[How To Download Skype Chat Logs For Mac
Sharif Garmon
To remove instant messages or delete or clear conversations:
Learn more abouthow to remove an instant message or delete or clear a conversation.
To export your messages and media from chat:
You will need to check back periodically to theexport pageon the status of your export, which you can see at the top of the page underAvailable Exports. A link to download your files will also appear there when they are available to download.
Typetar -xvfYOURFILENAME_export.tar, replacing YOURFILENAME with the name of your exported file which usually follows the pattern 8_skypename_export.tar or 8_live_skypename_export.tar and then pressEnter.
After the command completes, you will see your extracted messages file namedmessages.jsonfile in the directory. We recommend downloading the fileviewerto make is easier to read your conversation history.
To extract the .tar file on Mac:
Browse to the .tar file you downloaded and open the file. Mac has built-in .tar support.
To extract the Tar file on older Windows operating systems:
You may need athird party applicationto open the .tar file.
Note: This link is provided for your convenience and is not an endorsement of any particular third party tool. Ensure that any software you choose to download is from a trusted source.
To learn how to export a list of your Skype contacts, please visitHow do I export a list of my Skype contacts?
To learn how to delete a Skype contact, please visitHow do I delete a contact in Skype?
The online sources told me it is in a main.db file under my Skype username under the user folder. However, for the windowsapp win10 version of Skype, I cannot find either a folder named after my skypenmae, or a file called "main.db" in my entire drive.
There is neither main.db nor skype.db in my folder. There is a "database.db" under the "\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.SkypeApp_kzf8qxf38zg5c\LocalCache\Roaming\Microsoft\Skype for Store\databases". The "LocalState" folder is empty in my case.
On your local computer, newer Skype versions (Microsoft Skype for Windows 10) store the local chat history in a 'skype.db' database file. This location was posted in 2018, and may have updated since then, but it should be very similar if you look in the Packages directory.
You can use PowerShell to locate any files with the extension .db within a directory if you are having difficulty locating the file. Here is an example, run on the C:\Users directory, which might need to be changed to ProgramData or Program Files. As is, you can just paste this into PowerShell to check the Users folder.
I tried looking in C:\Users[name]\AppData\Roaming\Skype and I found a folder called "chatsync" with some mysterious folders with files ending in .dat. I'm almost certain that these are the chat logs but I don't know a way to properly open these files (notepad shows gibberish mixed with English words). I'm not trying to do sleuthing, just a project for my girlfriend.
I didn't really like the way the NirSoft Skype Log View is able to export the chat messages, so I kinda hacked together my own parser for it for fun - but I was slightly lazy to add it to any kind of source control mechanism, which might seem awkward, but that's okay.
At present our Incident Management (IM) team who is provisioned to us via IBM use skype to conduct any group chats relating to major incidents that are affecting 100+ users. I am trying to move the IM team across to MS Teams and away from skype but one of the sticking points is the conversation history in Teams. The exact question I have been asked is -
After further conversation with one of the incident managers I ran a webex and showed them how Teams works in relation to setting up groups and setting up chat groups with specific people for specific incidents that occur. The manager was pretty much sold on the benefit of Teams but there is just that snagging point of where conversation history is stored.
Its great that we can have chat groups but considering that our IM team deal with 200+ incidents a year the amount of chat groups being created in Teams will get quite heavy. Its not a simple matter of going back to a particular chat group setup for a particular incident only to discuss another incident - we need to keep chat for each incident separate in which case we need to be able to have the chat and then it saves automatically to a location and should be easily accessible. Once an Incident has been resolved we can then close off the chat so that Teams does not become bogged down with many chat groups whilst still having access to the conversation history of each and every chat.
Is anyone else facing this dilemma? Is there anyone from MS that can advise on this?
Hi @Christopher Hoard many thanks for your reply. I should have mentioned that I have already read about eDiscovery as well as using PowerShell to get the data required - unfortunately they are not a feasible resolution.
As mentioned the conversation history needs to be available to our users easily without having to go through additional steps. If I take the eDiscovery or PowerShell proposition to our Incident Management team it will be thrown out and the team will be put off transitioning to Teams fully.
@Jeetus would it work to have the Incident Management Team use a Team, instead of chat? Start a new thread for each incident or group by channel - then the content and conversation history is more readily viewable.
@hughd Why is it, when people express a specific desire to perform a specific task that was never an issue in the past - they have to keep re-asking, or clarifying and rejecting "alternative" suggestions!
It is a very basic expectation to DELETE ALL CHAT!! It is a BASIC FUNCTION EVERYWHERE!! It is really as simple as INCLUDING A SYMBOLIC BUTTON to activate a function behind the scenes to CLEAR UNWANTED TEXT!!! I don't WANT a workaround, and I DON"T WANT EXCUSE! Where the heck is this text that I INTEND TO DELETE and WHY is the solution so pathetically unavailable.
Even looking at the team channel chat, there is no easy way to save it in a text file. This is stupidity and cannot be excused by any regulatory compliance nonsense. If I can look at the chat, I can photograph it but I cannot say "save as text" or even press Ctrl-A to select and copy as a text or rich text or anything and paste to my text editor -- it cannot possibly be any regulatory issue, just a dire desire from Microsoft to never give users to get easy access to their data.
Well, I wasted a couple of hours of my company's time by copying-and-pasting messages one-by-one (surprised this is still allowed; next time it will be the whole day of photographing and OCR-ing, I guess). Hope Microsoft is happy with the productivity effect of their "productivity suite".
@things_are_not_getting, the original ask was how to organise incidents better within Teams, so I responded based on my experience. We've used Jabber, a couple of different incident management tools and are working on using Teams better. Our own ServiceDesk Team has used Jabber, then switched to group chats within Jabber, until the day there was a problem with Jabber and they lost their history. After that they switched to Teams and while they use Chat with smaller groups they also have a Team with a Channel and within that Channel they start a different conversation for each ask/incident. With Chat we have a retention policy removing all chats older than XX days. Posts to a Team are not subject to the same rule, so by choosing a chat versus a post to the Team people can pick if the post will be retained or expire. Exporting Chat History is a different topic and yes, Microsoft could make that better.
I don't know where chat is saved but you can search for past chat messages in the search box at the top of the Teams window (with the transient text, "Look for messages, files, and more. Or type / for a list of commands."). You just type in a username or person's name or any word and it seems all matching messages appear, though they appear individually and not as conversation sessions which would be more convenient.
The questions should be: Why doesn't Teams itself show a list of past messages by conversation, user or day (i.e., no portal through Outlook is needed)? Why must past messages be searched for and not neatly displayed for future viewing? Why is there only a search field and not history field/tab/icon?
Did people benefit from and find useful the conversation history in Outlook? Yes we absolutely did (here's me every few days - "What did so-and-so mention in our quick chat last week/month/year about XYZ? Hmmm I forget, but let me check my convo folder in Outlook..."). Conversation history functionality in a new messaging platform like Teams is a must not an option. I can only guess the problem is a shortage of people with CS degrees, a lack of money and computing resources, and no user desire for this feature.
But why try to do a little as possible for Teams instead of doing too much? At least match Skype for Business functionality 100% and then provide more. Is doing too much ever a user complaint and does having a bit too many features ever hold back on profit margins? Imagine one day someone saying, "I can't stand Teams because it has too much functionality. It's just too good."
@Tan - I've just tried to find a way to view Teams chat for a potentially malicious staff member, but this requires us to have Microsoft 365 E3 or E5, which we can't justify as a charity. So yeah - no useful options that I've found. Users are completely incognito in this sense unless you spring for Enterprise level licensing.
Skype log view reads skype files u can also simly copy all. Open ur skype chat window to the person u want the istory on make sure the display is set to show from the beginning and select all tohighlight copy and past to an text editor.
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