Hello ...

Is there any way that I can send my contact list from Windows to Linux version of Skype and other way back ?

It will be nice if there is (on server contact list) like MSN or Yahoo messenger ?

Any one know how to do that or we have to wait for a version that will help solve this problem :wink:

Thank you

Take care

Yes, there is a very simple one, just copy all the contents of your skype profile from one platform to the other.
You may need to care about configuration settings as those are different between platforms. For this you may only move some of the files inside your profile.
In Windows:
In Linux:


Surely that would be nice, especially this would avoid the troubles of needing to copy the profile each time you switch platform...

Thanks allot man ... :-)

so there is no easer way to move or copy the contact list from one platform to another ... :roll:

hmmm .. I'll try

to bad ... they should make some export settings function based on XML or any other thing that can be imported to any other platforms with out problems if they will not make the online contact list server.

what do you think

Thank you again

Take care

It's not too difficult, simply copying is sufficient as long as no synchronization is needed. Think about Mozilla, their profile is not compatible across platforms! There you need to select the files to copy... Think this technique is mentionned either somewhere on the forums or on the Skype webpage... but don't remember where


Server-contacts would be very cool as it would allow to connect from any PC and still have one's contacts (who carries a USB Disk or Pen with his profile data everywhere he goes??) Since they already store some information on server-side, extending that information to a contact-list should be not major problem...

If you took a look, there are some XML files in the Skype profile... but contacts and history is some binary stuff...
The fact that the profile is platform-independent is already a good point! (Just a part of the settings may not survive a trip Windows -> Linux -> Windows)

Hello ...



yes I agree with you .. :wink:


take care

When I copy my application data from Windows to Linux, I can't log in. I copied all the files from C:Documents And SettingsUserApplication DataSkypeskypeid to ~/.Skype/skypeid but Skype won't me log in until I deleted it again. Skype was closed, while I copied and I am using 1.0.0.18 for Windows and 0.91.0.3 for Mandrake Linux.
I do have permission to write to the files (the were read-only after copying from the Windows partition (NTFS), but I changed when I tried the second time)
I use Windows XP and Mandrake Linux 10.0.
Have anybody else seen this problem and have anybody found a sollution?

For me it worked with some older versions of both (think it was at time of first Linux version, using SuSE 9.0), but I will test it this weekend with newest version on both sides.
Notice that "skypeid" is your Skype username!
Is Skype connecting if you have not yet a Skype profile under Linux? If yes, you may then copy the files needed in your Skype profile! Copying "user1024.dbb" should be sufficient to import your contacts.

> Notice that "skypeid" is your Skype username!
I know

> Is Skype connecting if you have not yet a Skype profile under Linux?
Yes, that works and I see my SkypeOut Account, but my contacts are of course missing.

> Copying "user1024.dbb" should be sufficient to import your contacts.
When I have done this, I cannot log in any longer

Hello again ...

is there any solution for this problem by Skype Team ...
really love to see some steps to make it work

take care

The original source of my information (near to the bottom of the page):
Skype official Linux FAQ

Skype team, is this still valid? Are there some "new" limitations to it?

You mean this part of FAQ For Linux ???



I'll try it and give you back the results ;-)

take care

I tried again, and I only copied the user1024.dbb file.
Then I gave my user full access and now it somehow works.

Today I copied my Linux skype profile (whole ~/.Skype) to Windows with latest versions in both cases without a problem, just had to re-enter my password!

hello ...

I done it too ... all you have to do after you copy them put the right permission for accessing the files and then it will be fine ...

JUST one thing ... it took all my contact list without including the people who I call them to the normal phone number (skype.out)

I have two type of people in my contact list some who I chat with them and that works fine .. and some who I call and they didn't appear in my list on Linux ... !!!!

any Ideas ???

take care

SkypeOut contacts are handled a bit differently from regular Skype contacts and indeed are not compatible across platforms at this time. Many changes requested by users are upcoming to contact management (including groups etc), and they will be more portable in the future versions.

you made me feel better ...lol

when we expect the big changes ???

Thanks allot for your work and your time.

keep going

take care

I'm just curious. What is the reasoning of the implementation of the transferring of the contact system the way it is. Would this not have been easier as say an XML file with the contacts listed inside of it? I'm not saying the current system is bad...far from it. But noting that one of XML's strengths is in data exchange, and that exchanging contact lists from one client to another on different platforms is occurring, it would seem that this would be the right tool for this; especially because there is an XML parser for about any platform. Granted, you may have wanted to encrypt it, or make it binary, etc... to make it not a simply flat text file, but I was curious of the implementation. I imagine these are small little databases inside the user's directory. This would also allow the Skype team to read in user contact lists if there was ever a need: say for instance they decided to create a server side contact lists and Skype needed to read in the user's contacts. Anyway, again, nice program... just trying to understand the methodology of its design.

F

hasues, if you look at it closely, you'll find that the main contact list is already plain XML. There's however some data associated with contacts, such as authorizations, that we don't want the users to play around with, so that has no place in the XML and does not need to be publicly readable. If you just take your config.xml, you'll see that the contacts are plainly listed there and you can transfer those, but then they'll all be in "pending authorization" status.

I tried to copy the contacts from my Mac to my Linux machine by first setting the username/password in Linux and then copying the skypeid directory from my Mac to the Linux box. It doesn't work. What I get instead is the following error:

Engine::init invoked. user is
Not enough memory

Any idea if I should be able to copy from a Mac to Linux?

I would hate to have to ask all my contacts to re-approve me everytime I use another platform.

They won't see the authorization popup if they have already authorized you previously - their software then automatically responds "already authorized". So they won't have to re-approve you. But still, we'll take a look into Mac vs Linux resources copying.

Does that also work in the following case:?
A: Create Skype account on Windows
B: Create Skype account on Windows
A & B: Add & authorize mutually
A: Test on Linux (no copy of skype profile)
B: Test on MAc (no copy of skype profile)
A: Add B on Linux

Except the case when the authorized state would be stored somehow on a (central) server the Mac version of B has no means to know that B already granted permission to A! (Same the other way round...)
If something is stored on server, then why is server-side contact list still not available, at least for authorized contacts?

You are right that it doesn't work in the case you illustrated - when both do a fresh installation, they know nothing about each other's previous authorizations and have to re-authorize. However, authorizations are stored on both sides (sender and receiver), so as long as one of them has it stored, the other side can get it also.

I am running the Skype Beta on SuSE v9.2. I loaded, logged in and ran the client fine. Then when I copied the contents of the approprite directory of my WinXP instance over to my Linux one, I am no longer able to login. Even though I am using the same uname/passwd.

I stopped and restarted Skype, but with no luck. Any ideas?

Copy only the required files over. Best it to just copy the *.dbb files. (and manually copy the SkypeOut contacts in config.xml if needed)
Does Skype complain on console?

Here is the console:

Engine::init invoked. user is my_user
Engine::init lib->Init("my_user") failed

I already did a complete directory dump, so too late to copy only what is needed. Any ideas how to rectify?

PS - Just copying the .dbb files causes the same problem as well...

Will try the manual config.xml copy, what a PAIN!

If you still have your Windows profile untouched, then take only the *.dbb files from it to your Linux box.
On the linux box, remove ~/.Skype and login as first session to Skype for Linux. Now close Skype and copy your *.dbb files.

You may also try to just remove all non-*.dbb files from your Skype profile on linux.

PS: The Windows profile comes from which version? Might be that the 1.1 beta releases did affect transfer ability...

Yes, it was 1.1, most likely the problem.

This is really the pits, as a standard contact transfer mechanism is so easy and would eliminate all of these problems. Truly mystifies me why everyone still has to struggle with this.

I have manually re-entered all of my contacts. So much joy.

Thanks for your help though.