For Skype exports
Read your Skype conversations again
Open the export you saved from Skype and read every message as it was, with the photos, the calls and the dates, on this computer. Nothing is uploaded.
Open your Skype export
Drop the .tar file here, or the messages.json, or both downloads together.
Stays on this computer. Nothing is uploaded, and closing the page leaves no copy.
What you can open
The files Skype gave you, as they are
Your conversations
The export Skype prepared, with messages.json inside. Open the .tar directly, or the messages.json if you already unpacked it.
Photos and files
The separate files export. Add it and the photos, videos and voice messages appear in the messages where they were sent.
Classic Skype history
The main.db file that Skype 7 and earlier kept on your computer (beta). Re-zipped exports and .tar.gz work too.
How it works
Three quiet steps
Find the file
It is usually in Downloads, named like 8_live_yourname_export.tar. There is no need to unpack it.
Open it here
Your browser reads it on this computer. Conversations appear with names, how many messages, and the years they span.
Read and search
Scroll through a conversation day by day, search every chat at once, or go straight to a date you remember.
Private by design
Your conversations stay with you
Kept Chats is a page that runs in your browser. It reads your export from your own disk and never sends it anywhere: there is no account, no upload and no copy kept on any server. Close the tab and it is gone from memory.
Message text is treated with care too. Anything in an export that could act as code is shown as plain text, never run.
- No upload: the file is read on your device
- No account and no cookies
- Works with exports of several gigabytes
- Times shown in your own time zone
- Edited and deleted messages marked, as Skype showed them
Some of these conversations will be with people who are no longer here. Take your time. Nothing on this page is timed, nothing is saved unless you choose to save it, and you can close it whenever you like.
Keep a copy
A copy that doesn’t depend on anyone
Save one conversation or all of them in forms that will open in years to come, without this site or any program.
- PDFSpeech bubbles on A4 pages, with photos, dates and page numbers. Ready to print or keep.
- HTMLA single web page per conversation with its photos inside. Opens in any browser, offline.
- CSVOne row per message, for Excel, Numbers or LibreOffice.
Coming soon
Saving copies will be a small one-time unlock. Reading and searching your export are free, and will stay free.
Questions
Before you open it
Plain answers about privacy, large files and what happened to Skype.
Is my export uploaded anywhere?
No. Your browser reads the file on your own device and shows it to you. The page has no way to send the file anywhere: its security policy only allows it to talk to this site, and the only thing it sends is an anonymous note when a file fails to open (the type of problem, never the file or anything in it). You can check in your browser’s developer tools, on the Network tab.
Where is my Skype export?
Usually in your Downloads folder, named like 8_live_yourname_export.tar. If you chose both Conversations and Files when you exported, Skype may have made two downloads; open both together to see photos in the conversations.
Skype has closed. Can I still get my chats?
Only if you saved an export, moved to Teams Free before the deadline, or have an old main.db from classic Skype on an old computer. Microsoft has said that data not exported or moved has been deleted, and nobody else can recover it. What happened to Skype chats explains the dates.
My export is several gigabytes. Will it open?
Yes. The file is read a piece at a time and photos are only read when you scroll to them, so a large export opens on an ordinary computer. Conversations with hundreds of thousands of messages scroll smoothly.
Can I use it on a phone or a Mac?
Can I keep a copy that doesn’t need this site?
Soon. Saving conversations as a PDF with photos, a web page that opens in any browser, or a spreadsheet will be a small one-time unlock. Reading and searching stay free.
Guides
Help with Skype exports
- How to open a Skype exportYour Skype export is a .tar file with a messages.json inside. Here is how to open it and read every conversation in your browser, without uploading it anywhere.
- How to read messages.jsonmessages.json is where a Skype export keeps every message. What is inside it, why it looks like code, and how to read it as normal conversations.
- Photos and files from a Skype exportSkype put shared photos, videos and voice messages in a separate files export with a media folder. How to see them back in the conversations they belong to.
- Open a Skype export on a MacHow to open the Skype export .tar file on a Mac, read the conversations with photos in Safari, Chrome or Firefox, and keep them private.
- Open a Skype export on a phoneYou can read a Skype export on a phone: choose the .tar file from Files or Downloads in your browser. What works, and when a computer is easier.
- Save Skype chat history as a PDFTurn a conversation from your Skype export into a PDF with photos, dates and names, or a web page archive that opens anywhere. Made in your browser.
- What happened to my Skype chats?Skype closed on 5 May 2025. What Microsoft did with chat history, the export deadline, Teams Free, and how to read an export you saved.
- Open an old Skype main.dbClassic Skype (version 7 and earlier) kept chat history in main.db. Where to find it on Windows and Mac, and how to read it without installing anything.