Leaving AOL – Updated for AOL 9.1 and gmail ~ Export Favorites, Address Book and Email

The holiday vacation brought me the family computer problems. One of the main issues was getting my father in-law out of the black hole known as AOL. I can rant for hours about how difficult they make it, it’s obvious they’re goal is to make it impossible. It’s obvious why, since the poor old grand/fathers will give up and stay.

Exporting Favorites:

  • Export your favorites - favorites > manage > backup
  • Upload the .pfc file to this free online service
  • It will give you an .htm file that you can import into firefox

Exporting your Address Book

Couldn’t find any solution that worked, so I was forced to use plaxo.com. I would never recommend plaxo but it’s pretty simple, just add a sync point export them in any format you’d like.

Exporting local E-mail

  • Export/Backup the local email folders to a .pcf file. Or find the .pcf (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AOL\C_America Online 9.0c\organize)
  • Download AOL Dump
  • Start AOL-Dump and select DATEI -> PFC Konvertieren

The program create an mbx that you can be used with Thunderbird, I used Thunderbird to import the email to gmail through an IMAP connection.

  • Download Thunderbird
  • Rename the file.mbx file (just created) to file - basically, remove the extension
  • Copy/move the file to the Thunderbird message folder (find it under TOOLS -> Account Settings)
  • Start Thunderbird and a new folder will show your email.

I just ended up copying these emails to a new folder under the gmail IMAP.

It took way to long but AOL has one less user and he’s FREE!!

About the Author, Dan Cameron:

I'm the owner and solution engineer at Sprout Venture, a web solutions company that specializes in web development including WordPress.

I started my first blog in 2003 and transitioned to WordPress in 2004. Since moving to WordPress I've written a few plugins and themes for public consumption. Lately I'm busy engineering/building/coding and have only been able to share a few code snippets.

If you're in need of some web development, web design or custom WordPress plugins and/or themes contact me, I'll be happy to discuss it with you.

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  • SvP
    Ok, i use it to sync just about everything everywhere.. i cme here looking for a sync solution for firefox with my other mac.. all solved now, but interesting blog!
  • Even though they're on the right track now, their spammy history left a bad taste in my mouth.
  • SvP
    Just curious, why wouldn't you recommend plaxo?
  • Here's a comment with js disabled. And I see the previous comment through ID, so this is sweet.
  • I'm just testing out if ID is going to sync these comments correctly.
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