What Happens When You Delete Your Skype Account

Skype is arguably one of the best video calling apps on the market. If you are no longer using Skype, perhaps because you have found a better alternative to video calling, you may want to delete your account. But what happens when you do it? What are the consequences of deleting a Skype account? Should you delete it or not?

If you are considering switching to a new application, that’s fine. However, you need to know what is happening to the Skype account that you are not using or just delete it completely. We answer your questions in the sections below.

Deleting a Skype account

Well, it’s not exactly possible to delete a Skype account. And that’s because your Skype account is not a stand-alone service. You only need one Google account to access most Google services. So you can’t delete your Gmail account without deleting / deactivating your Google account. Yes, the same logic applies to Skype.

Skype is one of the many services and products you have access to when you open a Microsoft account. And just like you can’t use Skype without having a Microsoft account, you can’t delete your Skype account without deleting your Microsoft account.

All the implications of removing Skype

In the truest sense of the word, deleting your Skype account technically means that you are deleting your Microsoft account. And when you do this (delete the Skype / Microsoft account), you will therefore lose access to other services (Outlook, Hotmail, OneDrive, etc.) connected to your Microsoft account with the same email. In addition, you will also lose any data, files, unused credits, and subscriptions (such as Xbox game subscriptions) that you have on any of these Microsoft services.

How to delete your Skype account

We will guide you through the process of deleting your Skype account so that you can have a clearer idea of ​​how it works, the intricacies involved and decide whether you want to delete the account.

You can delete your Skype account directly in the Skype apps for Android, iOS and PC. You can also delete the account on the web by visiting Microsoft’s account closure page on your web browser.

Visit the Microsoft account closure page

Note: You may be asked to sign in to your Microsoft account on your browser if you haven’t signed in yet.

To close your Skype account on the mobile app and PC, just tap the profile photo icon and go to Settings> Account & Profile> Close Account.

Next, you will need to provide your account credentials, confirm and accept the terms for closing the account, tell Microsoft why you are deleting your account, and finally, press the “ Mark account for closure ” button.

Can you recover a deleted Skype account

Yes you can. You see, when you finish the account deletion process, Microsoft doesn’t exactly delete your account – at least not immediately. Instead, Microsoft marks the closure and deletion of your account 60 days after the filing of the request. This 60-day waiting period gives you enough time to come back to the action if you change your mind. In addition, you can use this period to recover your data (for example, Skype messages and chats) before permanently deleting it from the Microsoft database.

If you changed your mind before the 60-day timeout expired, simply log into your Microsoft account, visit the “ Close your account ” section, and cancel the request to close. account.

Note: You CANNOT recover your Skype account and Microsoft account if you do not cancel the account closure request within 60 days.

What happens to your profile

As mentioned earlier, your Skype account will only be deleted after 60 days from the time you submitted the account closure request. During the 60-day waiting period, your contacts and the public can still display your profile in the Skype search directory but cannot communicate with you (text or call).

If you prefer to have your Skype profile hidden from the public before Microsoft permanently deletes it, you can do so from your account settings. Note that this will simply prevent your profile from appearing every time people search for it.

Step 1: Launch the Skype settings menu on your mobile or PC application.

2nd step: Select Contacts.

Step 3: Then select Privacy.

Step 4: Tap the “Appear in Search Results” option to turn off public visibility for your Skype account.

What happens to your files and your conversation

All of your conversation and the files you have shared (as well as those shared with you) on Skype will be permanently deleted when Microsoft deletes your account. You will no longer be able to access old chats, files and conversations. Fortunately, you can export and back up your chats and files before deleting your Skype account.

To download a copy of your Skype history and chat files, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Log into your Skype account on a web browser.

2nd step: Scroll to the bottom of the Skype home page and tap “Export files and chat history”.

Step 3: Choose what you want to export: History / Chat Conversation, Files or both.

Step 4: Finally, press the “Submit request” button.

Step 5: You should receive a prompt indicating that your export is being prepared. Tap Continue to continue.

Step 6: Reload the page and your Skype chat history should now be available for download.

You can also export your Skype contacts before deleting your account. If you wish to delete your account, it is advisable to export them. You may need it later; we never know. You should also remember that when Microsoft permanently deletes your Skype contacts (among other account data) 60 days after submitting your account closure request, there is no way to recover it.

To save your Skype contact, log into your account via a web browser, scroll to the bottom of the page and select the “Export contacts (.csv)” option. Your contact list will automatically be downloaded to your device.