The Continuing Story of Skype’s Woes!

Ouch! A login issue for Skype user’s… it has been a hard week for Skype!

Skype Scrambles to Fix Login Glitch

“Skype issued an update for Skype for Windows to fix a login glitch that locked out some users yesterday, and it promised a new Mac version for today.

Skype’s Peter Parkes reported yesterday in a blog post that a ‘small number’ of users, mostly people using Skype for Windows, were experiencing trouble logging into Skype. Apparently, the problem was caused by a specific xml file, ‘shared.xml.’ To fix the problem manually, Parkes provided instructions for users on Windows (7, XP, and Vista), Mac OS X, and Linux machines, which consisted of quitting the app and deleting the file.

In a later post, Parkes said that the company understands that the manual instructions were ‘fairly technical’ and was working to create updates to fix the problems automatically. Subsequently, a new version of Skype for Windows is now available for download, and Parkes promised an update for Mac today, while Linux users should still follow the manual instructions.

Those using Skype on their mobile phones or TV should not have been affected by the corruption. While this glitch only affected a ‘small percentage of users,’ it brings to mind the system-wide failure Skype experienced last December that paralyzed service for the voice- and video-chatting service worldwide. Skype was able to identify and fix the problem just in time to get the service online for the Christmas holiday, but the outage raised questions about the VoIP service’s reliability.”