AOL Deleting inactive accounts

So I went to log into AOL and got this message that my account was removed due to inactivity. This is strange because I had just used it yesterday and earlier tonight.
Another thing that happened today is that when I tried to check some emails from my phone which had my account on it, it said my password had changed and I couldn't get logged in again.  I logged in when I got home no problem.

Pretty buggy stuff if you ask me.......

I tried logging in again to AOL after getting this removal notice and it worked..... Weird... I looked around real quick and found this article.....


AOL Mail Begins Permanently Deleting Accounts Not Used Regularly With No Way To Recover Your Emails Or Data

https://thetechreader.com/security/aol-mail-begins-permanently-deleting-accounts-not-used-regularly-with-no-way-to-recover-your-emails-or-data/




What are you  using for your email accounts?

Proton Mail

https://protonmail.com/

I think that the big question here is, why are you still using an AOL account? ;D

user 37518 said:

I think that the big question here is, why are you still using an AOL account? ;D

Click to expand...

I thought they went out of business long ago.

This is a pretty accurate summary of the current options
https://www.techradar.com/news/best-email-provider

I  have one (very) old AOL email account that still works AFAIK (had more in the past). I just checked and two different mailers still banging it, not to mention the AOL flavor spam while they block a bunch.

I have been weening more and more stuff off those old JIC email addresses in anticipation of them going away...

I still have something like 7 different email addresses (probably 2x what I need). 

JR

This is what we call a lifetime service guarantee.

It is the lifetime of the service.

> I've just had AOL since like the early 90s and all of my accounts,software,etc.....use these few AOL accounts I have.....Not looking forward to going through everything and changing........

I had a Cherished Mailbox from 1984 , days when an "outside" address had to give the full route ("rree!esquirel!cmcl2!princeton!mara"). Nothing lasts forever. The mailbox owner COULD have transparently redirected to a Cloud server, but instead just closed the machine and abandoned the host-name. (Some politics there.) I've spent much time the last two years tracking-down references to the old box and getting them changed. I figured the Hospital would be worst, the office staff don't know the IT staff at all. (The latest Portal update has a place to change email.) I thought I had got all I cared about, but yesterday a confirmation from Jack's Engines came to the old box (the last plug has not been pulled and I got it).

1 of 148 names in my address book use AOL. A mom out in the hills where AOL may still be an ISP of choice. Until I looked I wudda said I had not seen a live AOL email in years.

I still use an aol email address for my main email because I have had it pretty much since I went self employed.  Mainly because I have been using it for business since I got it & all my clients have it, so it would be a right pita to change it because I only deal with some of them everyfew years.

In the last 6 months or so when accessing it via microsoft mail I get a message saying my account settings are out of date.  I then have to log into aol's site recover & change the password & update it on a bunch of devices.  This is a right pain when I am out on site and only have my phone to do it on.  I would happily switch to my gmail account, but then would possibly miss out on work ...... What to do ......

> switch to my gmail account

gMail accessed through a real mail-client has been very good to me for well over a decade.

Until yesterday. Many Google services were down for about 4 hours. Thunderbird client stupidly blamed my password, so I didn't catch on at first.

A friend used AT&T since the real early days of DSL. Fun trying to guess what they had named the servers this week. Unexplained outages and bounces. When she left DSL country, AT&T kindly allowed her to keep the email, for $5/month. Much later she found that if she did not use dial-up modem(!), policy allowed a free legacy email account. Never AT&T's priority. Eventually they made a deal with Yahoo! to take all the AT&T email services. Slight improvement. Still not a fan of clueless email services.

> Proton Mail

Well, that's like from a campfire to a helium reactor. Proton is great hi-tech high-security email. The Free package apparently does not allow folders?? I can't live like that. And while I remember living in a 10MB mailbox (today two emails can fill that), Protron's 4.00 € /Month for 5GB seems un-generous. (I have 43GB in-use on gMail.)

PRR said:

> switch to my gmail account


Until yesterday. Many Google services were down for about 4 hours. Thunderbird client stupidly blamed my password, so I didn't catch on at first.

Click to expand...

https://www.fastcompany.com/90358396/that-major-google-outage-meant-some-nest-users-couldnt-unlock-doors-or-use-the-ac

OOPS!  Everything in my freezer just melted 'cuz a Cloud server went down....

As I posted elsewhere:  IoT  = Idiot

Bri

One good`thing with AOL& Gmail too is that they are remarkably good at catching SPAM emails

PRR said:

> Proton Mail

Well, that's like from a campfire to a helium reactor. Proton is great hi-tech high-security email. The Free package apparently does not allow folders?? I can't live like that. And while I remember living in a 10MB mailbox (today two emails can fill that), Protron's 4.00 € /Month for 5GB seems un-generous. (I have 43GB in-use on gMail.)

Click to expand...

I use the free version and I am able to set up different folders.  I think the menu is headed Folders / Labels.

Yes, 500Mb of space for the free version.  I've had two tidy ups in about two years of being as ProtonMail user and I'm around the 300Mb mark.  When I approach the limit, I'll consider paying the monthly subscription.

Rob Flinn said:

One good`thing with AOL& Gmail too is that they are remarkably good at catching SPAM emails

Click to expand...

Maybe catching spam better is good unintended consequence of them reading your emails to harvest personal data...  :

JR

JohnRoberts said:

Maybe catching spam better is good unintended consequence of them reading your emails to harvest personal data...  :

JR

Click to expand...

Maybe, but not getting spam is still good !

Rob Flinn said:

Maybe, but not getting spam is still good !

Click to expand...

I have a completely effective plan to squash spam, and robo calls... charge some tiny postage or toll that normal users would never even notice, like a fraction of cent per email, or phone call, while the spammers would no longer be economical.

My favorite is when the robo call starts by saying "dont hang up"... click.

JR