AOL Desktop for Mac 1.6 (Beta 1) Now Available!
Posted Aug 7th 2009 12:31PM by Lee Givens
Filed under: Beta News, AOL Desktop for Mac
The AOL Mac Team has worked very closely with a large number of our users and we're tackling one of the biggest issues reported by our users - mail performance. AOL Desktop for Mac 1.6 is focused mainly on performance. You'll see improved mail perfomance and a new Mailbox Activity panel that will tell you what's going! As usual, please leave a comment below and we'll make sure we answer your questions. 
Head over to AOL Beta Central to get a copy today!
What is fixed in 1.6?
- Overall improvements and optimizations for Mail. Mailbox optimization process has been added and will improve mail performance.
- Fixed embedded mail graphic issue for Safari 4 users.
- Fixed attachments using AppleDouble encoding.
- Fixed in-line attachments to mail messages.
- Fixed various memory issues to improve stability of application.
- Fixed a mail duplication issue when mail is moved from Inbox to a folder and back again.
- Fixed naming of folders with special characters.
- Fixed an issue when attempting to rename a mail folder.
- Emoticons will now render correctly when viewing AIM logs.
There are some new Known Issues as well, make sure to check them out.
Important Notes:
- Users with large mailboxes may experience increased Mail Activity on first sign-in while we optimize your mailbox. Optimization time depends on the speed of your Macintosh, your Internet connection and number of mail messages in your mailbox. You may continue to read and send mail while mail optimization is running. You can view the status of the mail optimization by viewing the Mail Activity progress in the lower left side of the mailbox.
Other Beta User Notes:
- Both the GM version of AOL Desktop for Mac 1.5 and AOL Desktop for Mac 1.6 Beta 1 will coexist on the same Macintosh.
- When we released AOL Desktop for Mac 1.0-1.5, we changed the mail folder structure so that you can try out new betas of AOL Desktop without changing your GM setup. You can move your mail folder between Beta and GM by moving the mail folders located under ~User/Application Support/ on your Mac OS X user account.
Lee Givens
AOL Mac/iPhone Product Lead
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About The Team
Welcome to the Mac@AOL Blog. My name is Lee Givens and I'm the Product Lead for the Mac and iPhone products at AOL. You can find the latest information on AOL's software development on the Mac and any cool happenings at AOL. The purpose of the blog is to create a feedback loop so we can hear from our loyal AOL Mac users. Managing a blog is a lot of work, so I enlisted support from the whole team...the Mac team is made up of dedicated Macintosh developers, QA engineers and Product folks.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1. Is there any way to delete folders I no longer need in my Incoming & Saved Mail? Hilighting & delete doesn't work, there is a + to add mail folders but no - to delete, also dragging to trash does not work. (I am on a Mac OS10.4.11)
Posted at 6:09PM on Aug 8th 2009 by Huck2428
2. please add the feature of signing on invisible soon! also, is there anyway you can let users appear idle when there not away from their computers - setting the amount of time one has been idle, etc.
Posted at 12:11PM on Aug 11th 2009 by Dave
3. Could you please add an "export" feature for email? An option to save it as a text file and/or export to other email programs such as Mail?
Posted at 2:02AM on Aug 14th 2009 by Claire
4. Any chance of a UK version?
Posted at 7:06AM on Aug 22nd 2009 by Xeonwales
5. Nice to know that Beta and "GM" can reside on the same Macintosh, at least, I think it is nice to know; now, tell me what "GM" means, and thanks for assuming I know everything. That's flattering, but absolutely untrue.
Posted at 1:24AM on Aug 20th 2009 by stan
6. As a new mac user but longtime AOL user, one of the most disappointing things to me so far is the "search mail" function. Unless I'm missing something, there is no option to search mail and saved folders by content, only by subject matter and sender. I may regrettably have to stop using AOL for this reason so I hope that I AM missing something and it can in fact be done! I look forward to any responses on this subject. Thanks!
Posted at 11:20AM on Aug 25th 2009 by macnewbie101
7. Will AOL Desktop for Mac 1.6 be compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard?
Posted at 9:19AM on Aug 29th 2009 by Sandy
8. Can you find a way to export w-email addresses to Mail including Groups and individuals? This a big frustration .
Posted at 3:37PM on Sep 2nd 2009 by C.J. McCloskey
9. AOL is driving my wife (who gets about 75 emails a day related to her education volunteer work) nuts. Part of the problem is the email footer ads slowing things down. Spent two hours with live help to no avail. Though the website shows
"Show the message footer at the bottom of each email you send" unchecked, makes no difference.
I have tried different computers, different browsers, restarts, Beta 1.6 to no avail.
Royal pain in the you know what that drives my wife nuts to put it mildly.
Posted at 6:00PM on Sep 4th 2009 by D Rosenberg
10. Discovered something. My wife had used 1 to 4 asterices in front of last names in address book to make it sort the way she wanted it. AOL does not like asterices. Enter the name and address would go in but no quotation marks and no comma after email address and could not type anywhere else on document.
Apparently relates to multiple cap use. Numbers, equals sign, semicolons, dashes worked just fine.
Live help could never have figured this out.
Posted at 11:36AM on Sep 5th 2009 by D Rosenberg
11. AOL for Mac 1.6.612 Beta, Test results follow:
1. Browser works fine, except slow to open : ~ 1min
2. Emails New & Old work fine, slow to open ~ 45 sec 28 new emails,
3. Email Incoming /Saved have major problems:
3.1 With Date column highlighted, all eBay emails are at the bottome of the date list ( below 1997),
in a random date listing.
3.2 After opening Incoming /Saved , it takes an additional 10 min to add about 30 emails at the top
of list ( above todays date ) . These emails all are 1-2 years old and all have the incorrect
current date. The good news is, unlike 1.6B, there is content in the emails.
4. After sign off and closing it takes about 5 min to finally shut down.
I am pleased to report this is the best progress I have seen from AOL for Mac in 5 years.
Because of these problems we are still forced to use Classic from 9-28-05. Why is it taking 5 years for AOL to fix AOL for Mac ?
When is the next Beta ( after 1.6.612) for Mac due ?
Regards,
Posted at 1:53PM on Sep 6th 2009 by Robert Broze
12. Please add the tabbed email like in the 10.1 version for windows!!! Also, if you could add access to multiple email accounts (like the 10.1 version) that would be great!!!
Posted at 1:40AM on Sep 20th 2009 by r3684
13. I tried downloading the New 1.6 Beta. My mac is running Snow leopard
10.6.1 and each time I try to install the beta, it will not allow me
to choose my macintosh HD to install to, because it keeps saying that
I already have a newer version installed. What is the problem? The
only other version I have on my Mac is the regular AOL desktop for
Mac 1.5
Posted at 2:32PM on Sep 21st 2009 by Jim
14. If anyone knows how to bypass the message I described above soI can get the Beta downloaded please let me know. Apple tried assisting and could not help. I even trashed all versions of AOL on my mac and still could not download the beta?
Posted at 2:37PM on Sep 21st 2009 by Jim
15. I use an External Apple Modem (v. 92) most of the time, so I like to do as much off-line as possible. With AOL Desktop for Mac 1.5 I was not able to retrieve the body of my Off-Line composed messages from the Draft Box but I am very happy to see that it now works in AOL Desktop for Mac 1.6 Beta 1 (Build 620). I would also like to be able to set all my Preferences Off-Line.
Posted at 2:39PM on Sep 27th 2009 by Sandy
16. When I click ”Sign Out” I eventually get a “Good Bye” but the Modem Status in the Menu Bar continues to display “Disconnecting…” until I manually select “Connect” and then “Disconnect” again. I have checked “Disconnect when user logs out” in the Network Preferences panel. It worked as it should with Mac OS X 10.5.9 Leopard but both AOL Desktop for Mac 1.5 and AOL Desktop for Mac 1.6 Beta 1 (Build 620) have this problem disconnecting under Mac OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard.
Posted at 2:43PM on Sep 27th 2009 by Sandy
17. After using AOL Desktop for Mac 1.6 Beta 1 (Build 620) for a while, I am still unable to see my mail that I’ve saved locally in the “On My Mac” folder. Is it stored on an AOL server and supposed to be downloaded to my Mac? The SQL database for my Personal Filing Cabinet (PFC) is very large, 91.1 MB, but I don’t even see the “Read” or “Sent” folders, which are much smaller. Also, the messages in my PFC go back a number of years and I have carried them along through several AOL upgrades, “Compressing” the file a number of times along the way. I would not like these messages to be lost or corrupted or have their dates altered in the process of your “Optimization.” I am currently using Mac OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard and an External Apple Modem (v. 92) most of the time except when I occasionally go to the library and use their WiFi with Airport.
Posted at 2:47PM on Sep 27th 2009 by Sandy
18. Same issue someone else mentioned. You cannot edit your folders once you create them in "My Folders". Very frustrating. You also can't move something in one folder to another. So if you accidentally, "drop" something into the wrong folder you are struck with it. Finally, you cannot SAVE your e-mails to you desktop as with previous versions. You can ONLY save to an AOL 'my folder".
Posted at 7:22PM on Oct 3rd 2009 by Lynn Chang
19. Nice to know that Beta and "GM" can reside on the same Macintosh, at least, I think it is nice to know; now, tell me what "GM" means, and thanks for assuming I know everything. That's flattering, but absolutely untrue. http://www.cirurgia-plastica.com
Posted at 3:14PM on Oct 12th 2009 by valter
20. AOL Desktop for Mac seems to be forever in "beta." Even final "release" versions - such as 1.5 (559) - are no more than beta-test versions that have lived too long without being fixed.
The biggest improvement to AOL Desktop for Mac would be to add a Preference Menu feature that allows the user to forward ALL mail received automatically to another e-mail account, such as MobileMe.
Posted at 3:33PM on Oct 19th 2009 by Ron Streicher