AOL IM for Mac

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Greetings,

I'm kind of new to Mac. In almost 1 year I've never experienced a problem with OS-X. (so smooth compared to my old PC!)

Yesterday I installed AOL IM and experienced my first issue. Backing up a little, I have been using iChat to 'text' the cell phones of my kids. Responses could only be received if I was online. This is why I tried the AOL program.

After installing AOL, everyones phone shows up as offline/unavailable in AOL. Same in iChat and Mail. I tried deleting AOL in Applications with no change.

Any idea what I need to do?

As it is I can't text anyones' phone since a message shows up saying they are offline. Not even my own phone sitting next to me which has a siignal!

Thanks,
George

It isn't until something goes wrong that I realize how little I really know!
 
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are the phones signed on to aol through the phone? if not this could be your issue.. I know on my cell that if its not signed one via the cell it will show offline on my computer under aim.
 
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I cannot sign on to AOL IM in any way on my Mac as well. I've tried Adium and iChat but get nothing. I posted, but nobody responded.
 
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He's not talking about instant messaging to the phones while they are online...he's talking about using AIM to send an SMS to the phone, which just requires that the phone be turned on.

I would suggest looking in your /users/user_name/library/preferences/ folder for anything ending in .plist that has iChat or AOL in the name. These are your stored preferences for iChat and AOL, and deleting them may help you out. Granted, you will have to enter all your sign in information and preferences over again, but it might help "reset" iChat and/or AOL so you can txt your cell phone contacts again.
 
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In System Prefs on the Mac, under the Firewall tab, do you have the iChat and Bonjour Tabs checked? It sounds like your Firewall is blocking your AIM fleurya.
 
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Sorry, using the correct terms might help. snoslicer8 understood me in spite of that. Yes, using aim to send an sms message. I will check for those files.

Thanks,
 
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Did a Spotlight search for iChat, and under documents, there are a few files with names resembling "com.apple.iChat.AIM.plist" These are your preferences files for signing into AIM using iChat. I would delete these and then log out (of OSX), log back in, then open iChat and start over.
 
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I came up with 4 files containing aim or iChat with the .plist and sent them to the trash I will restart now.
 
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Got it. Deleting the .plist files and restarting the computer then re-entering contacts. That did the trick!

My contacts come up online and I was able to send myself a message.

Thank you everyone for the help.

George
 
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if you want to im their cell phone all you have to do is type out their entire number with the + sign in front of it.

ex.

+1(area code)1234567
 
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i found that aim does not have the best stability on mac...

i am a huge fan of adium! i do know that you can text phones also
 
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i found that aim does not have the best stability on mac...

i am a huge fan of adium! i do know that you can text phones also

I couldn't stand AIM for that reason (among many others).

I have no trouble texting my husband's cell phone from Adium!:flower:
 
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I believe the problem was solved...delete the .plist files in your user/library/preferences directory that has iChat in the name, and logout/restart. No need to turn this into an iChat vs. Adium vs. AIM vs. Whoever war.
 
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I believe the problem was solved...delete the .plist files in your user/library/preferences directory that has iChat in the name, and logout/restart. No need to turn this into an iChat vs. Adium vs. AIM vs. Whoever war.

but clearly adium wins. end of discussion.
 
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I agree. Adium is WAY better than AIM 4.7 can ever be. I'm not sure what I would do if a new version of AIM rolled out soon..I would of course try it..but I LOVE the LACK of commercials/advertisements/robots attacking my screenname/comp every 2-3 hours while using Adium.
 
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can you import your AIM contacts into Adium?
 

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