I first started bringing this up in May 2006, right after I tested Skype 2.5.0.82 Beta.

On the History tab in Skype 2.0.0.76 and earlier, you could see four pieces of information about your past calls (calls that had already begun and ended, not the ones you were still in the middle of):
1. The name or number who called you (or whom you called).
2. The date on which the call began.
3. The hour and minute at which the call began.
4. How long the call lasted (its duration) in hours, minutes, and seconds.

When 2.5 came along, the duration was somehow made invisible.

(We also have reason to suspect that, in 2.5, the duration is not only not displayed but also not even recorded---because, when you revert to 2.0 after having calls in 2.5, the durations of the calls made with 2.5 never appear, even in 2.0.)

I have mentioned this in the forum and in support tickets.

The response is silly things like telling me to upgrade to the latest version. THE WHOLE POINT IS THAT THE LATEST VERSION HAS THE PROBLEM, WHILE OLDER VERSIONS DON'T HAVE THE PROBLEM.

Other friends on other computers have tested this. This problem is not unique to my computer. I've also seen at least one other user post about this in the forum. And nobody from Skype's service department has ever actually told me that the problem doesn't exist on some or all computers.

Several minutes ago, Davide C., of Skype support, emailed me. He told me that Skype 2.6.0.74 Beta would show the call duration in the History tab. I was excited to try it out. I got a little worried when the change log (http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/changelog.html) said nothing about call duration---not for 2.6.0.74 and not for 2.6.0.67. I downloaded the latest one anyway. I tested it. NO DURATION. It says who called (or whom I called), and when---but it doesn't say how long the call lasted.

It is quite useful to see how long one's calls lasted.

If this feature's omission in May was an accident, O.K.

If somehow the word was never passed on to the programmers in May---or June or July or August or early September---, O.K.

But why does the response to this issue continue to be so poor?

This is true not just for the free, Skype-to-Skype calls, but also for paid, Skype Out calls.

Why should those of us who pay for this service have to write down call durations manually if we want to use the latest version of Skype, when instead the programmers could just restore a good feature of the older versions?

I've been patient for at least a quarter of a year, but I'm getting a bit annoyed now.

I've always thought Skype is so great. To see this issue neglected, and to see the poor response from the service department, is really disappointing. :-(

you find all details in Your account - Calls & SMS history

Only for SkypeOut calls. I can imagine that people who provide some kind of service via Skype want to have a record of the calll duration, for charging their customers, even if they use Skype-to-Skype.

A question: Does anyone knows how to "Clear History" in Skype 2.5.0 ? That feature was available in Tools in 2.0 but no longer there in 2.5?
The only way I know to clear history in 2.5 is to individually delete each record in History, which is time consuming.

See illustration.
[attachmentid=6439]

This is strange. I'm running V2.5.0.141 and I have call duration showing in my history tab.

See this illustration, too, about the related problem.
[attachmentid=6440]



That is strange. It's contrary to the experience of my friends and me, who run various version numbers of Skype, with various language settings, in various versions of Windows XP (also with various language and regional settings), in various countries—and we don't see our durations beyond 2.0.

I tested 2.5.0.141 just last month, as did at least one of my friends. Neither of us can get the History to show the call durations in 2.5.0.141. In fact, I'm pretty sure that 2.5.0.141 is the one he was using when I put together the illustration comparing the two screenshots.

I am using the 2.6.0.74 beta, and I can see the call duration in the history list, also of the calls made with earlier versions 2.5.x.x.

Possibly your Skype config files have been corrupted (these files are in %appdata%\Skype\username folder). I would sign out and quit Skype, then backup these files to another location, then delete all the files in your %appdata%\Skype\username folder so Skype can rebuild them when you sign in.

Hmmm.

The possibility that this problem is more complex than just the programmers' removing a feature and needing to restore it in the next version is disappointing.

Now two posters (lucdecauwer and spud) have said that they CAN see the duration on their History tabs in 2.5 and/or 2.6.

... And yet my problem isn't just on my computer. It's on my friends' computers, too. ... And yet some users are saying they don't have the problem. Really mystifying.

By the way, I've found more mentions of the same problem:
- http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=56078&hl=
- http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=57337&hl=

I've looked farther back in the various forums for 'duration'---but I haven't found any posts about this kind of problem before about May 2006, when the first beta of 2.5 came out.

I am tempted to try spud5's suggestion solution. But (1) I am worried about losing the many, many months' of history/records I've already accumulated (or at least losing easy access to them); and (2) the fact that everyone else I know has the same problem, and today was the first time I ever saw ANYone saying 'I can see call duration on the History tab in 2.5/2.6', makes me doubt the solution is so simple.

Still, I hope something works. I really want to upgrade to 2.5 or 2.6, but not have this one, silly problem.

Anything else I should back up besides the entire Skype folder that's inside "Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data"?

Thanks for help.

Just made another mystifying and disappointing discovery. The two calls highlighted in my second illustrated post: they do not show up AT ALL in the History in 2.6.0.74B. When I try 2.6.0.74B, the History tab shows not a single call on that day, even though I know I used Skype to talk to another friend's Skype twice that day.

Those same two calls are also entirely absent when I install and run 2.5.0.141.

Anyway, apart from those two odd calls, made when I first tried out the beta of 2.5, I have a separate question.

lucdecauwer and spud, when you say that you do see the duration of your past calls on the History tab in 2.5/2.6, are you talking about calls that you made after upgrading to 2.5/2.6? Does it display the duration for calls that you made long ago—say, in the beginning of 2006, or in 2005 or earlier, before even the beta of 2.5 existed?

Might it be that, starting with 2.5, they somehow changed the way of recording the call duration—so that, now, 2.0 and below can read and display only the old style of duration records, and 2.5 and above can read and display only the new style of duration records? IF this is the case, it's still a problem that should be corrected.

That would be like having kept your diary in German for some years, and then suddenly switching to French—and then insisting that, when you're in the room where you're allowed to read your old, German diaries, you can't look at your new, French ones, and vice versa. Really silly and annoying.

Alright.

I just tested several things. The results:

- Skype 2.0.0.76
-- For all calls (Skype to Skype, and Skype Out) that I made using 2.0.0.76 and earlier, it displays all details (name/number, date, time, and duration).
-- For the two Skype-to-Skype calls I made using 2.5.0.82B, it displays the date and time, but not the name and not the duration.
-- For the Skype-to-Skype and Skype Out test calls I made just now in 2.6.0.74B, it displays the date and time, but not the name/number and not the duration.

- Skype 2.5.0.82 Beta, 2.5.0.130, 2.5.0.141, and 2.6.0.74 Beta
-- For all calls (Skype to Skype, and Skype Out) that I made using 2.0.0.76 and earlier, it displays name/number, date, and time, but not the duration.
-- For the two Skype-to-Skype calls I made using 2.5.0.82B, it displays nothing at all. It shows no record of those calls.
-- For the Skype-to-Skype and Skype Out test calls I made just now in 2.6.0.74B, it displays all details (name/number, date, time, and duration).

Can anyone here replicate some or all of the test results? I'd really appreciate it if someone would take the time.

So, at least for me, the problem is indeed that something changed with the compatibility of the call records when they started making 2.5.

So, if we ignore those two calls I made with 2.5B, the result is that, until they fix this, I can keep on using 2.0 () and see all the durations () (except those of the two tests I made just now), or I can switch to 2.5 or 2.6 () and see all the new calls' durations () but none of the pre-2.5 calls' durations ().

I could accept the latter option—if there were some way of exporting the information (including duration) from 2.0, so that I at least had it somewhere without having to transcribe it manually or reïnstall 2.0 every time I wanted to see the duration of a pre-2.5 call.

By the way, I'm really grateful for the replies. When I posted about this earlier in the summer, nobody said a word in response. And the Skype personnel took three months to get back to me—and never offered a complete solution.

In my case, the first call that I have on my history list was made on July 18th 2006. That was the first call that I made with Skype after moving it from my PC's hard disk to a memory stick, and I did not transfer the history of earlier calls to the stick.

At that time I was already using version 2.5.x.x, but I cannot remember exactly which build.

I think you could be right - the history data format has probably changed in later versions of Skype. You would probably need to use the API (Skype's programming interface) to extract this data and store it in a readable form.

There might be some software available in the Extras Gallery which could do this for you. Alternatively, ask in the Skype Public API forum and someone might be willing to write a script to get the data for you.

Thanks for those two suggestions. I'll be looking into them.

In the mean time, I may as well reveal two more irritating discoveries I've just made.

1. Although I purchased my first Skype Out credit at the beginning of September 2005 and began using it immediately, my history of using my Skype Out credit—the history viewable when I log in to the website—goes back only to November 2005. So, even though there isn't a prominent warning, and even though the help files might easily be interpreted as saying my COMPLETE Skype Out history is available at the website, there is in fact a limit—and it's not even a full 12 months.

2. In the Skype program itself, even though the complete chat histories (the ones viewable in a web browser when you click "View Chat History") are saved, the list of events on the History tab is cut off much more recently. In 2.0, I've just noticed that the earliest event on my History list is from 13 March 2006. I also just asked a friend, who's using Skype 2.5—and the earliest event on his list is also from 13 March 2006.

Lovely.

I was about to at least take screenshots, or manually transcribe from, my History tab, so I had a record of all the calls and their durations before doing a final upgrade to 2.6—but now I find that, even though I've been making Skype-to-Skype calls since 2004, and Skype Out calls since September 2005, I can't get at the Skype-to-Skype call list from any earlier than March 2006 and I can't see my Skype Out calls from earlier than November 2005.

Programs that aren't going to keep full histories accessible really should warn you. My bank, for example, makes it quite clear that, if I want an investigation into a transaction more than 90 days old, I'll have to pay for it. And the MSN Messenger, which I prefer not to use, at least tells you that it has severe limitations in its ability to save your history.

Anyway, I hope the pre–March 2006 records are still hiding somewhere, even though they're no longer on the history tab.

By the way, March 13 was the 72nd day of the year, and today, September 9, is the 252nd day of the year. 252 – 72 = 180. So the History tab seems to lose whatever was 181 days ago as each day passes.

Grrr. I'd've been happy to work manually with these shortcomings if I had just been aware of them.