Calling all you AOL mail experts!

September 20, 2012 11:22 AM

How to, as the default, block html/images from *all* senders (not just "untrusted senders") when accessing AOL email via the web? Or alternatively, how to reset that trusted sender list?

A simple fix is best, but more advanced approaches are fine. If the answer is to only access via an email client, then I guess we'll do that, but it's easier for her to access via web.

posted by mrs. taters to Technology (2 answers total)

Best answer: Hello, Marshall McLuhan here. I added this feature to AOL Webmail back when I worked there. The "trusted senders" are simply the addresses in your contact list. When you click "Don't block this sender", it works by adding that sender to your contacts. So you simply have to delete the contacts of those senders from whom you don't want to see images. This is admittedly a bit annoying if these are people who you sometimes send emails to.

Keep in mind that when you write an email, the recipients are automatically added to your contacts. You may want to disable this if you're worried about images they might send. Go to Settings / Compose, and uncheck "Automatically add email addresses to Contacts".

AFAIK, there is no option to block images for all senders, short of deleting all contacts. (There's an option to show images for all senders, but that's not very helpful, I guess.)
posted by Sxyzzx at 9:02 PM on September 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Firefox lets you turn off automatic loading of all images in Tools -> Options -> Content. So if you use a different browser you could install it and use it just for checking email. If you use Firefox normally you could install a Firefox derivative like Pale Moon instead, which has the same controls.

(If you really want to view an image you can right-click and pick "View Image".)
posted by XMLicious at 2:28 AM on September 21, 2012 [1 favorite]