Skype Login Disruption–With a Fix On The Way

Seems like the robustness of Skype has been mildly challenged once again. About an hour ago it became apparent that some Skype users were having issues with logging in. Skype has identified the problem according to their Twitter account.

And a later Tweet:

In the interim Skype has released, on its Heartbeat blog, a temporary, if mildly challenging technologically , fix:

Skype is aware that a select number of users are experiencing problems. They have identified a manual fix so people can follow these instructions if they continue to have issues logging on:

Windows Vista and Windows 7

1.    Close Skype.
a.    Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b.    Choose Quit.
2.    Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a.    Click Start, select “Run” and press Enter.
b.    Type “control folders” and click OK.
c.    Select the View tab and ensure “Show hidden files and folders” is enabled.
3.    Locate the shared.xml file.
a.    Click Start, type run and press Enter.
b.    Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
c.    Delete the shared.xml file.
4.    Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

Windows XP

1.    Close Skype.
a.    Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b.    Choose Quit.
2.    Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a.    Click Start and then Run…
b.    Type control folders and click OK.
c.    Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3.    Locate the shared.xml file.
a.    Click Start and then Run…
b.    Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
c.    Delete the shared.xml file.
4.    Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

Mac OS X

1. Quit Skype.
2. Go to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/
3. Delete the file shared.xml (it will be recreated once you open Skype again, this is fine).
4. Start Skype.

Please note that the ~ sign means your home folder. You can find your home folder by opening Finder and selecting Go > Home from the menu bar or pressing Command (Apple), Shift and H keys at the same time.

Skype’s unofficial “real users” tracker Hudson Barton shows how this issue has slowed down Skype Logins this morning:

We’ll provide an update once the issue has been resolved. During the time that I wrote this post the number of users online has risen from 23+ million to over 24.7 million.

But the voice conversation system has gone a long way in terms of reliability since the 1930’s. My mother’s cousin was hired by Bell Canada upon graduating from Engineering Skule^TM in the 1930’s because he had figured out a way to prevent the phone system from breaking down due to streetcar vibrations. Apparently when installing the initial phone network in Toronto in the 1920’s and ‘30’s, they would install the phone lines in the streetcar track beds. And breakdowns in the business core of Toronto were frequent.

Hopefully with each of these issues Skype becomes just a little more robust as a result of the fixes.

At least Skype is onto the issue and keeping us informed via both their PR agency and Twitter.