Rub-ons chipping off old layouts?

Mine are all still fine and some layouts are 19 years old. Nothing cracked or came off still.
In fact I just used some unopened Ginx letter rub ons from 2005 this past weekend and they went on like butter. Yet some newer ones are really hard to rub on.

Updated to add that my layouts are all in page protectors in albums.

I love the look of them but never used them because I was afraid that could happen or that I would tear it while applying it.

I wonder if the manufacturer could give you some tips on how to either preserve what's still in place or remove them.

Yes. For the time being I haven't done anything with them so I'll be watching this thread.

I also noticed while going through albums a couple weeks ago that I have three We R Memory Keepers albums that the metal ring piece has separated from the rest of the album and two with corner pieces missing. My albums are stored in my scraproom and taken down *maybe* once or twice a year to look at them so they're not being handle excessively or roughly. I'm super disappointed! They were all purchased at Archivers so I guess I'll have to contact WeR to see if they have suggestions.

I made an entire 8x8 album with a CK class kit I bought quite a few years back. Pages were all in protectors, book was in storage in the main part of my house (no excess light, heat, humidity). When I unpacked it after I moved, ALL of the rub-ons on EVERY page had dried up and crumbled off and were in a pile of little black crusties at the bottom of every page protector!   GRRR. And the worst part is that all of those rub-ons were custom to that kit and integral to the design of every page, so now they all look odd without the rub-ons.

So much for the much touted "CK OK" certification from back in the day. I guess it didn't mean much now, did it?

To get ruined rub-ons off if they don't transfer correctly, you can try using painter's tape or other low tack tape to get them off. That usually works pretty well for me. I've screwed up so many of them that now I don't ever do them directly on the layout. I guess you could say I learned my lesson!

An adhesive remover.

It actually shocks me that most people don't know that.  I hear it all the time.  I've tested ones in sets that I was unlikely to use and they came off great just to confirm I wasn't making it up...it seems so few people know that it works that I question myself, lol.  I just make sure to periodically remove the balled up rub on from the adhesive remover because I worry about smearing otherwise.  I use an EK success one (it's the only one that I was able to find when my son went crazy with my adhesive runner on a finished layout I hadn't put away yet while I was using the restroom...that was one day I was extremely thankful for having a LSS as none of the big chain stores had any that I could find and I checked out every single one of them), but there is one out there from Xyron as well.  If I was good at making videos (which I'm not), I would post it on my channel because it's good information to have.

The only thing, I don't know how it works on ones that have been sitting for a while, but it removes fresh ones just like you'd rub off over applied adhesive.

Haven't noticed anything but my layouts with rubons are not that old.

couln't you just go over the affected area & write in the words with something else? there are awesome white gel pens. I use signo myself. or on other colors usea zig marker.