AOL has me.....

[Bobdude161]

It seems AOL wants me to stay with their service although I did unsubscribe with them because I now have broadband service. I have about 600 email addresses in my AOL account and am trying to find a way to convert them to Mac's Mail program. I tried using AOL Communicator which can export all my email addresses to "*.ldif", but it seems Addresses Book doesn't recognize AOL's format. Took a peek inside the "*.ldif" file and noticed some "tweaks" that AOL has made that seem to throw off Address Book. AOL Communicator will only save as "*.ldif" and not a more simple version like "*.cvs" (comma seperated format). AOL is a pain in the ass and I'm trying to get as far away as possible from that diseased program.

 

[tag]

I found this article from the Washington post here...

Basically it seems if you import the AOL address file into Thunderbird, then export those contacts in Address book format, and then import that into Address Book it can work. Not sure if there is a better way, or if this will work as I can't test it myself but hopefully it will.

 

[Bobdude161]

thanks for the reply but that doesn't work either. AOL and Thunderbird's format of an ldif are different and not all my addresses come up in the Thunderbird book. I think recently AOL changed it's format so this easy export away from it's Satanic corporation could be more difficult.

 

[balamw]

I hate when standards like LDIF are embraced and extended so as not to be interoperable.

I wonder if something like AOLeave will help. It's a Java app that calims to be able to pull your contacts into a CSV file.

http://aoleave.com/addbook.html

B

 

[Bobdude161]

cool, i'm gonna have to do that later. I'll have to use a friend's computer to use their AOL, cuz no way in hell am I gonna install AOL again. God forbid install it on my PC. My Dell was an AOL machine, I cleared my HD of any facet of AOL and magically it started working faster!!! OMG how!!!!. Speaking of, is AOL easy to uninstall in Mac (uninstall app?)? I might just install and uninstall it just for the exportation of my addresses.