Clear the Chat History of one contact in Skype

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 7, 2007
Updated • Nov 22, 2012
Tutorials
|
39

Did you know that the default setting for the Skype Chat History is forever ? That means, every chat with every contact is still visible using the View Chat History right-click menu option. This could be a privacy related issue if someone else has access to your computer.

Skype offers a way to delete the complete chat history of every contact and to change the time period in which the chat history is kept. It leaves the user clueless however on how to remove the chat history with one contact only and the official answer from Skype is that it is not possible to delete the chat history of one contact.

This is only partially correct. There is no easy way to clear the chat history but there is one. Skype saves all chats with contacts in a Skype folder in Documents & Settings. The full path would be C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Skype\skype username.

In there you find the databases chatmsg256.dbb, chatmsg512.dbb, chatmsg1024.dbb, chatmsg2048.dbb, chatmsg4096.dbb and chatmsg8192.dbb. Those files contain your chat history. Unfortunately though those are not sorted by contact but by length.

This means that you would have to open each of the files and look for the lines of the contact that you want to delete. What makes things worse is that there will be lots of garbage in the text editor and that it is not always obvious who the chat contact of the current line is.

The best approach in my opinion would be to make copies of the files and work with them. You can't open the originals if Skype is open and you do need Skype to look at the chat history and search for the phrases in those files.

It is lots of work but the only working way of clearing the chat history of one contact in Skype.

Update: Skype has changed the format in which messages are saved. The data is only stored in one database, main.db. instead of saving the message history in multiple databases.

skype single contact messaging history cleaner

The program " Skype Message Cleaner" enables you to delete the chat history with a single contact in Skype if you are running a version of Skype that is using the newer database format.

Advertisement

Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. Estelle said on August 14, 2013 at 8:49 am
    Reply

    I have made the mistake of asking a”friend” to open a new Skype account for me. He did this and sent me my skypename as well as password. He did not, however change it on his side so he now has free access to my skype account. I have been trying forever, but he is obviously preventing me from changing the password from my side. What do I do as he has the skype “open” it seems, on his side all the time? He deletes msg’s and adds msg’s as it pleases him on my own Skype!? He has done the same with a additional email account. Here to he seems to have a free pass and deletes stuff whenever it suits him. Please help.

  2. Michael said on April 19, 2013 at 9:05 am
    Reply

    Hello guys,

    you can take a look at “Delete Skype History” program (http://deleteskypehistory.com/).
    It can clear Skype history for single, several or all contacts. It creates conversations backup and allows you to restore it at any time. Sorry for ads but it’s relevant.

    1. Larry said on June 12, 2014 at 8:41 am
      Reply

      Incredibly good stuff. Like it.

  3. Andrej said on February 20, 2013 at 5:42 am
    Reply

    I wrote small program for windows 32 and 64 (xp….7,9) similar as http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/50729/Remove-Skype-Chat-History-for-Single-Contact?fid=1556641&df=90&mpp=10&noise=1&prof=True&sort=Position&view=Expanded&spc=None&fr=51#xx0xx
    but my version can select messages and delete it by selected prefiltered rows individualy.

    If you interested write me mail and i send you beta version for testing for free

    mailto:bokaa@gmx.de

    to future will be possible to scramble-encoding messages from selected row or by selected contact to protect your personal information with password and decode it, because SQLlite database used for skype messages is not encoded, protected and with small knowledge readable by anyone wich has contact to your computer

  4. John Boyd said on August 28, 2012 at 10:46 pm
    Reply

    Completely worthless forum thread! Any idiot could figure out how to delete the entire skype history from Skype. No one answered the question at hand! Ughh!!!

    1. Sachin said on September 10, 2012 at 11:25 am
      Reply

      John if you did not read the method, I posted few months back, kindly go through and I promise that will work for individual history removal.

      All the best.

      1. MV LT said on October 13, 2012 at 7:18 pm
        Reply

        Sachin,

        You are the Best. I wish you the best best luck in your life. Thank’s for such good and easy way to clean skype chat history. Thank You from all the heart :)

  5. Sachin said on May 9, 2012 at 2:53 pm
    Reply

    I got it working using the SQLite Manager plugin available for Mozila Filrefox. Just install this plugin to your browser, and simply go to Web Developer -> SQLite Manager.

    Open the main.db file from the skype location in your user’s directory and navigate to ‘Messages’ table. Just hit ‘Search’ button , and it will show a dialog box. supply the name of the person (as displayed in skype) for the person you want to delete the history for against the column ‘dialog_partner’ and click ok. it will fetch all results for that person, and now select all and click delete.

    Note: Programmers can do it via query ‘Delete from Messages where dialog_partner=;

    Note: skype should be closed while doing all this and you are done. You won’t find any messages for the skype partner next time you login.

    1. chewie said on May 13, 2012 at 2:14 pm
      Reply

      Sachin,
      You are the bomb!
      Thank you

  6. noella said on January 15, 2012 at 11:48 pm
    Reply

    hey i was just wondering how you look at old chat history since the sms only goes so far back, how would i go to open up old chat historys with one person?

  7. Andrej Mikulik said on December 12, 2011 at 5:45 pm
    Reply
  8. leo said on August 25, 2011 at 1:20 am
    Reply

    my problem is,that i dont want any of m chat histor to be even saved to start with,and even with the “no history” option on, i still get my last messages on every time i log in…anone to know how to get rid of it all without complications?

  9. Shahzad said on August 15, 2011 at 10:47 am
    Reply

    GUYS its very simple i have done and it worked, Go to skype menu — privacy—-and find their keep history for and front of it clear history the button press and hurrah history clear.

    enjoy

    1. LOL said on January 19, 2012 at 11:07 am
      Reply

      You are last from many morons which are unable to read the topis, please try harder to understand:
      “Clear the Chat History of one contact in Skype”

      Hint for you, one nad all are a two different things.
      Excuse me, but I had to write this…

  10. Jane said on June 26, 2011 at 4:34 pm
    Reply

    You can go to history –> press control then delete each conversation or call, but you cant do one contact in particular.

  11. Beast said on April 21, 2011 at 12:11 am
    Reply

    on Mac OS , skype 5.1 , find the file main.db at /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Skype/skypename

    stop skype

    open the main.db and edit… What I did was to find all stings matching the target skype contact name and replace with a different string of the same length (for safety)

    Save the modified file

    open skype

    now I had TWO contacts – one with modified name and all the history, another one with original name and no history. Remove the contact with history using standard skype option “contacts -> delete contact”

    you are left with the contact and no history

    done

    1. DIY said on August 10, 2011 at 6:32 pm
      Reply

      Beast, good reply…

      What do I open the DB with? When I used text/edit there was a gabillion list of code and I can’t sift through that to find the chat I want to delete

      Can you go through this again for the more non porous :))

  12. aaa said on April 17, 2011 at 7:01 pm
    Reply

    wow half of you guys are fucking retarded. the thread is about how to delete individual conversations what you’re saying is prevent saving and deleting ALL the conversations.

    1. Beast said on April 20, 2011 at 11:29 pm
      Reply

      Can not agree with you more. retardation all around us :(

  13. sdfasf said on March 14, 2011 at 12:07 pm
    Reply

    tools—>options—>privacy(which is on the left)—>keep chat history for —-> disable history will prevent saving the chat history.

  14. kingeric11 said on March 11, 2011 at 5:44 pm
    Reply

    on a mac just go click on skype in the toolbar and go to preferences. There is a way to clear the history that way.

  15. Rajesh said on May 10, 2010 at 9:33 pm
    Reply

    Hello people,,,
    Gud news to u all…… At last I figured out a solution to delete Skype history.
    This works in Skype. 4.1.0…. Unfortunately I dont know about the older versions. But using this option you can only delete complete chat history. It is not possible to delete Contact specific history..
    To delete the same you just have to follow the following steps…

    Step 1- Open up skype as then click on “tools” in the top right hand corner.

    Step 2 – Select “options”

    Step 3 – Choose the “Privacy” icon on the left hand side then click on “Privacy Setttings” from the exanded tab.

    Step 4 – Look in right side of the menu about the middle vertically. You can see the option ” Keep Chat History for” just select “no history” click save and you are done.

    To also delete your old chat history just follow the same steps above then

    Step 5 – Click on the form button that says “Clear Chat History”

    Click save and you are done.

    This works.. trust me…..
    Happy Skyping………….

  16. Nick said on May 10, 2010 at 10:52 pm
    Reply

    Rajesh you boob, you ought to learn to read first before offering such lousy advice. Your suggestion deletes chat skype history for ALL contacts not just one.

    I hope your careless advice doesn’t ruin someone’s day!

  17. natalie said on April 19, 2010 at 10:29 am
    Reply

    But how would one go about this with a mac?
    for the life of me I can’t seem to find any of these files!

  18. Kosi2801 said on February 14, 2010 at 11:33 pm
    Reply

    If you know one thing or another in SQL you can more comfortably delete the history. Skype 4 saves the history in a SQLite format.

    You could delete the history for a specific contact/conversation using

    DELETE FROM messages WHERE dialog_partner =

    For more details on the Skype internal storage and some tricks you can have a look over at
    http://kosi2801.freepgs.com/2009/12/03/messing_with_the_skype_40_database.html

    1. Kosi2801 said on February 14, 2010 at 11:35 pm
      Reply

      SQL got messed up in the reply, sorry.

      Use
      DELETE FROM messages WHERE dialog_partner = skype_name
      where you exchange “skype_name” with the skype-name of the person you want to delete the history of.

  19. WhosHollyyy said on January 19, 2010 at 7:33 am
    Reply

    For some reason when i go to “Computer” i can’t even find the documents and settings. i have windows vista. so does anything change for me?

  20. callahan said on November 11, 2009 at 8:21 am
    Reply

    open skype and then click:
    tools—>options—>privacy(which is on the left)—>show advanced options—>clear history

  21. T said on July 16, 2009 at 1:02 am
    Reply

    Hi everyone!

    I tried to follow the directions to remove the chat history from one contact but I came across two difficulties:

    1) I am only able to find one database file, main.db. I couldn’t find any of the files chatmsg256.dbb, etc.. mentioned above.

    2) I am not able to open the file that I have found (main.db). I tried it with Microsoft access but it didn’t work. Neither does it work with a notepad.

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks!
    T.

  22. navin said on May 26, 2009 at 4:12 pm
    Reply

    Xcellent I tried this it really works, thanx for helping me

  23. Omar said on April 25, 2009 at 5:48 pm
    Reply

    Ok, there is a way to clear the message history, just go to “tools”, “options” and there is an option to choose for how long you will like to keep track of your conversations. Also yu will find a clear history option.
    Hope this information works for you all!

  24. Primoz said on February 8, 2009 at 10:31 pm
    Reply

    Small utility can do this also: http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=178741

  25. badragheh said on January 21, 2009 at 10:36 pm
    Reply

    you can delete it.

    thanks for you help but if you go to
    options -> chat and sms -> advance options -> clear chat history

  26. yahooperson said on December 10, 2008 at 2:47 pm
    Reply

    How do you delete chat history in Yahoomessenger? does anyone know?

  27. Koko said on August 11, 2008 at 9:17 am
    Reply

    Wow…this is simply marvellous coz Skype had me stumped. Can’t thank you enough.

  28. EB said on November 15, 2007 at 11:50 pm
    Reply

    Excellent directions. bravo.

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.