AIM 6.0 Q&A Volume II
In this post I will cover some the icons in the Buddy List window and what happened to the IM Catcher in AIM 6.0. I derived these questions from some of the search queries people used to get to my blog in the past.
Q: What is the exclamation point icon on buddy list in AIM 6.0?
A: This icon, a circled i or upside-down exclamation point: 
, appears when you hover over a buddy. You can click on it to view the buddy’s profile and “Buddy Updates†information. The icon will appear automatically whenever your buddy has made a change to his/her profile, made a new journal post, change to AIM Pages, or changed any other RSS feed that your buddy has associated with his/her screen name since the last time you read it. Clicking on the icon will let you view the changes and make the icon go away when not hovering over your buddy.
Q: What does a red sign mean next to a name on the buddy list?
A: This icon (
) means that you have blocked this buddy. That buddy cannot see if you are online or send you IMs. Go to the Settings window [F7], then select the “Privacy†tab to make changes.
Q: Where is the IM Catcher in AIM 6.0?
A: This feature was improved in AIM 6.0. Rather than having a separate window that showed all the caught messages, this was combined with the Grouped IM window. When you go away, the Grouped IM window opens and shows the yellow “Away Status†tab on the top right. The IMs received will be grouped and you can see the names of the buddies that have sent you IMs while you were away in the tabs on the left. You can click on those tabs to see their IMs without having to return from away. The “Away Status†tab has some useful options that you can invoke after you set your away message. There you can set the options to let you send IMs while you are away and to suppress sounds and pop-ups while away. You can also click on the “Hide IMs†button to hide all your IM windows. Double-click on the system tray icon to show the buddy list and hidden IMs when you return. You can clear your away message from the “Away Status†tab by clicking on the “Return From Away†button. IMs from unknown senders will appear with a prompt window over them warning you that they are from an unknown sender and letting choose the appropriate course of action.
I will answer more questions in future posts. E-mail me or add your own question in the comments and I will answer those as well.
December 26th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Hey man, I just wanted to thank you and the whole AIM Team for turning around the trainwreck that was trition. If that ever became the “offical” release, I was prepared to dump it for gaim, but Aim 6 really won over my heart by removing all the ad-ridden junk from trition, and restoring all my favorite features with better backwards support and a kick ass UI.
I never thought I would leave my AIM 5.5, but i’m a user of 6 now, and I love it.
Thanks man, Ken
December 26th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Heh and all that thanking just made me forget my question..
Whats up with not being able to use black text?? Every time I set my text to black, when I send messages it changes colors after each message to what seems to be a random color…
Get back to me on that
December 26th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
This sounds like something the “Colorizer” plug-in does. This plug-in is part of the AIM Gadgets collection of plug-ins. To disable the Colorizer plugin, go to your IM settings window (Press F7 from the IM or Buddy List window) and select the “Plugins” tab. Then un-check the box next to the “Colorizer” plug-in to keep it from loading. This will disable it immediately. Send some IMs to see if that fixes it.
December 27th, 2006 at 1:24 am
Ah that was it, Thanks a TON! That was driving me insane, I hadn’t even realized it was installed
December 28th, 2006 at 1:10 am
Hey, I just downloaded AIM 6 tonight, and I’ve been tinkering a bit, and I can’t find where the away messages are actually stored? They’re not in the registry (at least not where they used to be), and somehow AIM 6 keeps finding all my old away messages even though I uninstalled all previous versions of AIM? But it’s not on the server because it doesn’t find them when I sign in on another computer. Where’s it been finding them? and where’s it keeping them? Thanks!
January 12th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Awesome. I didn’t know why it was doing that colorizing thing, found this post and turned it off!
February 11th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Heyy,
I just installed AIM 6.0 a few days ago and I can’t seem to get the smiley shower to work. Help? :-/
February 15th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Jenna, All you need to see them, besides enabling the preference, is to install flash for Internet Explore on your PC. You can get it here .
February 21st, 2007 at 5:45 pm
I like AIM 6.0, but ever since I installed it, my PC emits sounds constantly. I have poured through the sounds folder and can’t identify their source. Sometimes it’s normal AIM sounds like for a message even when there is no new message. I swear I’m going to uninstall if I can’t figure out how to stop it. Is it malware or a feature?
February 21st, 2007 at 6:10 pm
So I’m having the same problem that Jenna had: I can’t get the smiley shower to work. I’ve made sure that I do have the Flash Player installed, and everything else is working correctly. Any suggestions?
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:38 am
Bethy, Is the preference to enable smiley showers on?
March 1st, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Question- I am trying to figure out why people who are on my buddy list cant see my away message….they know that i am away b/c the see the pop up “____ is away” but then there is no post-it next to my screen name. I had a friend call this out to me and i was wondering if i did something with my privacy/ preferences that i dont know as to why there is no post-it next to my name when i am away. any help?
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Hi , I installed aim 6.0 a while ago but I want to create a new account and with that I cant save my buddy list. Please tell me how to save my buddy list so I can create a new account.
March 4th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Yeah, I was having the same problem as Ryan. I made a new screen name, but now I don’t know how to import my AIM buddy list from my other s/n. And it’s really bothering me. Can you help?
March 5th, 2007 at 6:21 am
Ryan, Rae: You can see my post on this here.
March 5th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
how do u save ur profile on aim 6.0?? it is really bugging me,,, i ahve like 300 friends and i am sick of my ols s/n i ahd it for like 4 years
i just dont want to type all threr screen names
March 8th, 2007 at 3:32 am
jess i am having the same prob. anyone know whats wrong or how to fix this
March 11th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
im having the same problem as hilary and jess! anyone know how to fix this?!
March 12th, 2007 at 11:46 am
yeah i pretty much have the same problem as jess, hilary and cheryl, ive tried everything
March 13th, 2007 at 7:05 am
same problem as Jess…it just started yesterday. I signed on Adium on my mac on my other screen name and it says i am away, yet the post it note isn’t there. I don’t know if other people know i am away though…
March 13th, 2007 at 7:07 am
actually thats the same problem as everyone that posted under Jess too, i should have scrolled down just a little more
March 13th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
we have the same issues, and no one can resolve it.
aim 6.0, thou art sucky.
March 14th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Yep I have the same problem as Jess, Hilary, Cheryl, and Mark! HOW DO YOU FIX THIS PROBLEM?
March 14th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Folks, AOL is aware of the problem Jess reported above and is working on a fix. Thank you.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
oh, FINALLY.
=)
March 24th, 2007 at 10:53 am
hey, heard anything yet?
March 25th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
im having the same problem… im away and the pop up away message shows but the yellow away message doesnt show im away on my buddy list! any solutions yet?
April 4th, 2007 at 11:45 am
I am actually having a problem of my own. I just downloaded AIM 6 and it all seems to download just fine, but whenever I try to IM someone…. well it kicks me completely out of the service… Ive tried reinstalling and restarting and all of that fun stuff.
Any ideas??? I appreciate it
April 5th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Hey, I have AIM 6.0 and I had it previously but had to rebuilt my computer because it crashed. Any way I can not figure out how to get my Buddy Icon/expression to appear. I went though the settings and set it to show my icon and I even check on the im screen itself where it say show my expression. If you could help at all with this that would be great
Thank
April 7th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Richard, Was this a custom icon that you uploaded? If it was you will have to find a copy of the image and upload it again. Press F7 from the buddy list then, select the Expressions tab, you should see your icon at the top right. If not, you can upload the image again by selecting the “Browse…” link below the icon. You could also select a new expression using AOL’s offerings by clicking on the “My Expressions” button.
April 7th, 2007 at 9:41 am
RJ, This is a curious one. Does this happen on other computers? Try removing any third-party software like smilies, plug-ins, etc. that might interact with AIM 6. Let me know if this helps.
April 7th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
i want to make a new screen name but i still want to have the same buddy list!how do i save my buddy list on aim 6.0?
April 9th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
how do you save the buddies on your screen name and move them to a diffrent screen name??
May 11th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Question- How in the heck do you make an aim profile with aim 6.0? I need help.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:57 am
question - i downloaded the colorizer plugin but it doesn’t work… what can i do to semd messages that change colors after each message?
May 20th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
i got a new screename and i wanna move the buddys on my old sn to my new screename, how do i do that on aim 6.0?
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
question:when i put up an away message and click Hide IMs, when i want to come back i can see that i have messages but can’t read them…any help?
June 18th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
question: i dont know how to change my sound so when i talk i dont hear anything?
any help
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:23 pm
i have a new screenname and i want to take me buddies from my old buddy list and move them to my new buddy list how do i do it with aim 6.0? please send something back
July 13th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I can hear people signing on and off on my buddy list, but I cannot see them…why is this? It’s driving me nuts!
July 30th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
My smiley shower isn’t working. I have 6.1. I have flash. I think it’s enabled. HELP!
July 31st, 2007 at 11:51 am
why can’t my aim buddies see my icon?
August 1st, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Krishma, Jay, Tasha, Logan - To move your buddies form one screenname to another, you need to download the “Buddy List Options” plug-in, aka BL Ops. AIM’s description: Allows you to import and export your AIM buddy list. I had a hell of a time trying to figure out how to save and load my buddy list, and I stumbled upon that on aim.com, where I also downloaded the colorizer plugin.
That’s what I’m having problems with - I downloaded the Colorizer Plugin, the box is checked in my Settings, and it worked for the first few days, but it hasn’t worked since. How can I fix that?
August 7th, 2007 at 9:08 am
For those that are having problems with the smiley showers, I aslo did to. My computer said I had flash installed but they still didnt work, so I went and installed flash anyway, and they worked!!!!!!!!!!!! My guess is, it was installed but possibly had a acorrupt file, or a file missing. Goodluck, just install flash again, worked for me.
August 9th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
My Aim “Colorizer†Plug-In Doesn’t Work..I Have It Cheked On The Plugins Tab On The Settings Window But Its Still Not Working…Help Anyone?
August 20th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
I`m having same problem as Susan ,keep hearing this one buddy sound and no one is showing ..actually kind of freaky and driving me nuts as well .Please if you have a solution let me know i went as far as even changing my password thanks
August 31st, 2007 at 4:45 am
Hey folks, I probably should have done this a while ago, but I am now closing the comment on this post. Look for a more recent post to ask your questions in. Thanks.