Can You Forward AOL Mail Automatically? What Works Instead

Short answer: no. AOL’s help says automatic forwarding of email isn’t offered at this time — you can only forward emails one at a time. Pages promising a hidden AOL forwarding setting are out of date or wrong.

Forward a single email

1. Open the email.
2. At the top of the message, click the Forward icon.
3. Enter the address you want to send it to.
4. Click Send.

The practical alternative: read AOL in another app

If the goal is to see AOL mail alongside another account, add your AOL address to the same email app instead of forwarding:

• Apple Mail, Samsung Email and Thunderbird can sign in with AOL’s own sign-in page — choose the AOL option when adding the account.
• Other apps (Outlook desktop, the Gmail app, Windows Mail) need an app password generated on your AOL Account Security page. See AOL Mail security.
• Use IMAP, not POP, so mail stays on AOL’s server and stays in sync. Server names and ports: AOL Mail settings.

Forwarding a few emails?

For a handful of messages, forward them one by one as above. Forwarded copies come from your AOL address, so the recipient sees them as sent by you; if you only need to keep a message, moving it into a folder in AOL is quicker.

Leaving AOL? Do it in this order

1. Set up the new address — see how to create a free email account.
2. Add AOL to your new email app with IMAP, as above, so you can still read and reply to AOL mail in one place.
3. Update your important accounts — bank, utilities, shopping, social media — to the new address.
4. Tell your contacts, and consider a temporary vacation response in AOL announcing the new address.
5. Keep signing in to AOL now and then. AOL deletes accounts that haven’t been signed in to for 24 months, and you may still need the address to recover old accounts.

Be careful with “forwarding services”

Some websites and apps offer to forward AOL mail for you. Giving a third party your AOL password lets it read everything in your mailbox. If you use one, give it an app password (which you can delete later) rather than your main password, and remove the app password when you stop using it. AOL’s documentation notes app passwords stay active even after you change your main password, until you delete them.

Something else not working? See AOL Mail troubleshooting.