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Apple Discontinues AIM Support for Many OS X Users With Legacy Mac.com/Me.com IDs

Wednesday July 2, 2014 9:27 am PDT by Kelly Hodgkins
aim_runningEarlier this year, Apple announced in a support document that it would be discontinuing support as of June 30 for AIM iChat logins using a mac.com or a me.com ID for customers who were running an older version of OS X. Customers who wanted to continue to use that login combination were advised to upgrade their Mac to OS X 10.7.2 or later.

Following this change on Monday, a growing number of customers, even those on more recent versions of OS X and those using third-party services, are experiencing issues using AIM, reports AppAdvice.
I was using an old .mac address for AIM. Messages on my Mac were sent and received through the third-party Adium application. On July 1, the service was no longer operational on either of my two Macs. Currently, my iMac has OS X Yosemite installed, while my MacBook Air has OS X Mavericks.
The issues with AIM began this week and have been discussed in Apple's support forums as well as on Twitter. According to the reports, some users attempting to log in via the AIM web interface or third-party Mac and iOS such as Adium are no longer able to login to their AIM account using their mac.com or me.com IDs, regardless of their version of OS X. Users have reported varying levels of success with working around the login problems, but many users may be unaware of how to troubleshoot the problems.

Apple has not responded nor provided any details on the issue, but it likely involves the security update that terminated support for older versions of OS X. Apple didn't announce any changes to this update that would expand it to include all mac.com and me.com users, leaving those users without service or any explanation as to why it won't work. There's also no information on when or if the service will be restored to supported users.

Users who wish to avoid the issue may find it easiest to simply create a new AIM login, although they will have to recreate their buddy lists on the new accounts.
[ 108 comments ]


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JonneyGee
29 months ago
In releated news: Apple discontinues telegraph service support.
Rating: 38 Votes
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Jalopybox
29 months ago
A tear was shed by....no one.
Rating: 32 Votes
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ZacNicholson
29 months ago
I didn't know aim was still around
Rating: 22 Votes
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chakdey
29 months ago
people still use AIM?
Rating: 15 Votes
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SPNarwhal
29 months ago
I use AIM. :(
Rating: 13 Votes
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Tiger8
29 months ago
Aim :-)

One thing comes to mind when I see AIM: College days! :cool: AIM was THE WAY to communicate with everyone in school... including your roommate sitting a few feet from you :D
Rating: 8 Votes
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captain cadet
29 months ago
Bit of legacy technology going there :P
But i like my @me email address. when ever anyone ask me for my email I say [myname]@me.com and everyone goes "that's much better than Hotmail." I don't like iCloud as it just gives the feeling of that "hotmail" one - nothing special but the @me one also goes well as i got my actual name there (i have a rare name) so it helps makes it sound better
Rating: 8 Votes
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JoEw
29 months ago


AIM new logo looks awful... I forgot AOL was still around truthfully..
Rating: 6 Votes
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RedTomato
29 months ago
I remember the glory days of Adium. A single app that connected to every chat service. If you had told me that many years later my plain text messages would be lost in a sea of different incompatible services, I'd think you were crazy.

Today my messages are split between Facebook Messenger, Skype messenger, iMessages, plain SMS messages, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Twitter DMs, short emails. And even sadder, it's often the same people sending messages to me on whatever they happen to have open. If I want to check a bit of info someone sent me, I have to search our chat across 5 different incompatible messenger services. Utter insanity.
Rating: 6 Votes
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JohnDoe98
29 months ago
For everyone bashing AIM, tell me how else do you initiate a screen share session through ichat? As far as I know it is only if you have an AIM account.
Rating: 4 Votes

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