Is anyone else having problem with latest skype update?

[Alberto Semenzato]

Since i updated to 12.4.676.0 i started having a lot of issues with skype.
1. IM and SMS Messaging is very slow. Every message stays seconds in "sending" and the whole app freezes meanwhile.
2. The app freezes also when I'm receiving a new IM message.
3. It loads ALL your SMS messages even if "sync last month" is selected in settings. I found messages from 2013!! The database grows so large (350MB) the app crashes several times during the sync.
4. All past SMS are tagged as unread.
5. Many times in a day the app reverts to IM only and i have to set it again as a default app for SMS.
6. Random crashes.

I tried to reset the app but nothing changes, it's still very slow on doing almost everything.
This happens with my Lumia 950, with my surface pro 3, and with my assembled desktop.

Is anyone else experiencing this issues? Anyone managed to find a fix?

 

[DOGC_Kyle]

Yeah, the latest update is the worst since it left preview.

I'm really surprised they pushed this to Release Preview, it's nowhere near as polished as I've come to expect from the Skype UWP app (the last few versions have been very good). There's always been a couple bugs (most noticeably, the "hide conversation" option works half the time), but other than that it's been reliable and looks polished.
But with this latest update, basic functionality still works, but I have old conversations (Skype and SMS), improperly linked contacts, missing group and contact pics, missing messages, unable to delete messages (they removed the "hide" option and replaced it with even less reliable "permanently delete" option), and it's much slower.


At least it's not the ugly web wrapper app that every other platform got.

 

[Alberto Semenzato]

Thank you. At least I know it's not my account or my devices with a weird settings.
To be honest, basic functionality to me isn't working at all. At least, not in a usable form. Waiting 5 seconds for messages to be sent and other 4-5 seconds for received messages to be rendered in the chat window is far than acceptable for an IM/VOIP client. At least from my personal point of view.

I'm really starting to wonder if they do any quality control on builds before hitting the release button. :eck:

 

[DOGC_Kyle]

Starting today, it has been working much better for me. all the issues I noticed seem to be gone. Deleting messages is still a bit unreliable (they sometimes come back) but it works more than half the time now.

It's still a tiny bit slower than the previous version, but it looks like the majority of it was waiting for it to update its database or whatever it had to do.

Only major problem for me is notifications - I get them on my phone regardless of the app being active on other devices. Usually a remotelogout will fix this though, just haven't tried it.


So if you're still having problems, maybe just wait and see if it updates everything, since it clearly made a difference on my side.
I don't know about the basic sending/receiving, it's still extremely fast for me (my sent messages are synced maybe half a second later, between my phone and PC). Again, it was a tiny bit faster before (it used to be truly instant), but it's not bad.

But yeah, I agree that they should maybe do some more testing, especially since this hit Release Preview - these should be good and ready for everyone on all devices, and if it's not, that's why they have Fast ring.

 

[Alberto Semenzato]

It's still a tiny bit slower than the previous version, but it looks like the majority of it was waiting for it to update its database or whatever it had to do.

Only major problem for me is notifications - I get them on my phone regardless of the app being active on other devices. Usually a remotelogout will fix this though, just haven't tried it.

I noticed too about the notifications and i opened a feedback yesterday. It's a little annoying but I can live with that for now.

So if you're still having problems, maybe just wait and see if it updates everything, since it clearly made a difference on my side.
I don't know about the basic sending/receiving, it's still extremely fast for me (my sent messages are synced maybe half a second later, between my phone and PC). Again, it was a tiny bit faster before (it used to be truly instant), but it's not bad.

I wasn't actually not talking about syncing between devices or seeing my messages on other devices, but the sending/receiving messages itself. It takes literally seconds for messages to switch from sending to sent status, and the entire app freeze during the process.
I don't know, I obviously will wait since i have nothing else to do, and hopefully they'll fix it sooner than later. I noticed there's a new version 12.4.691.0 which due to some errors on the new Microsoft Marketplace i can't download anywhere (error 0x80073CF9).
We'll see if it makes things better, but considering how they're coding lately, I won't hold my breath.

Just wondering, which region are you? US?

 

[Andreas Lagos]

I noticed too about the notifications and i opened a feedback yesterday. It's a little annoying but I can live with that for now.


I wasn't actually not talking about syncing between devices or seeing my messages on other devices, but the sending/receiving messages itself. It takes literally seconds for messages to switch from sending to sent status, and the entire app freeze during the process.
I don't know, I obviously will wait since i have nothing else to do, and hopefully they'll fix it sooner than later. I noticed there's a new version 12.4.691.0 which due to some errors on the new Microsoft Marketplace i can't download anywhere (error 0x80073CF9).
We'll see if it makes things better, but considering how they're coding lately, I won't hold my breath.

Just wondering, which region are you? US?

Just fyi, i'm on 12.4.716.0 as of yesterday and am having the same issues on production build for alcatel idol 4s. Takes an eternity to load, pulls messages from forever ago, is unresponsive and laggy when trying to scroll, crashes 2 out of 3 times i try to send a message. Guess they haven't fixed this issue

 

[Martin Zone]

Suddenly, the skype sms sync can't find the phone connected nor I'm getting a form to enter the code from the pc again?
Everything is on the same account. Before the last update everything worked perfectly.

 

[Alberto Semenzato]

No they haven't. Moreover, there's a new 12.7.5xx version that introduced further issues with contact picture sync and SMS sync. They're getting better screwing the app with every update.. :grincry: (frustrated laugh)

 

[Alberto Semenzato]

FYI they just released version 12.7.597.
This bump seems to solve my "sending" problems, now messages are instantaneously sent.

After upgrade some messages switched to unread status, and probably it did some database cleanup or migration because it stuck for some seconds, so i suggest to leave it open for some minutes to let it do its stuffs completely before closing or suspending. It took me one or two reboot to have displayed my real MS live account @outlook.com instead of my old skype account. Weird, i must say.
After that, i started noticing some real "superfast" performances compared to v11 and v12.4.

On my L950 it's almost instant on opening and resuming, and much faster on switching from one conversation to another. I re-enabled SMS sync on my computers and the PC counterpart of the app does not crash while loading, although i had some occasional crashes on phone. I haven't managed to try sending SMS nor on PC or mobile, though.

There still are some weird bugs that indicates that it's not stable (or bad programmed) though:
1. Personal picture sometimes loads, sometimes does not.
2. Contacts status sometimes show, sometimes do not. This is for both online status or for the "last seen xxx" status. When it does not show, it's broken for every contact. Like a timeout on querying the whole status list from the server.
3. Picture from some contacts is still missing and the standard colored circle with initials is shown instead. I noticed this happens for contacts that resides both on Skype AND on Outlook.com. There's an inconsistend way on how it loads pictures, if someone has a skype picture and a contact picture, the skype picture seems to have priority on skype. Honestly i don't get this choice. What's the point of having them merged on the people app, then?

Anyways, contacts madness apart, it seems to be a nice update overall. Now, the real hope is they fix this contact management model while KEEPING performances as they are now.
It seems every major bump, they manage to screw up the whole experience.

 

[Alberto Semenzato]

Suddenly, the skype sms sync can't find the phone connected nor I'm getting a form to enter the code from the pc again?
Everything is on the same account. Before the last update everything worked perfectly.

Sorry i just read this reply. It happens to me too. Every app update, especially major, the SMS relay feature seems to reset. Try disabling and re-enabling it on the the phone first, then on all other devices.

 

[ITmanagerNC]

On my W10M L830 - Yesterday afternoon, after the 12.7.xxx update my profile picture changed back to the letter "L" and was my internal "Live" name (like others noted). Then that evening, the app stopped working/load. Seems to start, splash screen, 10 seconds later fails back to start screen. Tried uninstall, reinstall and a 'reset' of the application data. Phone rebooted numerous times.

No luck, anyone else have this problem? This is a killer problem for me, its my primary chat method for the family...

No problems with the PC version.

 

[Alberto Semenzato]

... my profile picture changed back to the letter "L" and was my internal "Live" name (like others noted)...

Yes this happens to me every time i reboot the phone, although without the crash issues. It seems the app is not fast enough to retrieve the full account info when signing in, thus showing the legacy username first. Next loads are faster because they probably use cached content.

Do you use skype for SMS too? With 12.x message database seems to be rebuilt, causing a lot of instability at first.
Try to reset the app, switch temporarily to messaging for SMS and leave the app open a few minutes to do its sync stuffs, then set it back to default for SMS a day later.
It's very likely that it will keep crashing during initial sync, but should become more reliable later. Set to sync a month of SMS only, to reduce traffic.

PS: I know the frustration. I use skype a lot too to talk with my gf, and since the 12 update it has become a complete mess.

 

[Saeglopur89]

Same here, despite I switched off SMS sync months ago now it's bringing it to my desktop app and can't mark it unread etc.
Nice Microsoft, keep developing more for Android/iOS and don't bother about basic customers with Skype for WINDOWS :/

 

[Martin Zone]

The last update completely ruined skype experience, both on PC and mobile, every time the app starts there is a delay of up to 10 seconds for history to show and in that time the app is unresponsive. the app itself is laggy.
There are no audible notifications for received sms messages, nor the sms sync works in real time (delays in 10s of minutes).
Yes, all settings are as it should be.
Do they even try those updates before the release to the public.
Microsoft starts to pisss me off...

 

[FrankTheDoorman]

I here you. There's a lot going wrong right now. With Skype, this is embarrassing. iMessage is so much more stable than this. What have they done to Skype?

 

[kingtigre]

Skype UWP has gotten so intolerably bad that I finally gave in today and installed the Windows 8 Skype Preview Zac was going on about a few months back. https://www.windowscentral.com/how-install-skype-preview-desktop-app-windows-10-creators-update

Holy crap is this WAY nicer! I am all for supporting UWP but between Skype UWP and the People app, my contacts and conversations are completely %$#@ed.

 

[Alberto Semenzato]

Skype UWP has gotten so intolerably bad that I finally gave in today and installed the Windows 8 Skype Preview Zac was going on about a few months back. https://www.windowscentral.com/how-install-skype-preview-desktop-app-windows-10-creators-update

Holy crap is this WAY nicer! I am all for supporting UWP but between Skype UWP and the People app, my contacts and conversations are completely %$#@ed.

I agree. I gave up on skype too. I still use it as UWP app since I have a Lumia 950, but i disabled SMS relay AND Address book integration and I've been living happily since then.
To be honest, i haven't had a lot of issues on PC, but on my phone it's still terrible with a lot of random crashes and quirks.
That said, I'm really wondering how could they mess up a working app with every new version making it bad and more bad and even more bad. It's really sad. I'm a sysadmin, and I'm used to test new versions of every product before releasing them to the rest of users at work. I've never need such a degradation in a product between a single bump in version.

 

[Chrissy Beaty]

I hate the latest update! It doesn't allow me to see the chat history.

 

[h4mm3r tyme]

The new Skype UWP looks better with each update but functions less. MSFT really needs to focus on the glaring issues in the app than slapping new paint on it. I would prefer a stable, functioning app instead of what is currently released to users.

 

[kwright62]

I can't use it anymore. The sync between my Surface and my 950XL is unpredictable and messages to contacts with multiple phone numbers that are correctly categorized almost always result in a "blocked" notification when a message is rejected from a land line. I enable it only during meetings. The rest of the time it's messaging.