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PCDOTS Team ~ Published: 02-Sep-2025 ~ AOL ~ 7 Minutes Reading

Best Ways to Download Attachments from AOL Mail to Your Computer

Freeing up some space from your AOL account or just want to create a local backup of all your email attachments? Unable to download attachments from AOL Mail? Here, you will learn the best ways to troubleshoot common errors and easily extract all attachments from AOL mail in minimal time. Follow along with us to get updated with the latest solution.

AOL Mail (American Online) was launched in 1993 and has been one of the best email platforms for over a decade. However, the lack of innovation and the introduction of new services like Gmail and Outlook have led to a steady decline in its user base. While some users want to completely backup all email data to another service, others simply want to download all attachments from AOL Mail for business needs, storage management, and other purposes.

Unable to Download Attachments from AOL Mail?

Although extracting AOL attachments should be the easiest task, due to some common mistakes and lack of understanding, it turns out to be complicated. However, if you take care of the following points, you can easily save the attachment embedded in an AOL email.

  • You need to make sure that you are not using an outdated browser. Some outdated browsers may not support certain AOL features.
  • Check if your internet connection is working properly. A slow and unstable connection cannot download attachments from AOL Mail.
  • Corrupted attachments can be one of the issues that can prevent you to open attachments in AOL Mail.
  • Sometimes there may be server maintenance or temporary server outage, preventing you from downloading all the attachments from the AOL Mail account.

These are some of the common issues that you need to make sure to fix to start your task efficiently.

How to Download Attachments from AOL Mail?

There are two basic methods to extract AOL mail attachments. First, you can do it using the AOL account itself. However, the AOL account does not provide any option to save all the attachments from the account at once. And you have to go through each email one by one to save the attachment.

On the other hand, there is a direct solution that allows you to save all the attachments from the AOL account at once without going through each email. The direct solution is more efficient and faster. Now, let’s get ready to go through the manual and direct methods and understand which one is best for you.

Manual Way to Extract Attachment from AOL Account

  1. Go to your web browser, open AOL and sign in with your credentials.
  2. Go to the specific folder from where you want to save the attachments.
  3. Open the specific email to extract the attachment.
  4. Click on Download all attachments as zip
  5. The file will be downloaded to your computer and you can extract it later.
  6. If you want to download the individual attachment, hover over the attachment.
  7. Click on the Download icon Image.
  8. This will save your attachment to your computer, usually in the download folder.

So, that’s how AOL allows you to download attachments. This method is free but has certain drawbacks, which you can review below.

Limitations of the Method

  • You need to open each email one by one to download the attachments, which may take hours of even days.
  • This method only allows you to download attachments from a single AOL email at a time. Therefore It’s not suitable for bulk downloads.
  • Since the process will be repetitive, there is a high chance of omitting or missing attachments when downloading them.

If you need to download only a few attachments from AOL, this method is preferable for you. However, if you have hundreds or unlimited attachments to extract, you need the automated solution for an efficient and time-saving process.

Automated Method to Download All Attachments from AOL Mail

Email Backup Wizard is the solution that can solve the problem of unable to download attachments from AOL mail. Unlike the manual method, the software allows you to download multiple attachments from AOL mailboxes at once in no time. It does not require you to open and review each attachment. It is a complete specialized software that automates the overall process.

Download Now Purchase Now

This AOL attachment extractor is a completely user-friendly software that allows users to control the overall process. This specialized method is low-cost and is available in a completely free edition that you can download from the above link. You can also check out the steps below to understand how to use it.

Steps to Download All Attachment from Multiple AOL Emails

  1. Download the software using the link above. Then, install and launch it on Windows.
    download tool to extract attachments from aol
  2. Now, navigate to Open >> Email Accounts >> Add Accounts.
    click open and add account
  3. Enter your AOL Mail credentials and then click Add.
    enter aol credentials
  4. Your AOL mailboxes will be synced on the software
    loaded aol mailboxes
  5. Next, click the Extract option and select Attachments.
    click extract and attachments
  6. Click browse and select location to save attachments and click “Save” button.

It’s done! This is how you can automate the process and solve the problem of unable to download attachments from AOL. This software simply seems beneficial compared to manual methods. However, if you need one more reason to use it, read below.

Benefits of the Automated AOL Attachment Extractor 

  • The software is easy to use and helpful for non-technical users.
  • Allows you to download attachments from AOL Mail in bulk without any error.
  • Automate the entire process and does not require you to review each and every attachment in the email.
  • Extract attachments from multiple AOL email accounts without any downtime.
  • Save the extracted attachments to any folder on your computer’s internal and external drive.
  • In addition to download attachments, this tool also allows you to move AOL emails to iCloud and other platforms.
  • Completely reliable and does not miss any attachments during bulk downloads.
  • Works completely standalone and does not require support from additional platforms.
  • AOL Attachment Extractor is compatible with all the devices running Windows operating system.

In Conclusion

If you are unable to download attachments from AOL Mail, then read the informative content of this blog post. Above, we have explained how to fix the errors if you cannot download attachments from AOL account. We have provided you a solution to resolve the errors.

We have guided you to the manual method which is time-consuming and very hectic as you will have to open and review each email one by one to extract the attachment. Secondly, we have introduced the direct solution that allows you to download all attachments from AOL in bulk without any hurdle. We suggest you to follow the manual method if you have few files to save. However, if you have a large data set, then the automatic software is suitable for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to download attachments from AOL Mail on computer?

Login to your AOL account and open the email from which you need to download the attachment. Then, click the Download icon. Your selected email attachment will be saved to the default download folder on your computer.


Can I download multiple attachments from AOL Mail at once?

To download all attachments from multiple AOL mailboxes at once without opening each one by one, use the best PCDOTS AOL attachment extractor.


Why am I unable to download attachments from AOL Mail?

This may be because of the browser settings, antivirus restrictions or unsupported file formats. You may try to clean your browser cache, or switch to another browser.


Where are AOL Mail attachments saved after downloading?

Your AOL attachments will be saved to your computer’s default “Download” folder.


What should I do if my AOL Mail attachment is downloading as a winmail.dat file?

This may happen when the sender uses Outlook with RTF format. You may use a viewer tool to extract the actual attachments.