Filed under: Software, Bugs/Recalls
Anomalous AIM Activity Afflicts Adium, Aggravating All
For the past several weeks I've noticed some rather strange behavior with Adium, the free and open-source multiservice IM client. On random occasions I suddenly appear invisible or offline to contacts in my buddy list while logged into my AIM account. And I'm not alone. Not a day goes by that I don't find myself asking a friend or co-worker why they are not online, only to learn they share the same problem. Either that or they're all making this up in effort to avoid conversing with me -- I have that effect on people. The only cause to this problem, or pattern to its occurrence, I can come up with is a loose theory that it happens during periods of inactivity. My hunch is that when you appear "idle" AIM somehow misinterprets this as a disconnect. Locally you remain logged in, but AIM thinks otherwise. Luckily I may have discovered a workaround.
Launch iChat (quitting Adium is not required) and go into Preferences. Click on Accounts. Make sure your AIM account is selected, then click on the Security tab. Changing any of the settings in this options panel, then returning them to their original state, somehow magically vexes the problem, at least so far as I can tell.
I don't know whom to point fingers at in this case; AIM or Adium. Both begin with the letter A, so that makes each of them equally culpable in my opinion. Wherever the guilt may lie, I just want the problem fixed ASAP.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tim said 1:13PM on 10-28-2009
Sorry about the unrelated comment prior. You can delete that one please.
I've been having the same problem with Adium for a while now- except it only happens when I first log in.
Rebooting the computer and relaunching Adium doesn't solve it. Last night it was particularly bad. I wound up opening Adium and leaving it alone- after about a half hour, my buddy list finally showed up.
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Tim said 11:05PM on 10-28-2009
I know people comment that it could be related to AIM and that resetting the AIM privacy accounts... But why would the bug affect my yahoo and gmail instant messenger accounts as well?
Something's goofy anyhow.
robotrock said 1:24PM on 10-28-2009
The same behavior doesn't happen with AIM proper so I think it's an Adium issue. Especially since they're not using the official AIM API
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Chris said 2:16PM on 10-29-2009
What "official aim api" are you talking about exactly?
robotrock said 2:34PM on 10-29-2009
http://dev.aol.com/aim
novalidtitle said 1:38PM on 10-28-2009
I have this same issue but it has nothing to do with me being idle, it happens to me mid conversation quite frequently. Happens to a friend of mine also. The friend whom it happens to usually experiences it at the same time or within minutes of when I do. Both running Adium.
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Patrick said 1:45PM on 10-28-2009
Wow, thought I was the only one with this issue.
To fix this, all I did was the same thing, only within Adium. i.e. Switch the privacy preferences around and revert back. All of a sudden, all your friends show up on your buddy list. Weird.
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sjones411 said 1:44PM on 10-28-2009
I've been experiencing this as well, it's driving me nuts. I hope Adium finds a fix soon.
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Victor said 2:25PM on 10-28-2009
Not only does it do this with aim but it does it with facebook chat as well. I constantly get signed off, messages aren't sent, other friends using facebook chat over adium randomly signing off. I hate it. It's so annoying. But I guess ya can't win em all, Adium is still the best chat client out there.
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rudyarichter said 2:39PM on 10-28-2009
have you tried actually filing a bug against Adium instead of what seems to just be a public whine-fest? http://trac.adium.im/newticket
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Ken Sykora said 2:43PM on 10-28-2009
^^^^ What this guy said.
sholt said 2:54PM on 10-28-2009
If it's not in trac, it's not a bug.
...At least, not one any of the Adium devs know about.
rudyarichter said 3:04PM on 10-28-2009
to clarify sholt's comment, he is an adium dev.
rosciol said 2:45PM on 10-28-2009
Your condescending description of this post and its associated comments is unwarranted. Clearly there are many people who were not aware that this was actually an issue with Adium itself, rather than something that might be at issue with the underlying chat services themselves. That makes your notion of reporting it as a bug a bit silly, since the post itself was what led people, and I suspect you yourself, to believe it was a bug. Without that kind of evidence, it is not clear.
I myself have also experienced the problem while using Adium, albeit I experience it while signed in to Google Talk. I had thought the problem might stem from third party Google Talk clients, and I simply ignored the issue. Now that I know that it is a potential bug, I can do something about it.
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rudyarichter said 3:01PM on 10-28-2009
If you're having a problem with Adium you should file a bug, they would much rather have bugs they close as duplicates than have no bug reports at all. If there is no bug report, the problem doesn't actually exist. As of right now there is no bug logged in their tracking system that makes mention of an 'invisible state' issue.
Thomas said 2:46PM on 10-28-2009
There was a similar issue with iChat for a month or so that recently fixed itself, implying it was an aim issue. Status updates essentially weren't going through or were partially going through so sometimes you would say you were away but your status would be green, or online but status would be red, and so on.
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Cowicide said 3:23PM on 10-28-2009
Yeah, iChat on my 10.5.8 as been screwy lately for the past month off and on. I thought it was iChat until I also tested the online web app "AIM Express" and it also had problems that coincided with iChat. It's definitely problems with AOL's server, but in typical AOL fashion I can't find any support help on this issue anywhere.
There's more details here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2186401&start=0&tstart=0
And here:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10410731#10410731
Daniel said 3:04PM on 10-28-2009
Ive had the same issue for some time now, but only when I'm at home. And thats when I realized that it was some how related to my computer constantly disconnecting and reconnecting to my router (even though it appears to stay connected through the whole ordeal). My temporarty solution has been to use an ethernet cable directly into my laptop, instead of using airport when Im at home.
I also use my laptop on the wireless at work and it has no issues there.
:/
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Daniel said 3:04PM on 10-28-2009
Oh and btw, this issue got WORSE when I upgraded to Snow Leopard.
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littlebill said 3:28PM on 10-28-2009
I found a situation when I had TOO many people on my buddy list... I pruned my list and suddenly I was online, my buddy list appeared, and I wasn't invisible.
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