Managing your Chat History
Skype archives your chats for you and stores them locally on your computer, if you have enabled this option. Chat histories are not stored anywhere on the Skype network. In other words, no one else will ever be able to see any of your chat histories except you and the person you are chatting with. Chats are archived as a convenience to you, so that you can easily keep track of your chat conversations on Skype, think of it as sent mail for Skype.
To enable or disable this option go to: Skype -> Preferences -> Chat and select your choice of chat history settings.
To view archived chat sessions for specific contact, select the contact from your Contacts List and go to: Contacts -> View Chat History. A browser window will open showing your previous chat sessions with the selected contact.
You can clear your chat history by selecting “Delete All Chat Messages” under the “Chat” menu.
Please note that calls are not archived and therefore won’t be shown in chat history.
How do I backup my chat history?
Skype archives your chats locally on your computer, if you have enabled this option. If you want to backup your chat history or move it to another computer you can find it in a folder with the same name as your Skype Name in “username/Library/Skype”
Instead of ~/Library/Skype, could future version use the more standard (and appropriate) ~/Library/Appleication Support/Skype ???
it appears version 2.0.0.6 *does* use the Application Support folder.
Here is one service that allows you to store your Skype history online and have it acessible from any PC online.
http://www.im-history.com
IM-HISTORY is the first service for SAVING YOUR CHAT
HISTORY ONLINE on the planet! It supports ICQ, MSN, Miranda, QIP, Skype, Yahoo Messanger.
On the very new skype I cant figure out how to delete chat history please HELP………………..
On the very new skype I cant figure out how to delete chat history please HELP………………..
Hi!
I have the same problem – there is no “Delete All Chat Messages” under the “Caht”-menue…
Anyone any ideas???
How can I “Delete All Chat Messages”
Please help.
Sorry Skype, but this is a very crapy explanation!
There is on my computer no folder with the name : “username/Library/Skype”. You could at least give the full path ?
I have skype Version 3.2.0.175 and I am searching for days now to back up my old chat sessions and to delete some of them in Skype. NO WAY TO GET THIS DONE! YOUR EXPLANTION HERE IN TOTALY INADECUATE !
To delete your Chat history for 1 person only do the following:
http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/07/clear-the-chat-history-of-one-contact-in-skype/
This is only partially correct. There is no easy way to clear the chat history but there is one. Skype saves all chats with contacts in a Skype folder in Documents & Settings. The full path would be C:Documents and SettingsusernameApplication DataSkypeskype username.
In there you find the databases chatmsg256.dbb, chatmsg512.dbb, chatmsg1024.dbb, chatmsg2048.dbb, chatmsg4096.dbb and chatmsg8192.dbb. Those files contain your chat history. Unfortunately though those are not sorted by contact but by length.
This means that you would have to open each of the files and look for the lines of the contact that you want to delete. What makes things worse is that there will be lots of garbage in the text editor and that it is not always obvious who the chat contact of the current line is.
The best approach in my opinion would be to make copies of the files and work with them. You can’t open the originals if Skype is open and you do need Skype to look at the chat history and search for the phrases in those files.
It is lots of work but the only working way of clearing the chat history of one contact in Skype. >>
Do as follow:
Write the name of the contact person’s chat history you want to delete on a paper.
Close Skype by clicking on the Skype symbol in the task bar (right under corner near the clock)
Than go to: My computer >> C:Documents and SettingsusernameApplication DataSkypeskype username and right click on “chatmsg256.dbb” >> open with >> Select the program from a list >> chose Wordpad
Than it will open the computer code text in wordpad. Type ctrl f (keep the control key down and type the carracter “f”. The “Find” box will open. Type the contact persons name in it and click “find next”. If you find in the code the part of it that is about the conact person you want delete, delete all till you come on the part with an other conact persons chat. Save the text and close wordpad.
Open Skype and see if the chat history of than conact person is gone, if not do the same as above with the other dbb files.
Good luck!
Skype is FANTASTIC !
I can’t figure out how to view group chat history once I closed this group chat.
my question is:
is there anyway I could transfer my chat history from my PC (Win XP) to my MacBook Pro?
thanks…
Hello, can anyone help me please… i want to read my conversation history with one person. I have been chatting to him for about two years.. is there any way i can read the whole conversation from the time we started chatting?
PLEASE HELP!!!
this is what I did and it worked on transferring from Windows to Mac:
I went in to “Computer > C: > Users > “usernamehere”> AppData >Skype>username
(or something similar (it’s been a while — just look for where Windows has a folder with your skype username and files in it).
put that folder in an external hard drive or something and transfer it to the Mac. Then (having Skype installed on the other one) go to “username”>Library>Application Support > Skype (and replace the “username” folder with the one from Windows (believe me, it worked for me flawlessly)… just make sure you back up (to the desktop or something) the “username” folder from the Mac before replacing it, just in case.
sexy_uk849,
you can initiate a new chat with that person and click on and” view messages older than” [the period of time], on my Mac this sits at the top of the chat window with any user.
I dont know if u got it…. But this is for MAC ONLY!!!
PLEASE HELP!!!
Accidently looking in Skype menu i pressed “CLEAR CHAT HISTORY” button and now cannot see my chats history. Is any way to recover them? These chats had loads of important information for me…
Thx!
@bloguliz if you back up your Mac, e.g. using Time Machine, you should restore the [your username]/Library/Application Support/Skype folder – that should do the trick.
Hello. I am trying to create a single text file of my entire chat history with one person. I have found the data in Library/Application Support/Skype/username/chatsync/then numerous folders with this kind of file: 0a19f08c5888fe8d.dat
My question is: How can I open the .dat files so they are in a readable format and can be copied and pasted into a text file? Right now if I open them I get a bunch of garbled letters & symbols. (they are automatically opening in GraphicConverter)
Another question: Am I looking in the right place for the chat history? Are there different files that are more easily accessed elsewhere?
Thanks : )
Please add ‘delete chat history’ in the drop down menu when you right click on the individual histories. There are entries automatically saved that are from people who wind up on the blocked list. You should be able to delete these from the history without deleting the histories that you want to keep.
How do you manage to actually don’t let your skype save the last message.
It is really annoying. Please tell me you guys
@luckyaapje unfortunately that’s the way Skype works – I’d be interested to hear why you find it annoying, though
How do I delete sent files?
To delete chat history go to Tools > Options > Privacy > Advanced options > and then you will see the option to clear your history. “Simples” (said like a meerkat!) However, I have to admit I didn’t find it, a very good IT friend of mine did! Hope this helps any newcomers to Skype who might need this option because when you search for the answer on Skype help you are told to go to “Chat” menue and it cannot be found.
HI My laptop went into the shop for 10 days, now that it is back I want to put just one contacts IM’s back into the chat history for the last 10 days. The other machine is on my lan and I can get to it, just not sure how to edit the Skype dat file or what ever
Thanks in advance
mychucky1
if somebody posts something here as far as an answer will it email me at mychucky@funport.net?
I NEED HELP
i’ve been using skype for about 2 years now. a couple of months ago i did sthn stupid and cleared my history. now i need some of that old history back. it’s really urgent. I’ve already checked the threads that are suggested above (application support in library) but the chatmsg files i find are the ones of the history that i’ve built up AFTER i deleted the old one. meaning it’s only the history of the past couple of months.
i’m using a macbook, and i haven’t figured out Time Machine yet so i don’t think i had a back up at the time.
is there ANY way at all to restore the OLD history, after clicking “clear history”???
Please help me!!
Hey guys,
I would needyour help here.
I’m using skype on my Mac and I have no clue about how to delete the chat of one single perdon only.
I only come to the option “clear all chats”….
Any idea how I could do it on a mac??