Guides
Help with Skype exports
Short, plain answers for opening and keeping the history you saved from Skype.
- How to open a Skype exportYour Skype export is a .tar file with a messages.json inside. Here is how to open it and read every conversation in your browser, without uploading it anywhere.
- How to read messages.jsonmessages.json is where a Skype export keeps every message. What is inside it, why it looks like code, and how to read it as normal conversations.
- Photos and files from a Skype exportSkype put shared photos, videos and voice messages in a separate files export with a media folder. How to see them back in the conversations they belong to.
- Open a Skype export on a MacHow to open the Skype export .tar file on a Mac, read the conversations with photos in Safari, Chrome or Firefox, and keep them private.
- Open a Skype export on a phoneYou can read a Skype export on a phone: choose the .tar file from Files or Downloads in your browser. What works, and when a computer is easier.
- Save Skype chat history as a PDFTurn a conversation from your Skype export into a PDF with photos, dates and names, or a web page archive that opens anywhere. Made in your browser.
- What happened to my Skype chats?Skype closed on 5 May 2025. What Microsoft did with chat history, the export deadline, Teams Free, and how to read an export you saved.
- Open an old Skype main.dbClassic Skype (version 7 and earlier) kept chat history in main.db. Where to find it on Windows and Mac, and how to read it without installing anything.