AOL Bebo Migration Issues

The migration of AOL Profiles to Bebo didn’t go as smoothly as planned. For the most part there seems to be great lack of knowledge among AOL members over the inner workings of Bebo. AOL will have to address these issues in some shape or form. These issues were posted by members on various forums and websites.

Each issue is color coded based on whether a workaround exists or not. Workarounds are linked to the individual who found the solution. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to figure out all the problems you have with Bebo, However, if you find a solution to a problem please post in the comments section. I will keep this list up to date as I get notified of new details.

Updated: 5/12/09

 

Unable to change gender from Male to Female

Description:  Users have reported they are unable to change their gender from Male to Female. When a user changes to their appropriate gender, Bebo will reset as if the changes were not made.

AOL’s Response: No response from AOL could be found.

Workaround: No known workaround.

 

Bebo added extra numbers to my screen name or someone with my screen name is using my profile.

Description: Some screen names may find they have extra numbers added to their Bebo profile. Bebo will add extra numbers to your screen name if someone already registered your name before the Bebo transition. For example, if your screen name is “Sally”, and someone registered that name on Bebo before you, your Bebo profile will add numbers “Sally12″ so that both of you won’t have the same profile.

 

 

Bebo messages sent to the wrong AOL user who shares the same screen name. 

Description: There are some scattered reports of AOL users who have the same screen name with another Bebo member.  The AOL users who report appear to be confused that someone on Bebo registered their screen name before them and thus their screen name now has numbers added to it.

The complaints arise from AOL users who receive messages that were addressed to the original Bebo username. Unfortunately, we don’t have much information about this particular bug as very very few people reported it.  It’s possible that there may be a glitch where two Bebo users are sharing the same inbox, but their profiles are entirely different. If you have a problem similar to this please comment below.

 

Bebo did not migrate information and photos from AOL Profiles

Description: Some users reported how their profiles were completely wiped out when they transitioned over to Bebo.

Workaround: Lucien Iteratus posted a workaround where you can access your old AIM Profiles for a limited time. Essentially you should copy information from that profile over to the Bebo profile. This backdoor has been shut down by AOL. In April 09,  AOL has moved all AIM photos into Bebo.

• Copy and Paste the address below.
• Replace xx with your screen name
• http://memberdirectory.aol.ca/aolus/profile?sn=xx

AOL’s Response: AOL has not addressed lost information. AIM Photos have successfully transferred over during April, 09.

 

 

Unable to edit basic profile information.

Description: Some users are unable to edit their profile information.  When one tries to change this information the profile reverts back as if no changes were made.

Workaround: AOL Message board member Moondancer  posted a workaround. Click “Edit Profile” at your Bebo.com profile. In the “Name” text box, make the first letter uppercase. If you change the first letter to lowercase, Bebo will not allow you to save any changes.

AOL’s Response: No response from AOL could be found.

 

 

Buddy Group “Profile Friends” shows up in your buddy List and cannot be deleted. The message “An error has occurred please try again later” appears if you try to delete the group on AOL.

Description: Some users reported a buddy group called “Profile Friends” on their AIM Buddy List. Members are unable to delete the group. The screen names of your Bebo.com friends will get added to this group. Removing your friends from Bebo will delete them from your buddy list.

Workaround: AOL Message board member Soozy posted a workaround.  After April 6th, AOL has fixed this bug.

• Sign into Bebo.com with your AIM screen name.
• Click “Friends” at the top black bar in the website.
• All your friends will be listed with a Red X at the top right corner of their picture.
• Click the Red X to delete each of your friends from Bebo.com
• After you remove ALL your friends from Bebo.com, sign off of AOL or AIM.
• Sign back onto an official AOL / AIM program and the “Bebo Friends” group will be gone.
• The “Bebo Friends” group will reappear if you add a new friend to Bebo.com
• If you cancel your Bebo account, it will take 24+ hours before the buddy group is removed from your buddy list.

 

AOL’s Response:  “At this point we do not support deleting Bebo Groups” -dev forum

Recommendation: AOL should allow the option of turning on or off your Bebo Friends group. Currently there is no way to manually delete the group without deleting all your friends.

 

 

 

AOL Profile module, “Code Snippet”, is missing on some profiles.

Description: In this case the AOL exclusive module, “code snippet”, is missing for AOL/AIM profiles.  Bebo forbids adding AOL exclusive modules to your page even though your profile originated from AOL/AIM.

Workaround: No workaround exists yet. You can try an alternative application. If you entered text within Code Snippet before February, 2009, it will show up in your Bebo modules list.

AOL’s Response:  No response from AOL could be found.

 

 

Friends from previous profile are missing with Bebo update

Description: Some friends who were added before the Bebo migration do not show up now.

Workaround: Visit your friend’s profile and manually add them back.

AOL’s Response: AOL is aware of this issue and included it in a blog posting. AOL automatically updated the missing friends during a 3/20/09 update.

 

 

Unable to edit About Me and code snippet modules

Description: Some users are unable to edit the “About Me”  and “Code Snippet” module.

Workaround: Both “About Me” and “Code Snippet” modules do not support Internet Explorer 6. You will need to upgrade your browser to one of the choices presented on this browser upgrade page.

AOL’s Response: Bebo states some features are not supported by older versions of Internet Explorer.

Recommendation: Since other modules are compatible with IE6, these two modules should be reprogrammed.

[AOL/AIM  Bebo Migration Guide]