Since they are charging us $3.99 per month, does that mean that AOL Gold will be free of advertisements?
Unhappy, I do not think so, but I could be wrong. I have seen notices saying to pay for ‘free ads’. Call aol, they should be able to tell you what the new fee covers.
I seem to be prevented from moving AOL mail saved on my PC to AOL mail saved on AOL or even to my inbox. It seems the only option is to forward these saved emails, thus losing track of the sender. Is there any other way to move this mail off my PC?
Also, some people indicate the monthly fee is $3.99 or $5.99. I was informed I’d be paying $4.99 monthly. What is going on?
That’s a great question. We’ve been seeing the same thing. In addition, it seems that different AOL users are getting notified about the upgrade at different times. In fact, some of our AOL clients still have yet to be notified at all. One really has to wonder about why this is happening. It makes the entire upgrade requirement seem completely arbitrary.
I’m paying $3,99 I Dont know why the price is different for some… also I Hate the AOL GOLD !!!!!!
I am operating in an lot of ‘SIM’s’ and would like to know if I can access them via an different way then AOL Gold; from what I’ve bee reading via everyone’s comments, this may be cheap, but it also sucks.
You kidding? With Verizon having taken over it won’t be long before we’re being charged 25 cents per search in addition to the $3.99. Will they be requiring a 36 month exclusive contract from each of us? Wonder if anyone has told them other browser have free e-mail?
lol Lee. Aol mail is ‘free’ on any website at: mail.aol.com. It is just ‘mail’ and not the ‘desktop’ additions.
Truthfully I think that verizon / aol should keep the older versions of aol going as they will loose thousands of customers because this aol gold has to many issues to be launch now. When Microsoft develops window’s 11 or higher then aol gold should then be loaded by factory trained techs to run on a new window’s version program. Another thing is if a customer is using the verizon landline for talk and fios for internet and cable viewing why must they pay an additional $3.99 to use aol, it should be covered under your fios package deal. Just like verizon finding a way to rip off the public further.
I have been notified that my deadline is July 7. I have been with aol from the very beginning and use 9.8.2 and love it. I have started transition to gmail but find it very cumbersome.
Looks like a foreign language to me. Hope I can work it out before my deadline. Can’t believe they are forcing us to change.
AOL Gold is a waste. Very, very slow on both my mainframe and laptop. Service wanted to remotely go thru my PC for 60 minutes to fix but I do not trust them. There is something different about uninstalling this program. I had to physically go in and delete the Gold files. What was odd is when I reinstalled it it did so very quickly as if there were still .exe (hidden?) files. The reinstall did not improve the product. I am planning on doing a deep anti virus scan. This product is a pig. Not sure what I will do but not paying $5 a month for this crap.
If you are not going to stay with AOL, I would suggest to delete ALL versions of AOL and then do a ‘restore’ your computer to a date way back before, ‘maybe’ that will delete the files (worth a try)
JP,
I use Revo-Uninstaller in the in the extreme mode. Before it completes the program’s normal uninstall it seeks out all of the files and folders it will be leaving behind and then displays them to be also deleted.
Just received a notice from AOL that AOL Gold is now $4.99 a month not $3.99. Completely disfunctional site that is already increasing their monthly fee.
I got my notice too. $4.99 for me. Has anyone done the 30 trial, gone to cancel and has AOL “offered” anything to stay?
MY main concern is losing old email and sent files and especially my favorite places.
Can I copy these and transfer them to Xfinity say? If so, step by step instructions would be appreciated by this non technical OLD HEAD!!
sorry Fred, I dont know of any way to transfer mail other than to ‘copy and paste’ each one to a ‘word’ document. You can access most of your mail ‘free’ at: mail.aol.com. I dont believe it has the ‘saved folders’ though if you made new folders for your old mail. I cannot answer your question about cancelling and aol offering anything, I am staying with the new aol, for now.
Fred – you may be interested in a program called ePreserver, which I’ve used to transfer AOL data to other services for some of our clients: It is very reasonably priced and can handle e-mails and favorite places. Here is a link: http://www.connectedsw.com/Overview/57266
All of my AOL clients have called BEFORE the end of the 30 day trial and asked to be put back on the $3.99 plan and each time the AOL rep reduced their price from their original $4.99 plan…give it a try.
Sign in here from a differnt web browser than your old AOL account. http://mail.aol.com.
It is inexcusable to force people to migrate to a new version without ensuring the new version is *READY*. It is inexcusable to not have the chat rooms working *BEFORE* forcing the migration. This is about incompetent lazy sluggards. Goodbye Verizon. I will never use any of your services again.
Charles, in case you have not heard, Verizon just bought Yahoo, so you probably dont want to use them either.
Personally, I think this was a foolish business decision. It shows that AOL and now with Verizon don’t understand AOL customers. Their great idea was to change a program just enough to feel different, and and not as familiar or user friendly, or work as well, charge (it’s now $4.99!) for it, all for people who generally don’t like change. Wow! Brilliant! They could have, and should have left the program intact, and started charging a nominal fee of say $2.99. In six months go up to $3.99, and in a year or so they could have been at $4.99 without spending a dime to “upgrade” their program. Before any bugs or problems can be worked out, this Gold version is going to run away more former loyal AOL customers, to either other platforms, or to simply using the browser based access to their AOL mail. They didn’t even bother to survey existing customers about these changes before implementing to get an idea of the reactions to various approaches. I suspect there are a fair number AOL users who just like the way the email system works within the desktop, and may even use google for everything else. But now that’s even a mess, at least for now. I understand that you say, they are working on it, and are welcoming comments and suggestions, but seriously, when forcing people to essentially a new format, and charge them, it’s insult to injury that it’s not working properly. Not little things; major problems, running slow, locks up, no access to previous features, etc, etc.
Exactly! If Verizon wants to charge for the desktop, they should have kept the old one and demanded a fee for using the old version. I am also an AOL user since 2000 and really appreciated their desktop. Actually it had been AOL who invented the profile, chatrooms, Messenger etc, before Facebook! Now they are going to ruin it, why? I agree, all AOL customers should complain and demand the keep the old desktop , free or for a charge!
I am from France and using AOL desktop since 1995, I wish to keep AOL old desktop software and ready to pay for this, will not pay for Gold version
I would gladly pay something, maybe $2.99? a month, just for access to AOL 9.8.2 Desktop’s Mailbox. That’s all I care about in AOL, I just prefer the way their mailbox works with old mail, spam folder, saved mail, recently deleted, etc, etc. I actually use google chrome for other stuff, but the format of AOL mailbox system is far more user friendly that gmail, yahoomail, or even mail.aol.com mail. That makes this mandatory transition to GOLD desktop especially frustrating. I don’t want to pay $5 for a mail server, and I don’t want to wait a month or two, while they work out all the kinks, if they ever do.
My pc with aol desktop is windows vista which is not supported by Gold.
Yes, I am an old person who keeps something that is working until it breaks down.
Too bad aol doesn’t give me a desktop choice.
John, are you saying that since you have Vista you will be protected from upgrading to AOL GOLD??? I am on Windows 7 and I love it, but I am afraid any day now they will make me go to AOL GOLD 🙁 :(. It is all about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
We were “forced” to upgrade to AOL Gold, under the threat that in late May, we would not longer be able to connect on our old free AOL 9.6. The new AOL Gold is tarnished. It is much slower to connect, doesn’t seem to find email addresses in our address book, and responses to emails sent from AOL Gold do NOT show up on our phones or tablets. What a load of crap. Typical AOL. Can’t wait to switch to GMail and to tell AOL where they can put their new software. If they are going to charge a monthly fee for it, the least they could have done is to debug it before making long time clients switch.
For years I’ve had email addresses with AOL, Gmail, Roadrunner and Yahoo — I am resolutely faithful to AOL email because it is without question the most user-friendly option available, but the new AOL Gold is a HORROR (yes, I’m jumping up and down and screaming). I learned that AOL is rolling this out to users incrementally, as it would be impossible to process all subscribers at the same time. I consider the 4.99 monthly fee to be inconsequential, and for an additional 2.99 one can have an ad-free product. Previous posts have listed all the flaws, I’ve experienced almost every one of them so far, and I’m even willing to endure the waiting period until all the kinks are worked out. However, the greatest roadblock for me is the need to adjust the resolution to a point where my eyes are crossing and uncrossing to read the fine print, and for the material to fit the screen. I can understand the zeal of the developers to offer something new! different! every bell and whistle! I’ll stick with AOL Gold for a while to see how things evolve, but it’s now all but inevitable that boodles of users will bail . . . including moi.
AOL Gold is awful. All the complaints on this page are valid and I experienced the same things. In order to cancel AOL Gold you have to call customer service or cancel it from myaccount.aol.com. If you “upgraded”, your sn’s are locked into AOL Gold and you can’t go back to your old AOL desktop. You can, however, create a new sn and still use the old AOL desktop. Also, as many have mentioned, you can still access emails from aolmail.com and if you have MS Outlook, you can use the IMAP server address to read your AOL mail in Outlook
I got the notice, downloaded the AOL Gold and my computer promptly quit opening ANY browser. So I uninstalled AOL Gold after several days of anguish and considering buying a new CPU. But now here it is the end of June and my old familiar AOL 9.x is still plugging along. Have they just threatened to get us to sign up and pay? What’s going on?
Frankly, the subscription fee should only apply if you wish to have tech support and web security software. But if I have to pay for being bombarded by attacks on Trump, the continuation of the Hillary myth, the glorification of those extra-terrestrial Kardashians, and retun-loop recitation of the Liberal mantra, then I will pass on this offer. Enjoyed Desktop since 1994; got better when they no longer charged and began to use ads. Now it’s ads PLUS the fee. It will be a disaster for the AOL brand as OATH/Verizon destroys it.
WELL SAID! They sure love to live in the past where Hillary is concerned, they sure cannot let go of 2016 but they sure as hell can’t STAND IT if we want what works from decades ago!
Aol took down a game called Jewel Academy that I really liked and played everyday…. very disappointing AOL.
” But if I have to pay for being bombarded by attacks on Trump, the continuation of the Hillary myth, the glorification of those extra-terrestrial Kardashians, and retun-loop recitation of the Liberal mantra, then I will pass on this offer”……That’s exactly how I feel too. They can take their HUFFINGTON POST and SHOVE IT !!
This is the Demise of AOL. I won’t stay with this Rip Off Add consumed desktop, plenty more to use.. Not a dime from me!
Nancy,
I agree with you. I HAD to up grade to AOL Gold because I have important legal mail and files I had to get to.
The senior 60 and up chat rooms are empty as are all the other ones.
I cant believe AOL and verizon did this to people who have been faithful to them for years. They could have ran a beta copy and de bugged it, before FORCING ALL AOL customers to BUY a BAD product.
Thanks for the Anxiety Aol., Did you think this through?, Im now closing my AOL stock acct. and Finance portfolio acct., you spring this on us and expect to us to be loyal?,, No, and from the comments.. its extremely Hated.., You didn’t think this Through.. You do not get my Credit card #.
hoping other stockholders follow you!
Looks like I made the right choice, deleted AOL desktop and I just use AIM to chat with a few longtime AOL friends. AOL was something for fun since 1996. It is not longer that. I don’t understand AOL nor Yahoo (which is soon to be Verizon also) taking away the things that made them awesome is no way to fix things.
Aside from being sluggish, freezing continuously and making some sites unuseable (ie. can no longer do certain transfers in my on line banking that were never a problem in the 9.8 version) they also don’t give the choice to opt out of spam pop us in the browser settings. Seriously?!!! They want to charge us for the privilege of not being able to opt out of non stop advertisements? I called them and spoke to a representative who gave me the spiel of “Oh so sorry, we’ll look into it” That was in May. Nothing’s changed.
I was helping my friend’s wife with this and talked to AOL Support and they said that she had to switch to Gold and after awhile AOL Desktop 9.8 would not work anymore. I had her continue using 9.8, until one day it would not come up and so she signed up for GOLD and is paying $3.99/mo. I thought it was a scam, but don’t know now. I knew about the Verizon purchase. I found the site discover.aol.com and that site is still offering AOL Desktop for free. I was going to try to download that software and see if she can go back to the free version. But, I read the the SN is locked into GOLD. Anyone know about this?
Has it gotten any better? I am hearing all these horror stories and my time is running out. I have about a week left and then I’ll have to buy it or lose it. Have they worked out the kinks?
No. Goldie, the software is HORRIBLE. I can’t even read my mail because advertisements now take up half my mailbox. I need to stretch the mailbox just to read 3 words from the subject line of my mail. AND, the program shuts itself down three times more often than before, and we all know how often that was! If you have a better option, take it. AOL GOLD IS beyond horrible.
I have been a devout AOL user since 1988, back when we were connecting with a 1,200 bps modem. Been on every version since 1.0. But today I am here to tell you that their Desktop Gold is the single most RIDICULOUS thing I have ever loaded onto a computer in my life. I would be here all day listing the things that are wrong with it. If they had just kept the same v9.7 software they are shutting down and charged me to use it, they would have had a paying customer for life. But this?? Uh… no. Bye-bye.
Big Al, my concern is all my favorites thsat I have. I never see a favorite to click on to when I’m away from home, and just using AOL.Com. Do you know if there is an location on Aol.Com that would bring up my favorites?
Am I correct, there is no area when I use Aol.Com to retrieve my favorites. On desktop there is.
Correct, but you can transfer your favorites from AOL to Google Chrome web browser by dragging them one by one from the aol favorites list onto the top “favorites bar” in google chrome. It’s a time consuming process but it works. Or you could purchase the software program I mentioned in another post, which will allow you to export all aol favorites in bulk.
What about addresses? I have virtually several thousand addresses collected and listed under the various groups I need to communicate with since joining AOL in 1993. Can these be printed out or transferred? I too would have paid for 9.8.2 if necessary rather than this disappointing, poorly constructed wanna-be program with so many missing and non-working features.
Yes, you can print your old addresses out from the address book, or you can export them using the “ePreserver” app (available here: http://www.connectedsw.com/Overview/57266). I can’t say for sure if the groups will be preserved but it will be better then starting over. Also, if you elect to access AOL e-mail via your web browser, you should be in better shape. The contacts generally will automatically transfer over to that. Just go to http://webmail.aol.com on any web browser and sign in, and the contacts should all be there.
Can’t get to my “other screen Names” anymore since I signed up for AOL Desktop Gold. At first whenever I clicked on my new AOL Desktop Gold icon a window would come up allowing me to go to other existing screen names.
I have no intention of paying for something I have enjoyed for free for at least 15 years, especially when google is out there. I will shortly be switching over my email accounts, especially as I understand the new desk top version is not nearly as good.
Linda, it isn’t! IT’S BEYOND TERRIBLE! I can’t even read the subject line in my mail box because AOL decided it’d be better for us to look at advertisements instead of our mail!! What kind of slow people do they have working there? Its like they’re actively trying to go out of business. AOL GOLD is the world AOL ever!
My AOL Desktop 9.8.2 is still working fine. I keep ignoring their “Final Notice” that I have to upgrade to Gold. After reading all of the above comments I will not upgrade but just use the online version which isn’t as difficult as it sounds.
Jill, I chose the same option as you. But, this morning they wouldn’t even let me sign on! AOL GOLD = gold in aol’s pockets from the ads they force us to look at that blocks our mail! Some real MORONS must work for that company.
I have dealt with some HORRIBLE companies in the past (AT&T….Comcast)….but let me tell you how HORRIBLE it is trying to get anything done with AOL. They will lie to you and tell you whatever you want to hear. Just yesterday they told me that I could keep the old desktop software and just pay the damn $4.99 a month (oh and surprise…now it’s plus taxes and fees). They work like a bunch of total scammers. I was told I could get a debit card and put the monthly on that….so I went out and put money on a visa card….THEY WOULDN’T TAKE IT.
Bottom line ….THEY SUCK !!
John, you’re right, they do suck! If I didn’t have thousands of important documents saved in my mail folders, Id switch. But, I don’t know how to use the other internet providers. None of them offer a work space like aol, as far as I know, which is 1 of the only 2 reasons I use it. Have you found a better option yet?
AOL has downgraded their software AND decided to charge for it! Best part? Best part is that now instead of actually being able to read all of your mail, half of your AOL mailbox is now displaying advertisements instead. So, now you have to stretch the mail box to EVEN be able to read the subject line of your mail, which is blocked by ads! Of course I saved the best for last. You know how AOL will randomly malfunction and shut down, right while you’re in the middle of something important? Well, now it does it three times as much! And to boot, THEY ARE CHARGING US NOW FOR AN INFERIOR PRODUCT. Ads Ads Ads everywhere. Aol wants money, not happy customers! No other reason for them to believe we would want to see advertisements more than our own mail! I should work for AOL and give people what they really want. Looks like AMERICA IS NOT GREAT AGAIN….but, it would be typical in the time of Trump to PAY MORE and GET LESS. If you don’t absolutely have to have AOL, switch. I am currently looking for another provider than can store all my mail folders for my business. AOL is unreliable and greedy. Offering you things you don’t need as an upsell to a crappier version of their product. They should truly be ashamed. “Hey, here’s our worst version yet and guess what? We’re making you pay for it!” Some real geniuses must work for AOL. If you don’t absolutely need it, DO NOT GET IT and I have been using it since 1998 and I HATE AOL DESKTOP GOLD. (gold is cash for them from the ads!)
Try Yahoo. Very similar. Hate to see this happen with AOL. Have been with them from the start. Wonder if you have a Verizon account if it automatically covers this.
I have used AOL for 13 years, and refuse to pay. Some are saying $3.99, but it’s $4.99 here. I sent messages, not so nice either about what they can do with their upgrade…
I wish everyone that is complaining would not have paid. Boycott them. I can’t believe so many people paid. If no one had, then what would they have done? I pay enough for internet, not they want more, and it doesn’t seem to be very good. Everyone boycott, ask for refunds. I lost all my saved Emails, and everything in folders, as I did not know how to save it. I am using Google and hate it.
I haven’t been offered AOL Gold and cannot find it anywhere on AOL, but if I google it, It is downloadable from productcentral.aol.com. For the people who have been offered it, are you in the US? What states? Does anyone know if it’s the same as the current beta version?
I had to upgrade 2 months ago and still nothing has improved !!! Do Not download it if you dont have to !! I mostly use aol desktop for chat rooms. I am in Calif and only know of 3 other people who have lost the older version. I am about to cancel aol desktop, it is ridiculous to pay for something that doesnt work !!!
I’m from California and I seem to be the only one that lost the older version (Desktop). I guess they got bored and stopped cancelling accounts. I certainly won’t pay for something others are getting for free.
I did not get the new Gold plan but I can access my mail THRU ANOTHER BROWSER but I would like to know if there is a way to to get MY FAVORITES back? I have years of things saved in that folder .. I have tried to search the web without success as to a simple way as I am not a computer GEEK..If anyone can help me I really would appreciate it..
Vicky – There is a way to transfer your favorites to your other browser, but only if you still have access to AOL desktop. You can do this by dragging them one by one from the AOL favorites list onto the top “favorites bar” in your other browser (e.g. Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox). It’s a time consuming process but it works. Or you could purchase a software program I mentioned in another post, which will allow you to export all aol favorites in bulk. That program is called “ePreserver” and is available here: http://www.connectedsw.com/Overview/57266. I believe ePreserver will only move your favorites to Internet Explorer browser, but once they’re there you can import them into other browsers as well.
I was not offered AOL Gold yet. But because AOL failed often over the years and lost things, a few years ago I dragged all my Favorites into an email to myself. I put one copy of that email on my PC and another copy on AOL. So if my favorites get lost I have them in an email and can put them back. I did the same with my address book.
I kept getting the warnings that my desktop was going away but never a date! So now I guess I have lost my favorites and my Saved on P.C. I have been with AOL since my beginning on a computer as it was always so user friendly and now this? Will not pay….bye AOL
HELLO I DONT ABOUT YALL MY AOL IS STILL UP
AND its JULY 10TH
Not every AOL customer has been ‘given’ the AOL Gold email which gives you roughly 30 days to migrate to the AOL Gold program, go to http://www.aol.com and use AOL for free that way, or leave AOL all together. As AOL is having major troubles delivering a quality product, I’m sure that the roll-out schedule has been delayed.
Yeah, my friends sill have theirs too. But mine got cancelled. Why am I so lucky?
Who in the hell developed the “new and improved” AOL Gold. Downloading it froze my computer and corrupted all of my files. Had to pay $600 to get my computer back just to find out that once I got into AOL Gold, it sucks! Did you know you can’t even send yourself a photo from your iphone which will open on the screen (try it). I will give AOL two weeks to allow for a return to the old system or I’m done with them!!!!!!
Just got the upgrade notice today. AOL just lost a customer.
it is 4.99 plus tax, not 3.99. either way it is the worst browser I have ever seen, I have been with AOL since the first day. I hate their New Gold piece of crap. I don’t who designs these things but they have to be the biggest idiots in the industry. The time has come to cancel the subscription and move to google. BTW the new version will not keep all of your saved passwords in your favorites. you have to re-install again.
Joseph, I agree with you too. I am an original member of AOL in Texas when it was just starting out and Steve Case was the monitor. It was great, but now its all commercial and sad that Verizon bought it, because Verizon is the worst internet company of all as far as customer service,
dependability and reliability is concerned. Now, AOL will be joining them. If I were just starting out or new to the internet, I would choose another internet provider.
I always loved AOL and it’s chat rooms, layout, and easy navigation options, lately It has been a piece of crap…. freezes… getting booted off… it sucks when greed takes over quality and customer service…. $ 3.99 a months when they make millions on advertising. leave AOL free.
Please advice? I have a LOT of important emailaddresses on my aol program..and agreed to this gold..program essentially to not lose them
Can I get these email addresses any other way? I never could get an answer onthis. If So, I would drop gold…
You can get all your e-mail addresses by accessing your AOL e-mail via a web browser, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox or Safari. Just open up one of these browsers, type in “webmail.aol.com” at the top, then login to your AOL account. You will see all of your e-mails, and the contacts should be there as well on the left side where it says “Contacts.”
Doesn’t work so good if you are offline. With previous versions of AOL desktop (9.8.0) you could run automatic aol and all your new emails would be added to you Personal Filing Cabinet on your PC, for offline use and back-up. Don’t see how to do this with AOL.com or AOL Desktop Gold.
Pretty unhappy.
My AOL Gold old mail disappeared a short time ago. Restarting AOL did not help. I can access it via AOL mail on another browser. Hope it returns. Another AOL Gold fiasco!!
I have been happy so far understanding of course there are going to be a few bugs My bug is my hard drive runs all the time when AOL Gold is active..No other program does this. I have been working with tech support and they tell me it is my hard drive has something wrong with it…..no I do not think so. Google runs fine and other software programs run fine without making my Hard Drive run at 99 to 100% all the time the Gold is up and running. It all stops when I sign off Gold. I wish I knew if others have the same problem. The earlier version worked fine
Hi Dan, I agree…I support quite a few senior citizen clients and within the last 4 weeks, the AOL Gold version is constantly taking up 99% of system resources each time…it’s DEFINITELY an AOL Gold issue…I talked to AOL Gold Support and although they didn’t exactly acknowledge that they were having a problem, the tech I spoke to did say that ‘engineering is aware of an issue and is working on a new version’…of course they couldn’t tell me any type of resolution date…either have to be patient or aol.com on another browser in the meantime…lots of my clients are leaving Gold, stopping payment, and using aol.com for free…
I received the “pay-up or cut-off” AOL Gold notice a few weeks ago. Went ahead and gave them credit card info realizing I had no choice. Nothing happened, so I called Tech “Support” yesterday. Told him AOL is my homepage and I’m unable to install “Gold”. Told me to go to Chrome and install Gold there. Did so and it installed. Back to AOL homepage… no GOLD and still unable to install. I don’t want to change AOL homepage to Chrome. Simply do not understand why AOL homepage can’t handle GOLD.
If by AOL Home Page you mean http://www.aol.com you can’t install AOL Gold that way. You MUST be using your AOL Desktop program, then download AOL Gold and then install it. During the Install process, it closes the old AOL Desktop program (the blue icon) and then brings up the gold circle AOL icon that is meant to replace the previous program.
AOL GOLD was $3.99, then it went up to $4.99 PLUS TAXES which brings it up to $5.38 a month.
I have had nothing but problems with this NEW and IMPROVED AOL GOLD
My buddy list is gone,
ALL the chat rooms are EMPTY EXCEPT and I swear to this only the Republican chat room has people in it, up to 40 today. Click on community up top and then chat rooms and see for yourself. I have been with AOL since Aug of 1997 and not only paid $26.99 for AOL but paid for a second phone line and had dial up, and Verizon way back in the 1990s when it was Celluar One and cost $30.00 a month for 30 minutes and the phone was huge and heavy.
I don’t mind change as long as its NEW and improved, But AOL GOLD is still in beta form and not ready for the general public.
I’ve had success with a few of my friends contacting AOL and asking them to be put on the $3.99 plan and most have been successful in getting the price lowered.
Backspace does not back up to previous web page. I read other browser use alt left arrow. Is there a quick key or keys to replace this useful function. Seems to work better otherwise. 86 year old 10 year customer needing this function. Thank you
Unfortunately many browsers have taken away the Backspace key function. Google Chrome was the first a few years ago…the Alt / Left arrow and Alt / Right arrow do work in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. I don’t have AOL Gold so I can’t test that key combination.
How do I download AOL Gold at $4.99 a month. I have it for a month and like it but after the month it never asked me to cont it just when away.
Go to myaccount.aol.com and log into your account then click Manage My Subscriptions, then click the Premium Subscriptions tab, then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page under AOL Gold and click the Get Started button, that will allow you to download the program again.
I wont pay them a dime, Verizon already pounds me each month for my cell phone account..I checked AOL webmail, it has all my saved on AOL files, easy to navigate send and receive as well..I will forsake the nice 9.8 desktop software I am accustomed too..I have been with AOL since 1995, when it was $2.95 an hour…Then thankfully went free..Its been real, its been fun, but it hasnt been real fun…I will get mail notifications via the cell phone like always, nothing is really lost except I wont be able to hear my wonder WELCOME and YOU’VE GOT MAIL familiar friendly voice…Well guess what? Life goes on ……Farewell my old PC companion.
You can still hear the sounds on your cell phone. I have saved YOU’VE GOT MAIL, YOU’VE GOT PICTURES and YOU’VE GOT VOICEMAIL, and texted them to my phone and use them for my text and voicemail sounds.
But no sounds on webmail…
on aol gold desktop for windows 7:
1.you cannot open files, using the file drop-down menu.
2.you cannot save to attached back-up media
3.all saves to the file cabinet are pdf files and can’t be converted to another type.
so – aol gold is useful for nothing but reading and sending emails. i will not continue past my 30-day free period. i keep getting assurances that that software is being updated but see no evidence of that.
As everyone else i was forced to download AOL Gold and it SUCKS ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The fonts are way to big and no buddy list,no way of saving your favorites,and slower than frozen molasses. Currently i’m back on the old version the old version as i can’t stand aol gold. Hopefully they fix the problems 1st before eliminating the old version of aol 9.8.2 is the version i’m currently back on. My Mom as well is having problems with the new gold edition as nothing will load and takes several times before you can actually get logged on. So please FIX this problem 1st before deleting the old version. I can’t save that enough !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not everyone was forced to download AOL Gold. I still know a bunch of people who still have it and think I caught a virus! It didn’t work on Windows 10 anyway (for me, at least)
AOL Gold is wast of money
use chrome browser
It’s not that big of a change
This is all about Verizon trying to stay alive. They’ve always been crappy. Get out!
AOL Gold makes my hard drive run all the time on my desk top computer but this does not happen on my laptop. Both computers are newer Sony versions. If AOL Gold is open and my computer goes into Sleep Mode I cannot get it to open up by clicking on the Gold Icon for AOL. The only way I can get it to load is to do a restart, then I can click on the Icon and it will load up. I have W10 and Gold seems to work OK but the Email window is like many said cut off and unable to read all the lines unless you expand it to the right. I am looking forward to a more updated version. Their help department was useless in solving my problem with the drive running all the time. They said i had a bad drive. No, Google Chrome runs fine w/o making my hard drive run all the time when it is active. If AOL is reading this please resolve issues with newer updates ASAP. Thanks
i hate this new site i was forced into buying this aol gold i do not want it but i was told if i didn’t i would lose all my favorites and everything i have saved for my work. please help me get rid of this gold account and keep my regular aol account…
we need to start a protest against this so called, “new and improved” AOL Gold. I downloaded it and hate it so I’m using my old software until they discontinue it or realize people hate this new garbage.
AOL Gold has dropped the download manager and removed the ability for one to change the sounds. I don’t like the ‘You have mail’ greeting and prefer my own sounds. If anyone knows how to correct this, please let me know.
Can I just download the previous version of aol and use it instead of God?
In speaking with customer support, it sounds like they no longer have the Personal Filing Cabinet?
That was “Gold,” not “God.” I’ve enjoyed using aol pretty much since it first came out. But it hasn’t risen to God status by any means.
Two of my friends still have AOL desktop and it works fine. They think I got a virus when I explain how I got the “red” warning that I had to upgrade last month. Also, I have another friend who had 7 AOL e-mail addresses and all of them were cancelled except ONE. What the heck is going on anyway?? I’m sure as heck not paying for something that some people appear to be getting for free.
It keeps getting worse friends. Today AOL wouldn’t let me log on to their “NEW AND IMPROVED” AOL Gold desktop….I was unable to for 14 hours. Tried to call them…tons and tons of other people calling them…I was on hold FOREVER. I finally hung up the phone after an hour. TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE….TERRIBLE SERVICE PERIOD !!
To access your other email addresses (this works for me) click on “sign off” up at the top, click on “switch screen name”, there will be a drop-down box and click on the arrow opposite “user name”, and all your email addresses will appear. Then you type in your password. Some things are still there, just in a different place. You need to be adventuresome and explore.☺
‘Fraid that didn’t work. My friend and I tried it, and all of the other e-mail addresses came up with that big red box saying that this version has been discontinued. Oh well. AOL sucks anyway,
Just got the notice yesterday (August 4) and this is actually the second time. The first was a couple months ago and I fired back a reply saying no way was I going to pay for their service. A couple days later I got a follow-up saying I had been sent the first message “by mistake.” They apologized and said my service would continue uninterrupted, which led me to believe the first letter was nothing more than a fishing expedition to see who would bite. Needless to say, I’m not going to sign up this time, either. If necessary I’ll drop AOL and go to another service.
Correction: I got the message on Sunday, August 6. I also called the number they provided to verify it was legit and not some kind of scam. The rep said if I did nothing I would not automatically be signed up for Gold (the wording in the message makes it sound like you might be signed up for a “free trial”) and would be able to continue to access my email through another browser. I’ll go that route, or switch to another service, before I pay AOL anything.
I have been using AOL since 2000, way back in the days of dial-up. As a senior citizen, I have found it the most user friendly for my needs. I will not upgrade to Gold but need to know if I can transfer my “saved on AOL” files to anothef email provider like gmail (which I hate but it is slightly better than Comcast which is my internet provider). I am really concerned about my saved files. I am not at all tech-savvy so would appreciate any help to save these files and my address book. Thank you. Replies to my AOL email okay.
AOL Gold also does not support Automatic AOL (Flash sessions).
Apparently AOL Desktop Gold, similarly to 9.8.2, does not support automatic AOL sessions. I have depended on these for years to check four aol accounts, download (to my PC) all new emails, send all my “waiting to be sent” emails, and some other useful functions. This is why I am still on 9.8.0.
Without this functionality I can’t see paying AOL,.
It occurs to me that Verizon simply did not want to retain the engineers who were supporting the AOL Desktop product after the transition, and in fact I doubt that AOL itself was too happy about continuing the support for it for the last few years, as they had dropped some functionality after 9.8.0.
So Verizon are trying to drop it as quickly as they can now.
Unfortunately they will probably find that the mess they have with AOL Gold is not any cheaper to support and furthermore, will loose them some customers.
Like me.
Finally an explanation why they are trying to destroy the wonderful old AOL Desktop. I have been wondering. We all should protest against GOLD and demand the old version back!
I use aol on my browser. I have always been able to save and move mail around. Why are they saying you can only do this with aol software?
I have had Aol since day one and I hate the ‘new’ Aol Gold, it’s a lie, it is not the same! Desktop themes are gone so you can’t change the background color on the desktop, which for me makes it harder to see, (I use the black background) which helps when you’re 64 and you vision is getting bad. They can’t leave anything alone, if it ain’t broke, quit trying to fix it. I am extremely disgusted and pissed. After they discontinue the other versions I will dump aol and the internet forever. I’m so mad I want to cry, when you’re old and alone familiar comfort is all you have sometimes.
I hate AOL Gold
aol gold stinks and i mean really stinks. i was paying 26 bucks for aol 9.8.2 and now i’ve got aol gold which is $3.99 a month…Someone is really STUPID. THERE WAS NOTHING AT ALL WRONG WITH THE BUDDYLIST ON 9.8.2
What happens with your “Saved on AOL Mail” ?
Can you still retrieve it and or/add emails to it.? is it basically still there and functional if you just use mail.aol.com ? All I really care about with AOL is my Emails and if that function still works 100% I can survive. If not on all of this what is the best way to copy your address book and saved emails and paste to Gmail etc….Thank you!
Yes accessing mail.aol.com on a web browser gives you full functionality with regard to your email, and you can still retrieve and add to “saved on aol” emails on there.
How do I get the information in the folders I have set up “saved on my pc?” I have windows 10 – can’t locate this information. Thanks in advance for your answer
The old e-mails saved in “saved on my pc” can still be accessed in your old AOL desktop software. Just run the software, click the “Mail” menu bar at the top of the screen, and select “Mail Saved on My PC (filing cabinet)”. You do not need to be signed into AOL to do this.
I and my extended family have been using AOL since the late 80’s. In the begining, I used other emsils for business as I felt AOL was a toy for non-knoleadgeable people, but kept it for family. For various reasons I started using it for consulting reasons, and found it had really improved in the last few years or so. I now have lost many files and history for my business. Like a good citizen, I had saved serious mail to files on my PC. Can’t use 9.8 to access any of those, as Desktop won’t let me log in. In some cases this is a big problem for me. I would really like to join a class action suit and expense it to my business. Questions: 1) Has anyone found a way to access the mails on my computer?. 2) Has anyone started a class action?
Larry – good news for you. If your old AOL messages are saved in the category “Saved on my PC” you do not need to actually sign in to AOL in the desktop software to see them. There’s a way to get them without logging in. Here’s how – load up your AOL desktop software. Don’t click sign in on the sign on screen. Instead, go to the mailbox icon on the top left that you normally go to when you check your e-mail. On this screen you won’t see any e-mails showing, but you can scroll down on the left side and find where it says “Saved on my PC.” If you click in there, you should be able to access the saved e-mail messages.
I have been following this thread for over a month and decided to avoid AOL Gold as long as my free desktop software worked. Well, after months of warnings that my free AOL desktop software would be discontinued ….. it finally happened today after getting a notice on August 4, that would be discontinued in 7 days.
The only thing that shocked me more than the fact that it was easy to download and install …. was that it actually works very much like the old version and.it did not slow down my computer one bit. (I have a 4 year old DELL Desktop with an Intel core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM)
They must have worked out quite a few “kinks.” A few weeks ago, by trying about every AOL phone number I could find to talk about all the problems mentioned in this forum (and others) , I got a hold of “Bob in Arizona” …. who actually was in Arizona …… and he was an American that spoke perfect English and had more than 60 IQ points.
He told me to ignore the warnings about shutting down my software because there are so many “bugs” to be worked out, I won’t be “forced off” free AOL until they resolve the following problems:
1) SLOW SPEED: He said they know load times and such are horrible. He said problems with encryption are the culprit and are far more severe than they anticipated.
2) MAIL FUNCTIONALITY: He expected the issue of being unable to sort email by date AND sender AND subject to be fixed by August 15. (It works fine today).
3) CARRYOVER of favorites, passwords, and so forth: He said by August 15 as well (and he was right).
As for the buddy-list, I do not use it so I can’t comment.
Anyway …… I hope it works as well for future “downloaders” as it does for me. Thanks to all of you who acted as guinea pigs.
Paul – thanks for sharing that. We’ve heard from a handful of other people as well who reported that the AOL Desktop Gold software has improved since its initial release. Hopefully AOL will continue to address the issues so that it remains a viable option for all the loyal users of the AOL Desktop software.
Call AOL today about forcing my 83 old mother to upgrade to AOL Gold. Basically was told u have no choice but to upgrade. I explained she’s on a fix income and needs to save all she can. She’s been using AOL since she’s been on computer. Talk to two different people both said the same think like they reading a scrip. There not forcing u to do anything. They said the the new Gold has some many new upgrade that’s why they need the $5 a month. I told them it was outrages for this new charge. But they could care less. People run don’t walk away from AOL……….
Dennis:
While I agree that AOL is making a big mistake, I love my 86 year old mother in law (widow) and she loves her cat and her AOL. Pony up for the $5 a month and shut up.,
My own mother passed away ten years ago at age 86 and I paid about $600 a month of her bills which included a $20 a month fee from AOL.
Dump Huffington Post with its radical agenda and leave the basic AOL alone. Thought when Verizon purchased it, it would be more middle of the road….not. Time for AOL to be replaced as well as Verizon.
Ready for something weird? Between my husband and I, we had 7 AOL accounts. They only closed down 3 of them — the three we use the most. The others work just fine. I can do everything on them that I always did. I am prepared to go elsewhere if/when they catch up with me; I just thought this was crazy.
I’ve still got those 4 AOL Desktop accounts (9/10) and they work just fine. I wish this had happened with those of you who really WANTED to keep the old AOL desktop. I don’t use it, I just check now and then to see if they’ve “found” me yet. LOL.
In my opinion, this new AOL Gold is horrible. First, you have to pay $4.99 a month, and there is no FREE AOL desktop, like there was with the 9.6 and 9.8 I had been using. This new AOL Gold has many bugs, the first is FAVORITES, there is no optional MANAGE button, where you can Import personal saved FAVORITES, like there was with the older versions. There is a IMPORT WIZARD, but it only imports everything from a previous AOL on your system, and you can’t import a particular saved FAVORITES, that was saved as say ‘Favorites-AOLGold_8_20_17’. The older versions allowed that. The second is SWITCH SCREEN NAMES, the new GOLD doesn’t have a window that lists all your accounts with the amount of emails per account, the new one just loads up a big boxy window with the new AOL Gold icon and a Username and Password log-in. The third is the annoying ads off to the LEFT of the screen when you view emails, what’s up with that? That has got to go. AOL should of just left it alone, the 9.6 and 9.8, they were working fine with Windows 7. The technical operator I was talking too on the phone, stated the reason why they are being discontinued, is because of compatibility, well they were working just fine for me, and I’m sure others too. I know AOL is old school, and not many people use it anymore, but I use it once inawhile to check emails on my PC, rather than on my smartphone, and I send emails to particular websites, that is hard to do using a smartphone. I could go to www,aol.com, and log-in, but I usually like the browser interface, but now the GOLD is currently not good. How do I import a particular list of favorites I saved say last week, I can’t. That sucks. The technical support representative I was talking too, was taking notes of what I was sating that needs to be addressed, and then he said the engineers are working on refining it. They should of fixed it 100% before releasing it to customers. I hope they fix it ASAP, or I won’t be using AOL anymore.
I don’t have time to waste with AOL Gold. I tried it for 5 minutes. It was immediately clear it is an abortion. What little usefulness AOL had is disabled.
Does AOL DESKTOP install its own integral browser or does it hook to whatever browser is setup as the operating system (windows) default browser such as Firefox or Chrome?
My question is as of now I can’t go to any site or video without AOL saying ERROR. I have to go to Firefox in order to view anything. So if and I mean IF I go to AOL GOLD will I have the same problem ? Will I have the same problems that I have now can’t view mail, can’t send mail, can’t get on AOL. NOT paying for something with all of these problems. I have had AOL ever since dial up and AOL is getting worse.
Verizon is to blamed, they bought AOL so they are the ones who want the money, Verizon also gives lousing cell phone service, Just got tonight 30 day trail but cancelling it after reading all this I had dial up on phone and have loved it up until now they cut us off, The world is money hungry. I’m done I got my IPad and phone , desk top an be put away,
AOL is crap. It is nothing more than a revenue increase for Verizon. It is worse than 9.8 and a lot of the basic problems have not been corrected. I feel the biggest problem with 9.8 was the “not responding” bug. I’m sure this was injected by AOL to get people to switch to Gold. Now all of a sudden that problem seems to be fixed. I have been using AOL going back to the 80’s when they had free disk on just about every checkout counter in every store in America. And now this latest ploy to convince everyone that Gold is a great updated version is nothing more than BS. It’s just a revenue generator for Verizon and actually the program has lost several features the older versions had. And favorites is just as big of a mess as it was in the older versions if not worse. I’m dumping AOL for good. I’m also giving thought to dumping my Verizon accounts.
aol gold is horrible would be glad to pay for the old version
Verizon is a very greedy company. I will definitely switch over to Gmail. Aol will just be a ghost account. as a family , Verizon lost 4 accounts .ONce I switched . there will be no return.
I am also disgusted with AOL Gold. It is slower than the regular AOL. Before I was into something and then I hear goodbye and we were disconnected. All of this and now we are paying for it Sorry I did not listen to my family and not pay and get out of AOL. Someone mention GMail. Will have to look into it.
I was going to download it but after reading all this nonsense which is what I suspected would be the case I refuse to pay for a useless version of aol. I will use another form of email if the force me to. Why can’t company’s let good enough alone? It is slow as it is anyway. Maybe it’s time for me to join the rest of gmail world.
What is wrong with AOL Desktop Gold? I’ve been a loyal AOL member since the early 1990’s and recently purchased this new AOL software (cost is $4.99 per month). Since the day I purchased it my email, and everything else, has been terribly slow! I’m also constantly getting this error message: CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess has stopped working.
I called AOL for help three times and the representatives, although nice, couldn’t help me. They took control of my computer via a remote process and were not able to speed anything up. The last rep told me to call a “Level 2” representative after 8:00 PM local time (I live in the Philippines) because my problem was beyond his expertise; he also told me I would have to pay for assistance. I told him AOL shouldn’t charge me because AOL caused this problem.
I called the Level 2 representative and explained the situation (like I did to the other three AOL reps). In addition to being extremely slow (it takes a full 15 seconds to just open an email), constantly getting the error message (above), my Task Manager shows CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.exe *32 from three to seven times. Task Manager also shows CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.exe *32 is using MUCH of my computer’s memory (I’m not an IT wiz but believe this is why AOL is running slow). The level 2 tech told me he could help… if I paid $199 for a package that was good for one year. He also had a cheaper package that was good for “one time”. I told him I was a 25 year AOL customer and was not going to pay to fix a mistake caused by AOL. The AOL rep said he was actually a Level 3 tech and he bordered on being rude. He said he wouldn’t help me unless I purchased a package.
So, why does AOL Desktop Gold run so slow and what is AOL going to do to fix this problem? This issue was caused by AOL because it started the same day I purchased the new software. I should mention I went to msconfig and disabled most of the programs at startup.
I’ve been with AOL about 25 years and would like to stay with them. But I cannot live with the slowness of AOL Desktop Gold and unresponsive representatives who want to charge for a problem caused by AOL.
I’m anxiously waiting AOL’s reply to my Facebook comments (that’s the only way to contact them, as the Gold contact thingy doesn’t work).
I purchased AOL Gold–and I thought I had loaded it. However, now, when I sign on, I get a blank box that says “Important Information about your Aol Desktop Software.” There is nothing in the box, nothing to click, no way to proceed. I have no idea how to even get my credit card information away from them so they don’t continue charging me when I can’t even open anything on the site.
Interesting P.S. – After trying the new AOL Gold, and not liking the changes/things that were missing, and transferring all my favs to Chrome (took weeks) as well as my “waiting to be sent” mail to drafts & whatever else, I stopped my subscription weeks ago. Guess what, IT STILL WORKS Not that I’ve been using it, I stopped during the “free” period to see if I could make do without it (I can). Of course now my AOL favs are not updated and it is still missing a lot of features the old desktop versions had. But I THINK it is not shutting off like it was before. When I check my account it says “pending cancel” for Gold, but it DOES say SUPPORT is cancelled. I cancelled over 2 weeks ago. OK, I thought it was longer; it really hasn’t been that long, seems longer since I really stopped using Desktop a month prior when I was forced to go to Gold. INTERESTING to see they DO let me continue to use Gold for FREE (albeit without support). May have stayed if I knew that. Though I think that ship has sailed, not about to go back to a version that’s worse than the one before especially after all the time and effort I put into moving all my stuff. (I’m still using aol.com for mail, figured I’d see if that worked before having to figure out how to switch everything to gmail.) I bet most people don’t even try to see if their Gold still works after cancelling. What is wrong with the people at AOL??
ugh, now that I know its been bought out by Verizon I dont want it at all! why pay for something that is now ruined!
Nothing Verizon does works, I should know I have their phones and newly bought equipment that was supposedly to keep the phone lines giong out in the bad weather,and I pay a huge international contract fee and the calls often dont even go thruogh VErizon sucks! Im going back to At&T! Now it wont take my email because Im on my sisters computer, cheats! Thats Verizon
WTH is this!
I simply want to keep my AOL Desktop Softwear V9.8.2.
Is there any way to keep & use it after Gold is fully implemented?
Friday September 22, 2017 – As of today you’ll have 35 days to ” upgrade to Aol Gold. ” Welcome to the biggest POS ever created. evything ” is coming soon, ” or ” currently being worked on. ” The average age of an Aol user is n ow 62. Forget anyone below 40 using Aol. You’re in for the worst ride of your life. You DO NOT have ” 24 hour Online Help.” They took that link away. You cab call 23 hours a day, and I hope you have ( up to ) a three hour waiting time, Aol Gold techs are located ion Romania now,and they are unbelievably nice and helpful. That’s the good news. I refuse to believe that Aol designed Gold. No Notify Aol in chats any longer. A room today had 83 chatters in it. The chat rooms are the size of a post card and cannot be made any larger. If you send RAR files…..LOL…Good luck. I’ll spare the rest of the bad news. Verizon bought Aol. yahoo bought both. Because of the way that the deal happened, Aol will never be able to separate from either business, it will never be Aol alone ever again. And it will be called Oath, not Aol.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/oath-verizon-completes-4-5-billion-buy-of-yahoo-and-merges-it-with-aol/
I hate, hate, HATE Aol Desktop Gold. It is slower, 100 times more aggravating and you can no longer right click on an email address to block the email……do they really think this Gold is a good thing? It flat out SUCKS!!!!!…..it is obvious these companies don’t give a hoot about consumers….I have had AOL probably 20 years or more and this is what it has come to? Give us back our free 9.8 and let us get back to the good AOL….I don’t think I will be with AOL much longer if this garbage continues…
Horrible, not ready for prime time beta release (at best). Many features not implemented — inexcusable. I will most likely stop using it and retain access using my web browser (only to be able to access saved emails). They are going to be losing the last few of us who have stuck with them over the years.
Agree with everyone else. this AOL Gold is terrible. they better get the bugs worked out. it takes forever to load, is very slow. havent had any freezes but it lags bad Ive been paying $6.95 a month for the extras you get so AOL Gold is no additional charge
Does anyone know if you still get to keep your favorite places if you switch over to AOL GOLD?
Does anyone know if there is a way to keep your favorite places if you DO NOT switch over to AOL GOLD, and you get kicked off of AOL? I have thousands of business items listed on my favorite places and would be totally lost without it!
I’m not sure if the favorite places transfer over to Gold automatically but there is a good app that will allow you to export your AOL desktop favorite places to internet explorer web browser. You can then export them from there to another browser like chrome or Firefox. I will caution that I was told by some users that certain favorites are excluded when exporting using this app (e.g. If you keep them organized in many subfolders). However it is the best solution I am aware of at this point. The only other way is to manually drag and drop each favorite place into a web browser and recreate your list that way. Here is the app: http://www.connectedsw.com/Overview/57266
Thanks for the link, Matthew. I’ve been stuck with the Gold since April and most of my complaints have been covered by others. I can confirm that YES, Favorite Places do transfer over to Gold automatically (but mine were resorted, as were my Folders). However, the app you shared does not say that it works for AOL Gold, just up through v. 9.x. Do you happen to know if it works for AOL Gold version as well? We have 7 screen names on our account and I’m totally fed up and ready to dump the whole flippin’ deal. But like everyone else, 20 years tied up in the system…Thanks again.
Elle – I don’t know of anyone who has tried the Connected Softwareapp with AOL Desktop Gold. My hunch is that it probably won’t work, but your best bet would be to reach out to the developer of that app directly just to be sure. Thanks for clarifying the question regarding whether favorite places transfer over from Desktop to Gold.
I am reading all the horror comments about AOL Gold. I have been an AOL user since 1999. When I went to Broadband I changed my dial up plan to a Desktop downloaded version for $4.99 a month including free McAffee anti virus for up to 3 computers and tech support. My 9.8 AOL stopped working a few days ago and after 3 uninstalls and re installs I gave up and called their tech support. It had been shut down as they said it would. He did a remote in to my PC and uninstalled the Gold and it is fantastic and lighting fast. Make sure you get AOL when you call tech support. If you do it through a web site you may get the scammers that say they are from tech support and need to get in to your pc as it is infected. Then they infect it and want 600.00 to fix it. always access a web site using http://www.then the name of the site.com. I am using Win 10, 12 GB ram Intel I 7 processor 1TB hard of hard drive. Hope this helps.
Opps He installed the Gold not uninstalled
it.
I just got off the phone with AOL about missing stuff on the AOL Gold 1 cannot manage Faverites the option to do this is missing,2 The Buddy list is gone, 3 The option to block e mails is not there when you right click on the sender. The answer to all the above was” they are still developing the program.” As I stated above it is lighting fast but should not have been released until it was thourgly tested!
I download Aol Gold w/o any issues transferred my screenames password w/o any issue. However when i go to sign on to AOL Gold it gives me a message like “Error in locating your account info” please try again and here i can go back to AOL 9.8.2 and have NO issues getting back on 9.8.2. I dont want to lose my AOL account but yet i want to be able to sign onto gold before 9.8 is cancelled. Any idea if i can run 9.8.2 until it is retired until Gold takes over? Then when Gold is the only one i can get on w/o any issues?
I had Gold forced on me. Now my Google Chrome won’t work. I have been an AOL member since 1996. Wish I wasn’t.
I started downloading the AOL Gold but it did not go well.
so I stopped doing it.
Now I just happen to see all the comments and the bad stuff going on… So… I am not downloading it!
I am one of those old people, paying for the service.
Wait and see what will happen.
My husband has five accounts with AOL. He still has three of them — same old desktop version he always had. Works fine. The two he used the most, they cancelled. Stupid AOL.
Something else is going on here that releasing a new software.
1. The post count no longer shows when you change screen names. I used the count to determine if there were any new emails in the other screen names, saving me having to actually switch. Now I have to switch to see if there are any new emails.
2. The very hand ^D – a little notepad – no longer exists. This was so handy to easily strip all html and other crap out of a bunch of text so one could get back to only the text and use it in a different application.
Is there a known deadline when AOL Gold must be installed? With all the complaints I have not installed it, and have no intention until it is forced on me. At that time I’ll probably leave AOL.
They will send you an email to let you know when your deadline is. They will give you 30 days to download desktop gold. If you do not do it within the 30 days you will no longer be able to access the version AOL you were using. I hate desktop gold. I have used AOL since 1995 but now will be getting rid of it. It is horrible.
I just learned of AOL Gold this morning…10-18-17. I had to search to see what it was. I know for several months every website says my web browser is no longer a supported browser please update. I too have been using AOL since I discovered there was an internet. I AM BEING CHARGED $39.99 PER MONTH!!!!!! I currently use version 9.8.2 and yes it will freeze and kick me off web sites. From what I’ve read here I don’t want Gold and I will no longer be paying $39.99 a month,,,hell with AOL!!
I am current’y using AOL Desktop Gold and have since April when i was forced to change. I still use “saved on my PC” quite a bit as it has all my old emails in many different folders. I know it is being saved somewhere on my hard disk but I cannot find it. It no longer exists in organize. Tech support will not tell me where. Does anyone know how to locate it?
My understanding is that you can still use the old “AOL Desktop” software to access “Saved on my PC” e-mails. Just run it and then click mail at the top and go down to Mail Saved on my PC (don’t attempt to sign in, as you likely won’t be able to).
Here it is the end of October and I still have 3 out of 5 of my old AOL Desktop accounts that work just fine. Thy closed 2 of my accounts a long time ago. They never closed down my neighbor’s either. She still thinks I had a virus when one of my accounts was shut down. I guess they just did random closures and got bored and stopped. I wish I could give my “good” account to someone who really wants it. I don’t ever use it, I hate AOL. Even when it was free, I didn’t actually use it other than an e-mail to give places that might generate potential spam at some point.
its much worse than before. I am changing service asap
I find it interesting that everyone is talking about paying $3.99 monthly to AOL. I have been paying them $10.99 per month forever. When I called for tech support they wanted to charge me somewhere between $100. and $150. I have been a customer since the time when they charged by the minute. I have been aggravated on occasion in the past but nothing like now. I have a very large monitor and when I sign on to AOL, I can barely see anything other than commercials. It is beyond disgusting. I have several names with them and am trying to figure out how I can work out getting them all transferred to other carriers without losing friends and/or clients. I don’t sign on so that I can sit here and mumble and cuss to myself. I would like to be able to read the news and my mail without a barrage of advertisements, above, below, right and left. As soon as you click them off so that you can do what you signed on to do, another appears. It is much more than aggravating. It is mind blowing, especially if you are strapped for time, like I usually am. Get with it AOL or Verizon, whoever is responsible for this fiasco or you are going to start losing your customers!
AOL GOLD STINKS – SLOW, COSTLY and LIBERAL
I agree this is not working. It locks up my computer. It did not override my old version so both are trying to work so I can,t do anything. I do not like Verizon either. I have been on AOL since it began and have too much business to quit now. Not sure what to do am able to acess emails on my phone and laptop but not the desktop since I changed. This is my main work computer and I am in trouble,
BD… install/download another browser on your desktop PC, such as Chrome or Firefox (both are good)… then you can access your mail at: mail.aol.com …(this is what I do).
Just received our last and final warning from AOL to upgrade to Desktop Gold or we would lose 20 years of critical information. It was a tough decision to make based on everything that we have read from all of the above comments. Now for the good news! Last night we spent 3 hours talking to an AOL representative in the Philippines
who was extremely helpful and very professional. After
giving him complete control of our computer, he was able to recover 100% of our emails and more important to me was my favorite places! Our Desktop and Tool Bars are exactly the same as before. Actually the entire AOL Gold is just about the same as my old system. For those of you that have not switched over yet, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO IT YOURSELF. Call 1-888-346-3704 and let the experts do it for you and you wont lose anything, as it is very complicated!
Today, all is working well and we are totally satisfied, and I am one happy camper ! ! !
WHERE IS MY BUDDY LIST???????
It is now ‘AIM’, you have to set up an AIM account (click on the IM man at the top)… but AIM will be discontinued Dec 15, 2017. Dont know what they will do then ??
AOL GOLD (I HATE TO USE THIS LANGUAGE) SUCKS BIG TIME. IT’S HORRIBLE. NOTHING IT’S AID TO BE. MESSED UP 20 YEARS OF ENJOYMENT. (That I am paying for) Well, that will stop soon if not given back the old AOL. I don’t know who came up with this plan, but they are plain stupid. STUPID. What was wrong with the other AOL version? N O T H I N G!!!!
I know many they have changed from the AOL to google or other web site. I will do the same thing.
the new gold when i open the mail it covers 3/4 of the screen, the address book disappeared and so the IM. I will not stay with
I have had AOL since the mid-90s. Now the first things I have noticed about “Gold” is (1) mail in my mailbox just disappears and (2) “Recently Deleted Email”, which I used a lot since I often delete email by mistake, is just FLAT GONE. Finally, I see no improvements in this supposedly “new and improved” product called “Gold” It looks to me as if the company has decided to begin cutting customer services and probably plans to eventually get out of desktop email service altogether. I hope I’m wrong about that.
I’ve had a big problem with AOL Desktop Gold. My valid new emails keep going into the SPAM email. I accidentally hit the Delete key on the Spam screen and all my (new valid emails which were put by AOL into the SPAM where DELETED. I had no way to restore them. I chatted with a Technical Support Specialist and she said Good news I just started the recovery process for you. The process might take up to 24 hours. She said the emails will come back in 2 folders- Recovered Emails and Recovered Sent Emails. Has anyone received this answer and has it worked?
Verizon probably wants people to use their cell phones to access such things as emails. They want to get rid of AOL. I have had AOL since the 90’s. To those of you who think why anyone would want AOL. Some of do not think we should be forced into buying the newest thinks out there. I never had a cell phone until 2008 and personally I would rather not have one. I only have one because my employer wants me to have one. As to all the prices I have seen quoted. I am paying $39.99 per month. And I am getting these emails about GOLD too. You probably think what is wrong with me for paying so much. But that is the price that charge me for all the services I get. I am thinking that all the people who are quoting $3.99 or $4.99 for their AOL are just using the basic AOL and not the full AOL. I am deciding what to do about this new AOL. Have not decided yet. But I did get the you have 35 days to change over email. We will see. As to the other browsers out there. So what. Every time I use other browsers, what happens? I get bombarding by emails and other trash hyping there services. You never know when they could suddenly decide to start charging for there use.
UPDATE: I just found out that as a full AOL member paying the $39.99 per month that AOL Desktop GOLD is provided to me. No extra charge. Weather that will be a good thing I do not know. I am still looking into it. But the comments about losing saved on pc emails bother me. And having emails so small you can not read them also concerns me. Will keep you updated
Just a suggestion. You can use aol shield or aol shield pro for alternative way to check mails if you dont want to use aol desktop gold. For aol shield installation you can check this link https://help.aol.com/articles/how-to-download-and-install-the-aol-shield-browser. For aol shield pro check this link shield.aol.com
I will not stay with Gold, no way, the best verizon has to do is to involve with wires not with internet .
AOL Gold worst ever! One word….SLOWWWWWWWW! Going to leave.
I dislike Desktop Gold. Nothing works. Constantly shutting me down. No ability to IGNORE emails; says “it coming soon”. No ability to view address book without signing on. No email preview. Just ridiculous. Been a customer for over 20 years and this new version is awful.
Even the most basic abilities are absent.
For example, it seems to be impossible to email or down load responses from Google. That is really frustrating.
Hi all, Greetings from Canada.
I have been using AOL since 1994. Back then, you could “talk” with the President of AOL.
I received an email notice of the new disk coming in the mail of the new, and improved AOL. I already called to complain because even before reading this board, I know I am going to have problems. The new software will not work on my existing computer, and I think the software is geared for faster speeds other than dialup and that’s why it loads slow. Besides forcing me to buy a new computer, it will also force me to get rid of my landline because most new computers aren’t made with cd drives, Ethernet or MODEMS. That basically means ALL the equipment I have will need to be replaced.
I am thinking of dumping Aol all together now, converting my emails to someone else and starting fresh. It was great for 24 years.
Loyalty is a dinosaur from days gone by.
Wonder if I change from aol to firefox or yahoo would I lose my ebay feedback points?
Not sure about your ebay points, but I wouldn’t ‘think’ you should loose them. Don’t forget… Verizon also bought Yahoo. I would try Google Chrome if you are going for a new browser. And you can access your mail from any browser at: mail.aol.com … free
No you wont lose your ebay feed back points as I use Firefox and Explorer and Ebay is fine
I just closed AOL Gold and restarted it and now my Favorite Places are in alpha order….not the order I had them in!! I closed AOL and restarted it again hoping they would go back to the order I had them in but they didn’t. NOT HAPPY!
In the past every time I signed onto AOL it would take a good three minutes before I could do anything as AOL would show “not responding”. Now when I sign on that no longer happens…that is good.
I, like many of you, had hoped GOLD would get better as it was worked on and of course it just seems to get worse.
Since they changed the Favorite Places to alpha sequence you can not move any favorite places and new ones you add are inserted alphabetically not where you want them. BIG MESS. Does anyone have a upper management email where we can voice our issues?
I just found the web site https://aol.pissedconsumer.com/
which has lots of long time AOL users who and not happy. Unfortunately I don’t know of any contact at AOL, maybe an email campaign to the press may get some results.
I help out someone who uses AOL. Just get Mozilla Thunderbird and get someone to help you with the account settings. It will read your AOL mail onto your computer and let you organize it into folders, send responses etc.
Verizon and AOL both s*** big time and a better solution is to get a gmail account, but I know many long time AOL users resist that so the Thunderbird email client hooked into AOL mail is a reasonable compromise
What about this new AOL Shield? I hate the fact I have to check boxes to delete mail. Is there any way it can go back to just highlite the line and then delete?
I have Windows ME and an older AOL version, from which I have reliably connected to the Internet daily for 17 years. AOL recently sent me the ominous 35-day email notice that access to my current version will be discontinued. However, AOL Desktop Gold will not work on Windows ME, nor will AOL even try to develop a Windows ME option. That means I soon will lose my Internet connection.
AOL’s solution: Buy a new computer with Windows 7, 8 or 10.
Is that not quite extreme? One program will no longer work, and AOL expects me to abandon an otherwise fully functional machine loaded with 17 years of programs, files and documents unrelated to the operation of AOL Desktop. Why should I have to go through the cost and inconvenience of buying an new computer compatible with AOL Desktop Gold just to maintain a dialup Internet connection?
Regarding to Alphabetized Favorites that is one of the features updated by the Gold but you can submit feedback https://help.aol.com/contact/ click the feedback for your issues and concern. FYI
Upgrade to windows 7, 8, or 10. It does not require a new computer. But having a computer that is old and slow will not help. I hear about you people complaining about your favorites being alphabitized, So what! I have contacted the people on the 1 800 number and they helped me get it set up correctly. If the only thing I have to worry about is Alphabitizing my favorites, then I will keep AOL. As to no address book, I just checked the heading mail at the top of my aol and the address book is there. No Icon on the top to click. So, I need to click on mail and there the address book is. I also here people complain about the size of type in their emails being to small. To anyone still using a landline, get smart and get hooked up by other means. Modem or wireless. I used landline for a long time. Everything loaded slow, or or I would get cut off in the middle of a download. When I switched to cable and got me a modem the downloads and uploads were way faster and going to websites were quicker too. For those who just want your email service, do as several others have suggested and switch to Gmail, google chrome, Explorer, or other service. As to CM from Canada, you do not need to get rid of your landline. Unless you just use it for connecting to the internet. I do not have a landline and the only reason I have a cell phone is to keep in touch with my family. I would think not using your landline for the internet, your phone bill would be lower. I remember my phone bill being lots higher when I used a landline for the internet. I have emailed and downloaded responses from Google after loading AOL Gold. Try calling 1-800-265-3841 number and get them to set up Gold right. I did and it works. AOL is not perfect, but anyone who says that the other ones, i.e. Google, Explorer, Firefox or others are better. They are lying or just plain stupid. I have wrote two times before about Gold and so far it is working fine for me. Sure there are ads, but every where you go and every site you visit will have ads. That is just the reality of the internet. People and companies pay these sites to put their ads on them and bombard you with them. I am paying $39.99 per month but I receive lots of incentives to pay it. Access to the trouble desk, access to the billing department to discuss any payment issues. Unlimited time on the internet, unlike dial-up where you pay a certain amount for a set amount of time on the internet. I also receive a free Lifelock membership to protect my identity. Other items are free and are automatic, others are offered and you can activate them. There are a few which you do pay more for, if you want them. But they are not forced on you. This is my opinion. Instead of sitting here and complaining about it, change to another provider. I will not be coming back here to discuss this good or bad. Call AOL at the 1-800 number listed above to get your problems with Gold straightened out. Or change to another provider. Remember, being free does not mean better. If everyone with a problem with Gold or Shield were to contact AOL and work with them to correct the problems or discuss there concerns about the way things are set up with Gold or Shield. Maybe they will change things. This is a new version and there will be bugs or slip-ups in setting it up. They may have left out Buddy lists by mistake. Some people do not use Buddy lists, I don’t. So, Instead of getting on this discussion board and complaining about this and crying into your coffee, go and get Gold or Shield straightened out. Or change to another provider. Since, I will not be coming back here. I will not know what anyone will say about my answer here. 1. I wont care what you say. 2. No, I am not an employee of AOL. All I see or hear on this board is whining about how things are changing. You do not want to change. YOU want everybody else to change for you. Or you want things your way and only your way. There is a saying “My way or the Highway”‘. Good-By and good luck which ever way you go.
Well you’re long winded. An interesting mixture of truth, BS, your opinions, etc. but you haven’t answered two kinds of problems: 1) Years of email files stored on the PC rather than on line (which, regardless of the “cloud”, are not a good idea), and 2) Neither you, nor AOL, have the right to look down your nose at people who aren’t techy knowledgable, or have highspeed access. This millenial crap of “Get Windows 10, buy a new computer, do it on your smart phone, etc. etc.), is arrogant and not considerat of the many people haven’t, or can’t, join the Apple constant texting world. I am sure I was using computers, one way or the other, much before you, and perhaps before you were even born, even on tube based technology, with hardwired programming, thru punched cards, and so on. I have been responsible for huge software, with millions of lines of code. I have learned some lessons: 1) Don’t take the first couple of releases of any software, 2) If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it 3) Don’t take in any software, new or not, unless you really need it, 3) Ignore arrogant, small minded, opinionaited high tech geniuses.
Of course, you won’t read this because you had your say and have more important things to do.
I do not understand the purpose of the previous rambling long-winded post by this “Kit” individual who claims not to be an AOL shill, yet repeatedly mocks everyone who objects to this forced change.
What I have read over and over is that we AOL users are being forced to “upgrade” to an inferior product, whether we like it or not!
Change is not always for the better. In this case, the majority has decided this new AOL Desktop Gold simply does not work as well as their current AOL versions, both in speed and functionality.
What I have not seen here or anywhere else are the reasons (from AOL’s viewpoint!) why this massive change is necessary now, regardless of how many users are inconvenienced along the way.
As I understand it, AOL Desktop Gold is intended for those who already have a high-speed connection with another Internet Service Provider. AOL Desktop Gold does not work well with dialup — ironic because AOL’s customer base is those who still connect to the Internet via landline.
AOL needs to realize that not everyone has a newer computer with the most recent version of Windows and broadband Internet connections through the local cable or phone company.
Like most here I’ve been with AOL for 20 years. ($9.99 month )After reading all the comments, I think I’ll just keep using it until it quits working then move on to something else. Seems like it’s been longer then 35 days though LOL) BUT just in case I do try it, and don’t like it, who do I contact to cancel?
AOl is by far the worse browser in the history of internet. AOL Gold is nothing but a nightmare and even the AOL shield browser is slower than the original AOL Software we’ve been accustomed to.
my damn aol browser just stopped working… I suppose this is the shutdown phase for my area I fear the new gold…. NOT ONE PERSON HAS SAID ANYTHNG GOOD ABOUT IT
My e-mail content and search results on AOL GOLD take about 40 seconds to load. Got help from an AOL Gold tech support yesterday, he spent 2+ hours trying stuff. Finally uninstalled and ri-installed, worked fine. A few hours later it was back to 40-second loading time. AOL Gold is a giant ripoff
I have had aol for 20 years now and cannot understand why they are closing desk top? also I cannot get Aol gold in the uk why? My husband is not tech savy and will be lost having to get aol mail on another browser, I am ok with that but do not understand why they are doing this.
HATE IT!
MY HUSBAND ISNT TECH SAVVY EITHER HES NOT GOING TO LIKE THIS EITHER!
I knew AOL desktop was being discontinued in January and was waiting for notification of expiry date. Thinking it must be happening soon I logged in this morning planning to make a note of the links in my Favourites box and any other saved to AOL mail, etc. so it would be done beforehand.
But when I logged in a get the box to say its expired! Why have we not had notification of a date. The Messenger service closure has been popping up for months so why not an alert with a date for the desktop software.
Hence I have now lost all my research links, links for my degree and other educational courses. Not impressed!
Just tried to sign on as I have done for many years and found that my AOL 9.8.2 no longer works. Just the message to upgrade to AOL Gold. There was no warning of any kind. Only warning we got was that AIM was being discontinued. We never used it anyway, so that was no big deal.
Like most others here I have been paying AOL monthly since almost the beginning of their existence. My monthly is currently $27.15 which I assumed was for use of the software, tech support, etc. Now they want to charge another $3.99 per month for this new software that, at least according to reviews here, doesn’t even work as well as the old one. Not a very good way to retain customers. Especially those of us who have supported AOL since the beginning.
Now, I am very tech savvy. Have repaired computers and software problems for 20+ years. At one time, I was even one of the AOL beta testers. I will install AOL Gold and see what happens, but it doesn’t look too promising. And by the way, the reason I stopped doing the beta testing thing is that AOL would roll out things too quickly before all the bugs were worked out. So this isn’t really a new problem. Just the same old AOL trying to catch up the the rest of the Internet too quickly.
I have only kept the software because my wife loves it and just refuses to use anything else to access the Internet. If this new version is as bad as others say it is, she may be forced to learn.
AOL SHOULD MAINTAIN INDEPENDENT AND MAINTAIN IT’S ORIGINAL OLD BUT RELIABLE AND STABLE DESKTOP INDEFINITELY FOR OLD USERS ARE USED TO IT ALREADY, LIKE THE OLD SAYING “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it AND NOT SOLD TO VERIZON WHICH IS A VERY BAD COMPANY THAT OVER CHARGES YOU. NOW MUNICIPALITIES ARE CONSIDERING MUNICIPAL BROADBAND KNOWN AS INTERNET SERVICING UTILITIES AS OPPOSED TO INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS. INTERNET SERVICING UTILITIES ARE PUBLICLY OWNED AND FUNDED THROUGH PUBLIC BONDS AND CITIZENS MUNICIPAL TAXES UNDER THE VERY STRICT REGULATORY PROVISIONS THAT THERE WILL BE AN OPEN ACCOUNTING TRANSPARENCY AND THAT OPEN DUAL COMPETITION WILL BE MANDATORY AND NO CENSORSHIP BY OUTSIDERS. AND THAT ALL INTERNET SERVICING UTILITIES WILL BE BUILT TO LAST. Tymalic 3 days ago I lived in Chattanooga. Comcast flipped shit after EPB installed fiber. They even ran hit piece commercials against EPB. It had an overall benefit to the market though. Comcast lowered its prices, raised its bandwidth. The competition they injected into the system was so beneficial to the consumer and quite honestly Comcast in the area stepped up its game, but they still can’t compete just because they refuse to be a decent company. REPLY 53 Dalton Bedore 2 days ago thanks for the personal prospective and added info! William Calhoon 4 days ago I retired from the telecommunication industry. The cost of the network and equipment installed to deliver your internet service is paid back in less than one year. Fewer and fewer inside and outside technicians are needed to maintain the network. The cost is actually less than the old telephone service people of my age grew up with. So please don’t buy into the corporate bullshit that they need less regs to expand service. Telecom companies are awash in cash and have no interest in expanding into more rural areas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiSaMQcogG4 NextLight™: Longmont’s Broadband 12,153 views City of Longmont Colorado Published on Oct 22, 2014 Introducing NextLight™, Longmont’s community-owned fiber-optic network provided by Longmont Power & Communications. Over 100 years ago we began providing power and light to our community as a municipal electric utility. Now we are providing light that can carry gigabits of data in seconds, and can connect our community at the speed of light. Category: Science & Technology. Tymalic 3 days ago I lived in Chattanooga. Comcast flipped shit after EPB installed fiber. They even ran hit piece commercials against EPB. It had an overall benefit to the market though. Comcast lowered its prices, raised its bandwidth. The competition they injected into the system was so beneficial to the consumer and quite honestly Comcast in the area stepped up its game, but they still can’t compete just because they refuse to be a decent company. REPLY 53 Dalton Bedore 2 days ago thanks for the personal prospective and added info! REPLY 3 https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/benefits-municipal-broadband-areas-least/
3 MUNICIPAL BROADBAND SUCCESS STORIES Heather KerriganJune 17, 2015 TECH 3 MUNICIPAL BROADBAND SUCCESS STORIES Heather KerriganJune 17, 2015 Over the course of 10 years, Seattle has studied the possibility of creating a municipal-run broadband network seven times, most recently this year. Although it was determined in June that the cost would be lower than expected (somewhere in the range of $463 million to $630 million), city officials again rejected the idea, citing barriers including the need to get 43% of residents to subscribe at $75 per month to break even, something that Comcast or CenturyLink, the two current Internet providers in the city, could easily undercut.
Not every U.S. resident is forced into using a private sector company for Internet service. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, there are more than 450 communities across the country running broadband networks as public utilities (of course, there are also 19 states that have barriers in place to discourage or prevent the establishment of such networks). The Obama administration has pushed for more equitable access to the Internet through municipal-owned broadband. In January, the president announced a set of grants aimed at funding networks in underserved areas, and he also encouraged the FCC to address the state laws that are preventing these networks from being established.
Among the 450+ municipal broadband systems, there are a number of success stories that interested cities could lean on. These include lowering Internet costs for residents, encouraging economic development, and improving overall telecom services. Success has not come without debate over cost, necessity, and impact, and there are also examples of broadband networks that are operating in deep debt that haven’t realized their anticipated impact.
Here, we highlight a few of the cities that are making broadband work for them. Chattanooga, Tennessee was the first major city to offer residents access to what is known as a “gig,” the fastest residential Internet connection available. There, municipal broadband service began because of a desire to upgrade the city’s electric grid to a state-of-the-art fiber optics system.
During the planning process, it was determined that such a system could be used to deliver Internet and telephone services. Despite attempts by private ISP to discourage its establishment, city officials and residents strongly supported developing a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network that would reach everyone in the community, even at a cost of more than $300 million. Thanks to federal stimulus funding, $111 million of the total cost came from federal grants. Once the broadband network was in place, the city did not undercut the current Internet providers. Instead, it has completed with its ultra-fast speed. The municipal network has around a 40% market share, even though its rates are higher than those offered by the private sector companies operating in Chattanooga.
The gig offering has helped to attract new business to a city that used to rely heavily on manufacturing. Rural Bristol, Virginia was another early adopter of a FTTH network. Bristol Virginia Utilities (BVU) launched OptiNet in 2003, and service was first connected to schools and businesses, before being expanded into residential areas. Today, OptiNet has been cited as the reason many businesses remain in Bristol.
Over its first five years of existence, it is estimated that the network resulted in $10 million in savings for Bristol’s government and its residents, and brought in millions in increased economic development. Further, the network’s prices have remained stable, it operates in the black, and new services are consistently being offered to subscribers. To encourage economic development outside of its borders, the network is offered to surrounding regions in southwestern Virginia. Cedar Falls, Iowa began offering municipal Internet service citywide via an Ethernet network back in 1997. In 2013, the city began offering ultra-fast gig service, to the tune of $265 per month per residential subscriber (the cheapest package runs around $30 per month). The public utility offering the service believes residents pay approximately $200 less per year by getting Internet service through them instead of a major private sector company. The city also believes that it has managed to increase the number of jobs available and attract additional investment through new business opportunities made possible by its gig network. According to independent reports, new technologies that offers services equal in quality, dependability, reliability, services, and free e-mail services and free unlimited e-mail storage capacity, history browse auto-save web ripper features are now fully developed by a joint American-Korean independent NON-CORPORATE VENTURES to compete against Verizon, Comcast, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, etc and are now waiting approval and permits and licensing to provide the cheapest, highest capacity, SUPER-ROCK STABLE, safe, and universal interfacing hardwired software apps to both old and new computer hardware and software.
Verison is a nefarious company which can never be trusted and AOL should have remained independent and maintained it well known and “well used to” original AOL Desktop TO MAINTAIN IT’S REPUTATION.
Extremely disappointment. No download, no specialized website, have to pay for anything. My previous experience with AOL is what made me want to stay, but your performance right now is disappointing and not really showing any concern toward customers.
Is it possible to have ONE subscription, ($4.99 a month) to AOL Desktop Gold and install it on 2 computers (for a husband and wife) and use a different screen name on each one? Doing so would be akin to the Classic AOL where you paid for ONE account but could use 2 different screen names. Or do you have to pay separately for each one?
I can’t believe this POS is actually getting WORSE.First off jackasses…it’s horribly SLOW compared to the old version….NOW it’s freezing up my computer almost every time I try to do something with AOL. I do NOT have the same problem with Google Chrome…so I know it’s not my machine…Google Chrome is lightning fast and NEVER freezes the computer. I HATE HATE HATE AOL !!
Hi. I just want to say that I will not pay for something that should be free. This is not right that they’re charging any money at all to use the AOL desktop version. I’ll wait until it becomes free again. I have very important documents/photos in my AOL mail. What happens to that? Will it just be left alone? Verizon please reply. Thank you.
I’ve used AOL forever and my main gripes about Desktop Gold are the way they changed the favorite places, what they did to the email window and the money thing.
I have about 1000 favorites, and I had them all filed the way I wanted them. Some of them were in folders, in sub folders, in sub sub folders, in sub sub sub folders. And I could find any one of them in a few seconds. Then BAM! Everything is screwed up and it took a few days to realize they were in alphabetical order. It’s been 5 months now and I still can’t find certain ones. I called support many times and told them to put it back the way it was. At first they said “we’re working on it”. Then after 8 or 10 calls they said it can’t be put back the way it was. I said, “What the $&^* are you talking about, do you think I’m stupid? All you have to do is undo whatever you did. ” I told them that if someone wants them in alphabetical order add a button to turn it on or off. As for the mail window. It’s way to big.
I’ve had AOL paid version since the beginning. Actually cost me $11.99 each month. The new AOL desktop Gold, is and always has been a train wreck. It’s slow, has problems working, and in interface sucks.
Wish Desktop Gold was faster!
I gave up using the AOL desktop and compltely uninstalled several years ago, it was always very slow, would highjack my operating system, change my settings and literally hold my PC to ransom. Not to mention AOL aboandoned supporting its UK customers. Now they want to charge for their desktop software, what a bunch of stoogies! Im not even tempted to use Gold, dont waste your money, just access your email through through your browser.
It’s gotten better. I think they might be listening. I agree that the aol desktop software was pretty horrible when they first forced me over a couple years ago but then I joined the beta community and felt like I had a voice. I think I was talking directly with the development team but who knows for sure these days. anyway, I made some suggestions and asked them to bring some things like the voices when you sign on that say my name back from the old blue version and they actually did it. I may not stay forever but I will stick around for a bit longer at least.
I’ve had aol since it was dial up way back when it was dial up. I have desktop gold, as I had to upgrade to it. I’ve been paying $6.99 mo. for my aol. I see many people pay a lot more, and many people pay $3.99. I wish there was someone I could see how much it cost and what the difference in pricing included or did not include.