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How do I turn off AOL auto-login?

I had a friend visit and while he was here he changed my America Online (AOL) settings so that it now automatically logs in to his account every time I turn the system on. This is bad! How do I turn this feature off?

Dave's Answer:

You're not the first person to find that the AOL interface software can be a bit baffling. Indeed, even I sometimes find it surprisingly difficult to make changes to the AOL settings at times! :-)

There are two ways you can change the autologin capability with AOL. Let's start with the more common way to accomplish this task.

Enter this and you'll get to a screen that makes it pretty obvious how to turn on (or off) the automatic sign on feature:

Notice that my account is already set up for automatic login for the specified screen name. To disable this, just unclick the checkbox. If you do turn this on then you'll get an important warning:

I encourage you to think carefully about that before you decide to enable this feature!

Now, it turns out there's a second way to get to this settings dialog if you have the AOL icon on your taskbar: right click on the icon then choose AOL 9.0 --> AOL 9.0 Settings...:

This produces the following dialog box:

And so you can make the changes by clicking on the Start-up Settings.

Good luck!

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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics (Article 5889)
Tagged: america online, aol
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Next: Do you need to join AOL to use a cable modem?

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Comments

Dear Dave: Thanks so much for this article. I have been trying EVERYTHING and this is what I needed to know.

Posted by: Rita at September 26, 2006 12:22 AM

dave,

every time i log on to aol.com my email account shows up but i need to get on to my friends email account what do i do?

Posted by: karl at October 23, 2006 6:07 PM

How do I turn OFF automatic AOL?

Posted by: Jane at January 6, 2007 9:35 AM

I was actually looking for how to set up my AOL to sign me on automatically. After reading this, I did the opposite and now it signs me on when my computer starts. Thank you for the help.

Posted by: Wolfe Masters at February 24, 2007 11:39 AM

I already tried everything on aol's page entitled;
"How do I turn off AOL auto-login?"
However, I still have auto-aol.
I would like to turn it off completely.
Please tell me how this is done.
I have stopped 'automatic scheduling'
but I still have auto-aol.
Thank-you, in advance, for your help.
oneswtmama@aol.com

Posted by: TRUE at April 16, 2007 1:26 PM

Hey I'm on Aol 9.0 now and that keyword does not exist I cant even find aol auto login

Posted by: Joeff at May 6, 2007 2:42 PM

For some reason AOL will log in whenever it feels like it. If I have my computer on, at some time it will log on. There is no rhyme or reason for the times it chooses to log-in, as far as I know.I know some programs have an auto-update, but when it logs on it never goes to any update site etc. This is a big problem because we only can get dial-up. Any ideas?

Thanks

Posted by: Tom at May 19, 2007 5:54 AM

I depated putting AOL on my new lap top for about 3 months now but I couldn't take it anymore and installed it. I just kept using the www.aol.com every time I needed my mail. I'm an aol junky since it's birth and my concerns were over the 9.0 Security which was a huge problem for me, but seems that has been resolved. However, thanks to you this process was painful and this is the BEST install of AOL I've EVER done!!! God, where were you years ago!!! You are the best, thanks a million!!! :-)
Luna Rayo...

Posted by: Luna Rayo at October 22, 2007 2:02 PM

I used to be able to auto login when I initiated the dialup connection, and now I cannot do that and it asks me for my userid and password everytime. I want to change it back so that when I connect to AOL through a modem connection, that it automatically logs me in to AOL.

Thank you.

Posted by: Jim Jones at January 3, 2008 4:41 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!