Search via all Skype history

In the Contact list or Recent list, simply click the contact or group you want to view the conversation history for and your conversation history is displayed.

The main.db database file where all chat history is stored. main.db is a standard SQLite database file and can be opened using any SQLite browser application. However, there is a free application, which is especially designed to read Skype’s chat and call data – SkypeLogView.

The main.db file is saved in one of the following (depending on OS).

On Windows 7 + : C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Skype\[Skype User Name]

On Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application Data\Skype\[Skype User Name]

Following should work on all Windows versions, you can copy it into the Run prompt:

%APPDATA%\Skype \[Skype User Name]

On Mac OS X: Library/Application Support/Skype/[Skype User Name]

For future, you may want to consider SkyHistory


Writing your own SQL queries using e.g. SqliteBrowser to search the Skype database, allows for more flexibility and functionality than using a 3rd party Skype-specific tool.

For example, this query will search for a text string in all your chats, and display the (local) time the message was posted, the message itself, the name of the chat (if it has a name), and who is in the chat.

select DISTINCT datetime(m.timestamp, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as postedon, c.displayname as chatname, m.from_dispname as fromuser, m.body_xml as msgtext
from Messages m
INNER JOIN Conversations c ON m.convo_id = c.id
where m.body_xml LIKE '%my text%' --case insensitive
order by m.timestamp DESC

Skyperious also might be worth checking out. It has a few capabilities over SkypeLogView, such as

  • Import contacts from a CSV file to your Skype contacts
  • View any database table and and export their data
  • Change, add or delete data in any table
  • Execute direct SQL queries
  • Synchronize messages in two Skype databases: keep chat history up-to-date on different computers, or restore missing messages from older files into the current one
  • Chat statistics

Tags:

Sql

Sqlite

Skype

Recent Posts