Helpful Tip for Messages for Mac Beta Users With Mac.com AIM IDs

Dan Frakes:

With Messages beta, my colleagues don’t see me as being online. Fewer work interruptions, I suppose.

I had the same problem. I could see my AIM buddies, but none of my AIM buddies could see me. (Listeners of The Talk Show live broadcast last week could hear me discover this problem.) I think the problem only affects AIM users with a @mac.com AIM ID. When you upgrade from iChat to Messages, Messages assumes you want to use @me.com as your AIM ID. Apple itself treats [email protected] and [email protected] as synonymous, but AIM does not. So what Messages is doing is logging you in as [email protected], but you need to be logged in as [email protected] for your buddies to see you.

Solution: Delete your AIM account in Messages’s preferences, then recreate it. In addition to restoring your visibility to your buddies, it also restores your ability to transfer files.

★ Tuesday, 21 February 2012