How to See Old Skype Conversations

Microsoft's Skype maintains a comprehensive message history, but not all conversations initially appear by default. The Recent tab lists only the contacts with whom you've talked or exchanged messages in the past week, but you can expand this list to show older conversations. Likewise, clicking a conversation displays only the most recent messages until you select a wider time-frame. If a conversation is especially lengthy, finding a specific message would be pretty tedious but for Skype’s handy Find feature, which searches for messages containing specific keywords.

Log in to your Skype account in the Skype for Windows desktop application.

Click the "Recent" tab and then "Show Earlier Messages" to show all contacts with whom you've exchanged messages.

Click a contact and then select a time-frame, such as "1 Year," to display messages exchanged in the past. If you don't choose a time-frame, only the most recent messages are visible.

Click "Conversation" from the top menu and then "Find" to open a search box. Alternatively, press "Ctrl-F."

Enter a keyword and click "Next" or "Previous" to cycle through search results. The keyword appears highlighted in the original message.