View 1 year+ old messages

[NTHRIWZ]

I have my history set to "forever" but the option for viewing old messages is limited to "1 year".  How am I supposed to be able to view messages older than a year?  If I can't, then what's the point of having a "forever" retention setting?

[g4pilut · Accepted solution]

Try SkypeLogView.  http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/skype_log_view.html

If your messages are still saved on your PC it will show them.

[ruwim]

Have you used Skype on the same computer for more than 1 year? The history is only saved locally on this computer from which you have had the chat.

[NTHRIWZ]

Sorry for the uber slow reply.

Thanks for SLV.  It's just what I need.  I'll be telling others about this when they need to look at old IMs.

[NTHRIWZ]

Thanks.

Yes, I've been using Skype forever across at least 7 machines that I can think of offhand and my iPad (at least a couple of times).

Of course your reply raises these questions:

1. Is there something that can concatenate the IM files from more than one computer or is the log file a proprietary format that I need to flip to a text/whatever file just to be able to view/work with it?
2. What file/file type am I looking for?  As of this moment there are 681 of them in that Skype user branch on this machine.
3. If the files are saved locally on the machine I was using what happens to them on a tablet or phone?  And does that answer vary depending on it being an iDevice or an Android device?

[ruwim]

All your chat history is only saved locally on your PC in one file – the main.db database file. This file is a standard SQLite database file and can be opened and read by any SQL browser/editor application.

It should be possible to move this main.db file from one PC to another but I don’t know about any easy method to merge two or more different main.db database files.

[rosslin93]

my PC is dead. how can i chek my sky msg

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g4pilut wrote:

Try SkypeLogView.  http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/skype_log_view.html

If your messages are still saved on your PC it will show them.

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[Tamim]

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rosslin93 wrote: my PC is dead. how can i chek my sky msg

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You can't. They are gone.

[134009]

what if it is a mac?

[Tamim]

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134009 wrote:

what if it is a mac?

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download SQLite Database Browser

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/38584/sqlite-database-browser

and open the main.db file with it

~/Library/Application Support/Skype/tamim/main.db