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I am not sure, but months ago I installed Skype in Ubuntu and it automatically pulled chat history from the cloud which means it did.

However, lately my hard disk installed with Windows 7 broke. Now I am using my old backup HDD, which has Windows 7 and Skype already installed, but no matter how I try to retrieve chat history it couldn't?

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    As far as I know, Skype saves chat history on their servers unless you tell it otherwise. I can't speak for Windows 7 because I use a Mac.
    – user3463
    Jan 6, 2011 at 14:54
  • It seems to be that way in *nix based system? I am positive it pulled chat history from my Win7 PC.
    – Joann
    Jan 8, 2011 at 15:28
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    It might pull some of your chat history if you connect to a friend. Skype detects (on your friends computer) that you 2 have a shared chat history, and it sees that your chat history is missing it copies the data from your friend to you. Repeat for several contacts/friends and it will look like you have recovered your chat history. But you probably only have bits and pieces of it.
    – Nifle
    Jan 9, 2011 at 10:59

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No they don't.

Skype archives your chats for you and stores them locally on your computer, if you have enabled this option. Chat histories are not stored anywhere on the Skype network. In other words, no one else will ever be able to see any of your chat histories except you and the person you are chatting with.

(source)

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  • Now I am puzzled. On a side note, should it be better if I install skype in cloud services like Dropbox? I haven't tried it but will it work? If so, this could be the ultimate solution IMO.
    – Joann
    Jan 8, 2011 at 15:31
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    That is not entirely true. Skype temporarily stores current chat sessions. If you log from second device with the same skype account it will show you some chat backlog. But it is limited.
    – D.Iankov
    Aug 15, 2011 at 20:43
  • @D.Iankov I always imagined that it will pull recent chats from any person who you have chatted with. If person A from laptop A.Lap1 chats with person B using laptop B.lap1, then A turned off his A.lap1, goes home and start A.lap2, it will sync the conversation from B.lap1 to A.lap1 if B.lap1 was online.
    – Mohammed Joraid
    Feb 22, 2014 at 20:09
  • This is soo wrong and invalid....
    – Antoniossss
    Feb 16, 2017 at 8:03
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Yes, Skype™ does (automatically) keep your data in the cloud.

From Skype's™ Privacy Policy †; - unedited (with the exception that text within angular brackets i.e. < and > are my comments — like this: copied text <my_comment>:

1. " Skype will retain your information for as long as is necessary..."

< in essence it means arbitrary data of arbitrary amounts as deemed appropriate by Microsoft and/or Skype and/or applying jurisdictions; necessarily kept in the event that the court requires the data - read the source file >

2. "What Information Does Skype Gather AND USE?

< Way too much to mention all, see the source. A few gems: of course your transcripts, as well as banking data, ID info, cookies, geolocation, and my personal favorite: test calls made to Echo123 >

The above should be enough to answer the question, but I personally don't rely on one source, instead will research the topic at hand. I just feel the need to counter/rebut the answers of others on here, though:

In conclusion:

Read their current ToS at http://www.skype.com/intl/en/legal/terms/tou/ and do your own research; make up your own mind. ‡

If you'd like more info, I will be glad to assist if I can.

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    I understand your sentiment, but I (with respect) disagree. The problem is that the privacy policies tend to change over time - and not in trivial matters either.
    – skopp
    Dec 17, 2012 at 20:18
  • Secondly, the question itself is/was well asked. It was one of the top results on Google - I searched on this issue specifically, and that's how I found it. I say this because, it doesn't matter that time goes by, people always want to know if Skype saves their data. MAyve it's a problem, whatever the problem is - sure - I can agree there, but this is the new frontier, that of info "warfare", overt (false) advertising and hidden clauses, and we are the brigadiers of truth. Nobody can say it's easy - in some cases... it had been fatal. E.g. The Murdoch/Guardian scandals, Wikileaks
    – skopp
    Dec 17, 2012 at 20:54
  • I had to check if this was Reddit for a second. tsk-tsk. I wasn't expecting to cause a mini-riot on here. sigh Question: "Does skype automatically save chat history to the cloud?" Answer: "Yes." the rest is a bonus. Problem?
    – skopp
    Dec 18, 2012 at 4:18
  • @Ramhound Please take it down a notch. Telling someone "they are not educated enough" isn't necessarily constructive. I don't see a lot of personal opinion in this post, really. skopp in fact cited relevant parts of the policies.
    – slhck
    Dec 18, 2012 at 6:28
  • @slhck - Sure, my aplogizes. The personal commentary on the Skype policy is what I have a problem with to be honest. For instance the banking data statement, every business which sells a service, collects this information so they can actually charge you for said service.
    – Ramhound
    Dec 18, 2012 at 12:12
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At the time of writing Skype appear to keep one month's history in the cloud.

Tested by logging into https://web.skype.com whilst signed out in all other locations.

Skype let me view conversations and scroll back until messages sent from around a month ago were visible.

Of course, Skype will keep a local history of conversations by device. It is not known whether setting the device's chat history storage option to "never" will prevent messages being stored in the cloud altogether (after delivery of course).

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