I am running Skype PORTABLE on a Win7 x64 machine. Up until around Dec 25, everything was working fine. After that, possibly coincident with a version upgrade, I could not find any past history of chats and calls. The main.db file still exists in the usual place, but has not been changed since then.
Meanwhile, I found this directory:
C:\Users\[myname]\AppData\Roaming\Skype
In it is all the config data, including the more recent history.
But I only ever upgraded Skype by downloading the portable apps installer, and installing over previous version. This is a new machine, and Skype has never been installed on it in any other way.
Nowhere in Skype's settings is there any way to change the directory for saving preferences.
This would imply that Skype PORTABLE is not actually fully portable.
My goal is a fully portable Skype that unifies all my past history.
Thanks.
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If you only run it with SkypePortable.exe and upgrade it using a portable installer or the PortableApps.com Platform (preferred) it will remain portable. But if you let it upgrade itself, it will install locally, like most apps. If you let is associate itself as a handler, etc for a browser or anything else, it will associate Skype but not Skype Portable, so it will be the copy of Skype inside Skype Portable running, but running in local mode. The same will happen if you set it to run within Windows.
With portable software: (1) don't let it update itself unless it specifically states that it can do so portably like Firefox Portable can, (2) don't associate it with any files or as a protocol handler for browsers, (3) don't set it to start with Windows.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Sounds like at some stage around December 25 you started to run the app with Skype.exe, not SkypePortable.exe.
This most commonly happens if you have associated it with any particular filetypes, or potentially pinned Skype.exe to the taskbar instead of SkypePortable.exe.
Thanks for the comments. None of the items John mentioned apply to my case. But it does look like somehow I was running Skype.exe instead of Skypeportable.exe, and indeed this was what was pinned to the taskbar. So this problem seems to be resolved now.
But now I have two weeks of history in one place, and the rest of my history in another (the original place). Any ideas for how to consolidate the contents of two different main.db files?
Also, any insight about where the Messenger chats are being stored? (does Skype client treat them the same as Skype chats?) Any idea if they will be stored longer than 30 days?
Thanks for the help.
If you ever pin an app to the Windows taskbar while it is running, you're pinning the local app. Windows is very dumb with pinning and doesn't understand apps with multiple EXEs. It just pins whatever is running, not how it was launched.
If you were running the local version, it's stored in APPDATA\Skype
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Same here. Don't even have Skype.exe so how I where able to run it instead of SkypePortable.exe?
The data is still on C.
The same with uTorrent portable!