How do I manage my conversation history in Skype for Windows desktop?

To browse your conversation history:

1. Under Contacts or Recent, click the contact or group you want to see the conversation history for.
   
   
   
   Your instant messages and call history with that contact or group are displayed in the main window.
2. If you can’t see the person or group in the Contacts or Recent list, type the name into the Search box, or scroll to the bottom and click Show earlier messages.
   
   

If you need to find a particular message within your conversation history with a contact or group, you can search for a specific word or phrase within the conversation.

1. In your Contacts or Recent list, select the conversation you want to search.
2. Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard, or select Conversation > Find in the menu bar.
   
   
3. In the search box that appears, type the word or phrase you're looking for and press Enter. You can use the Next and Previous buttons to move through the search results.
   
   

If you’ve read a message, but need to remember to go back to it later, just right-click the conversation and select Mark as Unread. This turns the conversation orange in the Recent tab, and adds a notification to the Skype icon in your task bar, reminding you to read it later.

Your conversation history is saved on your computer’s hard drive for a specified period of time.

To change how long you keep your Skype history on your computer:

1. In the menu bar, select Skype and then select Privacy....
   
   
2. Under Keep history for, choose from the drop-down forever, 3 months, 1 month, 2 weeks or no history.
   
   
3. Click Save at the bottom of the Options box.

The last 30 days of your conversation history are stored in the cloud, so you can access it when you’re signed in to Skype on any device.

History older than 30 days is saved on your hard drive, according to your history settings. 

You can back up your history if for any reason you need to uninstall Skype, or if you want to transfer your history from one computer to another – for example, from a Windows PC to another Windows PC, or a Windows machine to a Mac. You just need to copy the main database file in your Skype Name folder. 

To save and transfer your conversation history:

1. Press and hold the Windows key  on your keyboard, then press R to bring up the Run window.
2. Type %appdata%\Skype into the Run window and press OK.
3. Navigate to the folder named after your Skype Name.
4. Right click on the folder itself and select Copy. This will copy the entire folder including all its contents.
5. Save the folder to an external media device.
6. On your new computer, install and sign in to Skype so that the necessary folder is created, then sign out of Skype again.
7. Still on your new computer, go to the Run window again, type %appdata%\Skype and press OK.
8. Navigate to the folder named after your Skype Name.
9. Replace the entire folder (named after your Skype Name) with the folder that you saved in step 4 and 5.
10. Sign in to Skype. Your chat history will be there when you browse through your conversations.

The chat history exporter in Skype for Windows desktop lets you export your conversation history in CSV format so that you can keep it outside of Skype.

Remember, the last 30 days of your conversation history are stored in the cloud, so won't be exported. Only the history saved on your hard drive, according to your 'keep history for' setting, is exported.

To export your chat history:

1. Select Tools > Options.
2. On the left, select Privacy.
3. Select the Export Chat History button.
   
   
4. Choose a location to save the file to, then select Save.

You can use the CSV file with any spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel. Be aware that some content, for example media files, is not exported; shared URLs and similar content is exported within XML tags; some messages may be split into separate rows due to formatting issues.