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AOL Instant Messenger is being discontinued on 2017-12-15. I have not used it regularly in quite a while, but I wanted to at least export my buddy list. I found a way using Javascript and browser dev tools. It’s not the most user-friendly, but it’s better than nothing.
Thanks for these instructions! The steps worked fine for me (after some trouble getting back to aim.com after logging in w/ my AOL credentials).
For weird nostalgia’s sake, I also wanted to export my block list!
This turns out to be simpler than getting the whole buddy list.
First, visit http://www.aim.com/.settings
Then, run this in the console to output every AIM id in the block list:
for (var el of document.querySelectorAll('li[aimid]')){
console.log(el.getAttribute('aimid'));
}
You should then be able to copy the list out of the console and paste it… somewhere. Maybe print it out and draw some skulls on it and slide it into an old Trapper Keeper from middle school.