Buddies disappear from iChat buddy list

iChat users may experience a situation in which added buddies will disappear from their buddy lists. This may occur immediately after adding the buddy, or soon after.

TK90:

"I added a new buddy, the buddy seems to come online, blink a couple of times and then disappear and I cannot find them in the online or the offline groups! I tried deleting some buddies because I think AIM has a limit, but that does not seem to help the issue."

Several users with this problem seem to assume there must be some limit to the AIM service. While the buddy list for AIM users to be limited to 150 people, this number has increased over the years--up to 500 users for AIM Express, and Apple's documentation suggests for iChat the limit is 200 contacts. If any limits would be imposed, they would be server-side such as a limit to the number of simultaneous connections, active buddies, or open chat sessions.

This problem could be due to buddy list size limits, or could also be caused by problems with the list itself and conflicts with how the list is being stored or loaded. Affected users have done the following to fix the problem:

Potential Fixes

Check the buddy list names Small typos can easily lead to new contacts not being accepted by the AIM service. While iChat should give an error claiming the username is invalid, it is possible iChat may not give this error and the username will just disappear from the list.

Restart the computer One or two users have found that restarting the computer reset whatever was causing the problem. Many users keep their computers on and put the computer into sleep mode instead of shutting down. As such, any problems that requires a restart may be overlooked.

Edit the buddy list using AIM Some users have had this issue coupled with problems where an improperly edited username keeps appearing when they attempt to add the user. If there are problems with the buddy list, especially since it's stored on the AIM servers, users can try editing the list using the AOL instant messenger client software instead of the iChat client. Alternatively, users should be able to use the AIM express web client to add or remove AIM buddies.

Reset Address book entries, or the whole address book In addition to #3, usernames can also be stored in the Address Book application, which in turn can synchronize to MobileMe and mobile devices. If there is a problem with a username it can be synced to other devices, resulting in the improper username being used. Ensure the AIM username in the address book is not entered improperly. This should be checked on the computer as well as on synchronized devices. To fully reset the Address Book, users should remove the contents of /username/Library/Application Support/Address Book/. This will clear all contacts, so users should back up their contacts before doing this.

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