I've had AOL on my pc for many years and really don't use it much. However today I wanted to look at my favorites to find something from years ago and ALL my favorites are gone. Anyone else have this problem? I googled the issue and it said to upgrade the software but I'm so afraid the upgrade is going to wipe everything out. Any ideas please?

I would not suggest updating the AOL software. If it was a favorite, I would just do a search for the item or website and set it as a new Favorite. I know several people who use AOL, but there is a reason it is often referred to as "AOLHELL."

This is disheartening. I have no idea what I would search for, some of this stuff was saved years ago and I want to get the website addresses. Since I have no favorites, I'm guessing if I started a new account on say gmail.com and sent my emails to it, that would be all I would get, correct?

I think I misunderstood. I thought you were talking about Favorites in a web browser. So you're saying you had some kind of favorites in an email program? I guess you could forward emails to another account, but if you already have the emails I'm not sure what you would be gaining.

If you know the subject matter of the what you are wanting to find, a simple Google or Bing search should find them again. For instance, it if was "antique spoons" and you had a website you had marked as a favorite in an old email (got NO idea how this works!), all you would have to do is a search for antique spoons and find the website again.

Or am I totally missing something here???

Thanks Drac, but I think I'm just not explaining it correctly. I'll do something, right or wrong, lol

When I got home from bowling last night I looked it up and it does seem there was a way to keep website "favorites" in the AOL program. All they are is websites and you still should be able to find them again and save in your browser favorite or bookmarks. But if you don't even remember what they were about, you could always upgrade that AOL software. AOL can be very intrusive, so be careful what you click on when you do it!

According to ***this windrivers forum*** they may be stored in your AOL "Organize" folder. Posters in the windrivers forum mention 3rd party tools that convert AOL Favorites to IE Favorites, but that forum is from 2003 so the tools (if even still around) may not work.

If it has been years since you accessed them, the websites themselves may be gone, and though they may be archived at archive.org a Google search will not find them and you'd need the link.

Ah, great... more good info. I just wasn't finding much on this issue.

Ok, I think I figured it out at least in part, so embarrassing. When I did the complete recovery on this pc I never reinstalled AOL, so I did so, but all the favorites are blank. I don't think I am going to be able to retrieve them, for whatever reason. Also no way to find what I had with just a keyword. Thanks for your help GB's.

Ah, well you tried. Maybe you will run across them again.

Thanks Drac. I wish I would but not counting on it. Also just realized that I don't have my old favorites for IE. Guess when I did the complete recovery I lost it all. Such is life.

Yeah, I used AOL when I first got online by dial up. Painfully slow, expensive and nearly impossible to delete without completely clearing your PC. I would be surprised if anyone is still using it.

I really wasn't using AOL but had some favorites and email from years go (1998) and should have transferred it all elsewhere but didn't so I fear it's lost. I agree, it was dial up, and it was painfully slow.