Mysteriously AOL is no longer showing my e-mail files for various headings under which I was keeping some business correspondence etc. Are these lost forever? If not how should I set about finding them again? AOL has allowed me to save and keep 'incoming mail you've received' from some recent date but has seemingly erased even that from before.

Join the Club Fred Its happening to me Too AOL is NOT supposed to delete Custom Folders "Saved ON My PC" and its done so I have Made a folder in "Saved on AOL" Entitled "Saved for Later" this is got mails going back to 2006 ... can save the Folder to elsewhere and import it back (Forgot the Fine details) have posted it as a Tip somewhere ...quite straightforward I recall.


All I can suggest for the Present is LOOK under the "Old" and "Manage Email" Tabs
Check the Recently Deleted list Can " Restore" as new from here...ONLY GOOD FOR Approx 3 Months!

With your Job, Fred I Think Yahoo Zimbra Email Client will be Good for you. It Pulls all the Email off the AOL Server for your ScreenName. Need to be set up as regards Custom Folders and Your entire Emails will be saved to Your computer and not Lost even after AOL Has auto removed them off its server As I Post this Now It is showing 66 AOL emails @ Zimbra and 5 here in the InBoxes back to the Date when I started using the service
Not certain if Manual "Syncing " the Mail boxes online deletes Some mail?....Am Still Puzzled on that But I am Pleased it is Reliable Have Yahoo ,AOL and Gmail all together Making up a Mini archive
Setting up is Not too hard. It runs in the Background until you Need it.A 5 star program

Link to start you off (with some screenshots)
www.zimbra.com/products/desktop.html

Only thing that disappoints is the Download is about 40 MB (But there is a Lot of Features in the Program)