As you may know, AOL Pictures is shutting down. This product had a previous name, “You’ve Got Pictures (YGP)”; many users probably have photo albums stored there that they possibly paid for through Walgreen’s partnerships in the past. More likely, users have important, rare pictures that they don’t have saved on other devices. In a matter of minutes you can save your photos before AOL removes them, forever.
AOL doesn’t exactly go back on their decisions based on community feedback. In fact, they never have unless it results in potential regulatory and congressional restrictions – like retention or user-identifiable data. That said, AOL Pictures is slated for permanent shutdown on December 31st, and you better hurry up.
AOL Pictures is a service where users are able to upload their photos in an “albums” format, allowing people to keep them relatively organized indefinitely. Until now. AOL has provided users a few options: transferring them to PhotoWorks, downloading them to your computer or purchasing a DVD backup of your images.
I never heard of PhotoWorks, nor do I trust it. PhotoWorks is operated by American Greetings, which is a for-profit, subscription based company. The opportunity for them to hold your pictures hostage is too great. Instead, I recommend users download pictures themselves for free and later transfer that to another service. The purchased DVD can get unreasonably expensive, considering it’s an automated process, starting at $15 and going up $5 per 1000 photos. You do not have to purchase a DVD.
How to Back Up (Save) AOL Pictures to Your Computer
To back up your photos, you must have a valid AOL or AIM screen name. Some users may have spread photos across multiple screen names; you will possibly need to sign into each one accordingly. This can be a time-consuming process, so don’t delay.
- Go to AOL Pictures by navigating to http://pictures.aol.com/.
- Sign in with your AOL/AIM screen name. You will be signed in when you see “My Album” on the upper right region of the screen.
- Select the ”Download my pictures to my computer” radio button.
- Click GO.
- Click the blue “Download” button.
- Check the “Select All Albums” checkbox.
- Click the “Download Now” blue button.
- Wait for the download to complete.
The downloaded pictures will be downloaded into a ZIP file, which is convenient for later archiving/burning to a CD or DVD. However, many desire hosting their images elsewhere for convenience and reliability. To do that, you must extract the files from the ZIP file. You may try right-clicking the file and select “Extract.” Otherwise, you may need a program like 7zip to do it for free.
After you downloaded the photos, you will probably want to know what to do with them. That will be in the next entry. 
It’s that simple. AOL provided this option for users who are ferociously passionate for their photos. However, it’s difficult for AOL to get the word out. I suggest to tell your buddies to check this out. Remember, AOL Pictures used to be the number one photo service on the Web before Flickr; there must be millions of images at risk for being lost forever.
NOTE: Some people have reported extreme slowness despite using a cable or DSL provider, so it may be desirable to reboot and power cycle your modem/router to minimize connection timeouts. Have patience, your photos will be downloaded. Do not close your Web browser during the download process.