Hi, I am a bit worried about the chat history. I am often chatting with a group of friends and each time I log in, any messages that have been entered into the chat since last time are synchronized so I can see them. Thus I wonder about the applicability of the FAQ statements saying that the chat history is only stored locally... At least in group chats it isn't, it's stored somewhere else too!

Could someone please explain exactly how the history is stored during a group chat? Am I correct in suspecting that as long as at least one of us is logged in the chat history will be synchronized when logging in, using the storage of those who already are logged in? Or is it the initiator of the chat that stores the basis for synchronization?

What happens if all participants leave a chat, can it be "resurrected"? What happens if one person leaves, chat continues, then another one leaves, chat continues, everyone else leave, then the two first log in and start chatting again? Is the part of the chat that occurred after these two left lost or will it be synchronized from god-knows-where? Or when one of those who participated at the end logs in and rejoins? Or again, will the particular chat session end when everyone has logged out, and there is no continuing it?

I can't seem to find this info in the FAQ/Knowledgebase/Help - technical details would be appreciated...

/Mummelmann

Chat messages are stored locally waiting for ALL chat members to be online so they can recieve them. In other words it is 'waiting' on the senders PC for others in the chat to come online, then it is 'synced' to other PC.
Both users MUST be online at same time for messages to get sent/recieved.

If all participants leave a chat then its dead, as no one is left to 'add' them. As long as one member is left you can be re-added to that chat.

Book marked chats are never lost, therefore as long as at least one person is left in it, it can be continued, once you leave a chat you can NOT rejoin unles some one in that chat ads you back

Hope that helps

Yes it does, thanks a lot. I assumed as much. Just to clarify one additional thing then, just logging out (like, when turning off computer...) isn't enough to leave a chat? As long as a participant doesn't select to "Leave" he is still in the chat, even when logged out, and that's why I can continue the chat even if I log in from several different computers?

Thanks again!/Mummelmann

correct, you have to physically hit the 'leave' button to exit a chat, and that gives you 'are you sure warning' Remember you can enter in a chat from any computer you log in at.

Yeah, I was a bit surprised when I noticed that. Anyway, thanks for the clarifications.

/Mummelmann

I had a very surprising chat history experience today. I use the same Skype name both on my PC and on my Mac. On the Mac I have set "do not store chat history".

Now I had a chat on the Mac yesterday while my PC was turned off. No history was stored on the Mac.

Today I turned on the PC, opened Skype and saw yesterday's conversation I had on the Mac, in full, show up!!!

I did have "store history" enabled on the PC. But how come I have access to chat history from a different computer, given that I had checked not to save the chat history AND Skype claims to store history only locally anyway? I am very disturbed by this.

It seems to me like Skype stores the recent history on a server :-)

Surely not.

I would be very upset if it did, as that would allow my conversations to be subpoenaed, which is a severe invasion of my privacy.

That said, I'm 100% certain Skype does not store chats on servers. That'd eat up way too much resources.

First time poster! Have hunted through the Skype help but couldn't find the answer so I wonder if someone here could help?

This morning I responded to a single Skype chat message on my laptop with 3 separate replies. However the chat caller was, and is still offline, so they haven't picked them up yet.

Have come onto my PC and can see their original question, but the 3 chat replies I sent aren't showing on this machine. I didn't hit 'leave' on the laptop by the way.

Have gone back and re-booted the laptop and can see my 3 chat replies there still waiting to be picked up. Will they only show on my PC when the chat caller is back online and reads them? Otherwise do I have to go back to the laptop to continue the chat and refer to the info I gave him?

If it helps, in the Privacy section on my PC and my laptop I have "Keep chat history forever" enabled.

Many thanks!

No, I think they will only sync on all pCS when the respondent picks them up.

Many thanks Gladiator, much appreciated!!

The respondent has been offline for around 4 hours so will wait for them to get back to me. Hopefully I'll then be able to pick up the full 'chat sequence' here on the PC!!

You were absolutely right Gladiator about the PC picking up the chat started on the laptop. However, although the chat thread on the PC now contains 10 more exchanges between us in the chat, but only the original 4 messages are showing on my laptop not the full 14, so it hasn't updated on the initialting machine even though all exchanges have been read by both parties.

It may be that I have to initiate another response from my laptop to be able to read the rest of the messages on that machine, but I don't want to have to start up that chat again as we've finished.

Never mind, it appears nothing can be done about it, but it is disappointing especially if you want to pick up an address given for example from the other machine.

Thanks once again for your help!!

Thanks your update.
I know Skype is working on future improvements in this are, that are more clearly defined.

Once again. Thanks