Locked out of my AIM account

April 21, 2007 3:53 PM

Help, I lost my AIM account.

I had my password for AIM saved for years on my local computer. I tried to sign on from another pc but I didn't remember the password. I then asked AIM to reset my password, but I guess I don't know what email address i used to sign up for aim like 9 years ago, so I can't get to that either, and now I can't logon from the PC where I had my password previously saved.

Am I up a creek here or is there a way to get it back?

posted by empath to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

This page may prove useful, though it looks like AOL doesn't have the reset-with-birthday-and-other-info option anymore.
posted by niles at 4:10 PM on April 21, 2007

Response by poster: Second question-- I have my buddy list saved in Trillian. How do I move all those buddies from one screen name to a new screen name if I change them?
posted by empath at 4:20 PM on April 21, 2007

importing a buddy list with trillian is pretty easy. if you have to get a new AIM sn, don't delete the info for the old on. just add the new one as a new connection. your contacts should still be on your list, and you'll be able to add them to your new sn.
posted by kendrak at 4:42 PM on April 21, 2007

I know someone who worked out a similar problem this way: Phone AOL and tell them you want to sign up for a dialup account and you want to use your existing AIM screen name as the screen name for the dialup account but you're having trouble remembering the password. They provide password recovery options to customers of their ISP service that aren't available to users of their web-based services. Then cancel the dialup account before the free trial is up.

That was a while ago so I can't guarantee that it still works but it wouldn't hurt to try.
posted by winston at 8:23 PM on April 21, 2007

You don't even need to cancel the dial-up account, just change it to a free account.
posted by kindall at 10:47 AM on April 22, 2007