# Skype keeps crashing, am I the only one?



## Costello (Jan 20, 2016)

hi guys,

I use skype a lot for work but lately it just keeps crashing on me.
sometimes messages get displayed in the wrong order, but the most annoying is that randomly Skype freezes:
- sometimes it will freeze for a short period of time (1 minute) and come back
- sometimes it will freeze for a long period of time and I have to shut it down completely
- sometimes when I open the file explorer, the explorer freezes and it makes Skype crash (why?!)

I am running windows 10 with the latest updates. And Skype is up to date as well.

am I the only one who's having these troubles?
I looked up the skype forums and it seems like several people had issues, but I wasn't able to get a clear way to get this solved.

what could it be? what can I do about it? if I install an older version, it's just going to update itself automatically anyway and problems will come back...


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## Jacklack3 (Jan 20, 2016)

Have you tried reinstalling it?


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## Zerousen (Jan 20, 2016)

There isn't really any way to fix it, at least in my experience. The problem just kind of comes and goes for me, whether I reset my computer or reinstall does not matter. As of right now I have no issues with it, but my friend keeps having Skype crash and not be able to make any calls, so we just use teamspeak now. I hope you can find a way to fix it.


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## Originality (Jan 20, 2016)

This used to happen to me on my previous SSD, which I found out had corrupt sectors that could only be fixed with a secure erase. Since I reinstalled Windows and Skype onto a new 1TB Samsung SSD, I haven't had any problems with it since.

The long and short of it, the freezing issue (for Skype and Explorer) was caused when the SSD ran into an IO error and couldn't read/handle the corrupted sector (in my case, the Skype folder). Of course, you may have a different cause for your issues, but this is what it makes me think of.


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## Sono (Jan 20, 2016)

Because I use skype often, (and MSN no longer works,) and it just always crashes, and it's full of crapvertisement, I permanently switched to Linux, and I'm using https://web.skype.com since that. If you use a Macrosoos-compatible browser, you could install the skype phone call plugin that's way more less unstable, and there are no frickin' advertisements, and it's alwats up-to-date, and that makes web.skype.com the currently best skype version. The only downside is that you can't turn off notufications, and you always have to keep the browser open, but that could be doable, if you place a shortcut in the Start menu's autorun folder.


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## Costello (Jan 20, 2016)

Originality said:


> This used to happen to me on my previous SSD, which I found out had corrupt sectors that could only be fixed with a secure erase. Since I reinstalled Windows and Skype onto a new 1TB Samsung SSD, I haven't had any problems with it since.
> 
> The long and short of it, the freezing issue (for Skype and Explorer) was caused when the SSD ran into an IO error and couldn't read/handle the corrupted sector (in my case, the Skype folder). Of course, you may have a different cause for your issues, but this is what it makes me think of.



I wonder if this might be related. I have a Samsung SSD in fact. But it's quite new (bought it about a year ago)
thanks guys I will try your solutions!


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## migles (Jan 20, 2016)

i had been problems since last year i think., skype was crashing at launching.. appearing white, etc, common problems that other people also had...
@Costello this may help...
what i do when skype shows up as non responsive is to delete the skype folder inside %appdata% (move the received files\pictures to somwhere if you want to keep them)

maybe refreshing appdata files will work for you, dont be scared that you got hundreds of new messages, its a bug.. it will download the history and shows up as new convos..

also very recently, programs like firefox and skype started to crash and was having blue screens, i ran a memor86+ test and it was getting errors... removed all sticks of ram, tested one by one, and i have a bad ram stick...


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## Costello (Jan 21, 2016)

migles said:


> i had been problems since last year i think., skype was crashing at launching.. appearing white, etc, common problems that other people also had...
> @Costello this may help...
> what i do when skype shows up as non responsive is to delete all folders inside %appdata% (move the received files\pictures to somwhere if you want to keep them)
> 
> ...


soooo...

1) I uninstalled skype
2) I cleared the %appdata%\skype folder
3) I reinstalled the latest version from ninite.com and reconfigured it

spent a whole day without a crash! yay! let's hope it stays that way 
thanks everyone for your help!


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## DarkFlare69 (Jan 24, 2016)

I'm having the same issue, and haven't got a fix. I posted a thread with other issues as well


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## The Real Jdbye (Jan 24, 2016)

It freezes sometimes in video calls, I just restart it. I've also noticed that lately my last message is always displayed on the bottom and new messages from other people appear above it.


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## DarkFlare69 (Jan 24, 2016)

The Real Jdbye said:


> It freezes sometimes in video calls, I just restart it. I've also noticed that lately my last message is always displayed on the bottom and new messages from other people appear above it.


that happens to me too (displaying messages in the wrong order)


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## Costello (Feb 4, 2016)

soooo... the crashes are back (both on my windows 8.1 computer and Windows 10 as well)
it happens less often, but it still does happen at least once a day.

usually it happens when I open the windows file explorer.
as soon as I open it, Skype freezes. Sometimes it unfreezes after 1 minute, sometimes it ends up crashing after a while.

sighhhhhh


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## Jayro (Feb 8, 2016)

I had this happen, and had to disable the HP webcam in device manager, and now it works.


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## Costello (Feb 16, 2016)

Jayro said:


> I had this happen, and had to disable the HP webcam in device manager, and now it works.


I do not have an HP webcam but I will try disabling my webcam all the same. Will update if this works.
thanks for the suggesty!


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## Sono (Feb 16, 2016)

Have you tried out web.skype.com? Appearently it's the most functional Skype available. If you use a browser that's compatible with the Skype Web plugin, you can even make voice/video calls  The only downside is that sometimes Macro$oft screws up the layout, and if they do, it takes ~a day or two to fix it.

Or alternatively you could downgrade Skype to 6.3, because that's not as shit as the current version, and a gajillion times more stable, aaand it doesn't contain (as many?) ads as the newer versions do.
BUT! If you want to go on the downgrade path, make sure you backup your user folder (assuming you're on Windows: %appdata%\Skype\<skype_username>), or even the whole Skype data folder (%appdata%\Skype), or else you may lose some of your data. Please don't blame me if you lose your conversations :S
Also, if you downgrade, you can't log out, or else you'll have to update to login again.

When I was on Windows, Skype crashed for me, because sometimes it wasn't able to initialize the sound device (to be more precise, the microphone). If you can get into Skype, you may want to change the sound devices before it crashes again. This happened, because I have a "High Definition Audio Device", and I can change how each port operates (fixed / dynamic function), and this causes the devices to have different names. But becuase Skype is a dumb idiot, it doesn't check on startup if the device name is valid, and  becuase the driver changed the device name of the microphone, Skype dies, because it tries to initialize an invalid device.


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## Jekuma (Feb 16, 2016)

MarcusD said:


> Have you tried out web.skype.com? Appearently it's the most functional Skype available. If you use a browser that's compatible with the Skype Web plugin, you can even make voice/video calls  The only downside is that sometimes Macro$oft screws up the layout, and if they do, it takes ~a day or two to fix it.
> 
> Or alternatively you could downgrade Skype to 6.3, because that's not as shit as the current version, and a gajillion times more stable, aaand it doesn't contain (as many?) ads as the newer versions do.
> BUT! If you want to go on the downgrade path, make sure you backup your user folder (assuming you're on Windows: %appdata%\Skype\<skype_username>), or even the whole Skype data folder (%appdata%\Skype), or else you may lose some of your data. Please don't blame me if you lose your conversations :S
> ...



The link you provided isn't working.


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## Sono (Feb 16, 2016)

I found another one, I hope it's multilingual: http://static.letoltokozpont.hu/letoltokozpont.hu/programok/s/SkypeSetup130324.msi


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## Grim Ripper (Feb 16, 2016)

The issue with the messages exists for a while and they haven't fixed it yet.

Something else that is annoying is the fact that the /remotelogout command doesn't work if used from a pc but it does work if used from a mobile device.
I used the command cause skype shows you "away" if you have wifi/3-4g off but haven't logged out from the mobile app, usually you'd use /remotelogout on your desktop/laptop and the problem is fixed.
Now you have to use the command in the mobile app and then log out from it.


/showplaces = shows all places you are logged from.
/remotelogout = logs you out from all places except the current one


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## Costello (Feb 18, 2016)

well the webcam disable trick did not fix the problem either 
Skype still crashes about 5 times/day.
it seems linked to the Windows Explorer because when I open an explorer Window, about 1/10th of the times Skype will freeze for about 1 minute then finally crash for no apparent reason.

There's this one time I clicked "Debug" after a crash, it opened Visual Studio, but I wasnt able to get any particular info except some DLL reference, it said something about ntldr.dll ... but nothing useful just a bunch of numbers.

I cannot downgrade because I have critical skype conversations with customers so I can't take the risk of it not working properly. It only crashes when I browse my computer (which I don't do during calls).


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## TecXero (Feb 18, 2016)

Wish I could help, but I've tried it under Mint (using the Ubuntu version), Windows XP (VM), and Windows 7 (VM). I didn't run into any issues, other than the Windows version seems insanely bloated.


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## Sono (Feb 18, 2016)

Costello said:


> well the webcam disable trick did not fix the problem either
> Skype still crashes about 5 times/day.
> it seems linked to the Windows Explorer because when I open an explorer Window, about 1/10th of the times Skype will freeze for about 1 minute then finally crash for no apparent reason.
> 
> ...



Yes, it freezed for me too when I opened an explorer window. The best part was that sometimes Skype garbled the video output on freezing, softlocking the ENTIRE system!

Btw, have you tried changing the sound devices in Skype? What kind of soundcard/chip do you have?
(sometimes you can see it in dxdiag)


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## Costello (Feb 20, 2016)

MarcusD said:


> Yes, it freezed for me too when I opened an explorer window. The best part was that sometimes Skype garbled the video output on freezing, softlocking the ENTIRE system!
> 
> Btw, have you tried changing the sound devices in Skype? What kind of soundcard/chip do you have?
> (sometimes you can see it in dxdiag)



I use several audio devices but I haven't noticed a particular pattern yet.
Also, it happens on two different computers (although I only have one now so can't test both), windows 8.1 and the other was windows 10.


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## FAST6191 (Feb 20, 2016)

Yeah for years now skype has gone rapidly downhill in terms of quality of the program. Time was it was only the nasty cat5 coupler I had that caused troubles.

What is the CPU activity during one of the lock up phases? For one of my Linux installs it crashes outright if I have a particular webcam in and someone ends the call (regardless of whether I actually have it active). If I end the call with it in then it can be better, if I pull the camera before the call ends then it sometimes works and sometimes goes to 100% CPU for one CPU core but actually remains with a functional UI. I can't remember having such quirks and rituals for a program since windows 95/98 days.


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## Costello (Apr 28, 2016)

it seems they have released a new version a few weeks ago that .. FOR NOW... fixes my issues 
I dont wanna jinx it but so far so good !


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## Sono (Apr 28, 2016)

Costello said:


> it seems they have released a new version a few weeks ago that .. FOR NOW... fixes my issues
> I dont wanna jinx it but so far so good !



Welp, you were lucky then  No working Skype versions fix my issue, so I'm using the mobile version (which is also broken), or web.skype.com, which is the most functional version of Skype which is not banned out of usage (like old versions have been that have no AD module)


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## Joom (May 4, 2016)

MarcusD said:


> Welp, you were lucky then  No working Skype versions fix my issue, so I'm using the mobile version (which is also broken), or web.skype.com, which is the most functional version of Skype which is not banned out of usage (like old versions have been that have no AD module)


Add "0.0.0.0 apps.skype.com" to your hosts file and you won't have ads. On Windows, there will still be a placeholder box for the ads, but this can be disabled by editing the corresponding XML array in the user configuration file in AppData.


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## Sono (May 4, 2016)

Joom said:


> Add "0.0.0.0 apps.skype.com" to your hosts file and you won't have ads. On Windows, there will still be a placeholder box for the ads, but this can be disabled by editing the corresponding XML array in the user configuration file in AppData.



Well, I have the most ancient Skype version possible, so I don't have an option to disable the ads in the XML config file


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## Joom (May 7, 2016)

MarcusD said:


> Well, I have the most ancient Skype version possible, so I don't have an option to disable the ads in the XML config file


If you're using an old version, why not just use one that doesn't have ads introduced?


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## Sono (May 7, 2016)

Joom said:


> If you're using an old version, why not just use one that doesn't have ads introduced?



'cause older versions are "banned", and newer version look bad imo, and I use web.skype.com anyways


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## Frederica Bernkastel (May 26, 2016)

MarcusD said:


> 'cause older versions are "banned", and newer version look bad imo, and I use web.skype.com anyways


Only the sign-in of old versions is banned...  As a trick, if you install an older version of Skype running alongside the latest, it'll allow you to sign in with the latest version, and then continue on using the older version (the same credentials are used, Microsoft just disallow those to be granted to unsupported versions of Skype). 

+1 Skype for Web - though I've also had very little trouble with the OSX client too (ironic right?)


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