How to dump your Skype database to a text file for easy searching

I had a problem recently trying to search the Skype instant messeage history. Searching for a historical chat can be done in Skype by pressing CTRL-F, but only if you know the person(s) that were involved on that chat. You cannot search the chat history globally.

The solution is to dump out the skype database into a TXT file for easy searching with notepad.

  1. Download SQLite command shell at http://www.sqlite.org/download.html. (I downloaded http://www.sqlite.org/sqlite-shell-win32-x86-3070400.zip)
  2. Extract sqllite3.exe to a place on your path, or somewhere you can run it easily from.
  3. Open a DOS command prompt.
  4. Change the folder to C:\Users\[pc user name]\AppData\Roaming\Skype\[skype user name]
  5. There you should find main.db database.
  6. Type the following (in bold):
    • sqlite3 main.db
    • sqlite> .output c:\skype_chat.txt
    • sqlite> .dump
    • sqlite> .quit

You can now start Notepad and open file c:\skype_chat.txt to search through.

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