Ever have the experience that you send someone the wrong message in Skype or worse yet, you send the right message but to the wrong person?
It happened to me today when I wanted to send one of my staff my client’s contact info. Instead I sent him his own contact info.
Embarrassing.
But he was offline at the time. So the message showed as pending.
Is there anyway to cancel a pending Skype message?
It’s great when something works the way it should.
Yes, there is a saved by the bell feature in Skype and it works even on the Mac version. If you right click, you can remove the pending message like this:
How to Erase a Skype Message
Once you’ve gotten rid of the message, unfortunately, you are not completely off the hook.
When your client (or girlfriend, as the case may be with mistaken messages) comes back online, he or she will see the text “This message has been removed”. Still, it’s a lot easier to explain an error message than errant information.
Traces of a Skype message removed
If the person is online and you are quick, you can remove the message before he or she sees it, apparently for up to at least one hour.
This is a great Skype feature.
Alec Kinnear
Alec has been helping businesses succeed online since 2000. Alec is an SEM expert with a background in advertising, as a former Head of Television for Grey Moscow and Senior Television Producer for Bates, Saatchi and Saatchi Russia.
i am trying to do this i.e. delete a pending skype message before the recipient comes back online, but when i right click (am using mac) i don’t have the option to delete, only to copy, search etc? what can i do?
thanks
Hello Jenny,
I think there’s a time limit for how long the message remains editable or cancellable.
Cordial regards,
Alec
How to review the message which has been removed by my partner? B/c I think it is important information. Thanks
Hello Simpson,
As far as I know, once it’s gone, it’s gone.
You’d do better to ask him.
Cordial regards.
Hello, same thing happened with me, i sent IM to the wrong contact who’s offline, i used to delete and edit messages but this time these two options are not in the menu, just shows copy message, select all and move bookmark here.(i am using windows)
is there some way to do it even from a application file, skype folder or even unninstalling skype completelly, this IM cannot be delivered, so far i blocked the user to avoid the reception of the IM.
PLEASE HELP!
Hello Alex,
Sorry to break the bad news but even if you close your Skype account, the message will be delivered anyway. You would have to get to your correspondent’s computer first, open Skype, and then delete his or her logs. Then you have a chance that the message might not show up anymore. I don’t think Skype stores delivered messages.
If you mixed your mistress and your girlfriend up, you are either going to get divorced or she might kill you.
It’s a tough situation. If it’s business, then don’t worry about it. It’s only money.
It would be way better of there was no message left stating the message had been removed!
thanks for the tip. better seeing a “message removed” than something they shouldn’t.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for this tip. I just sent a X-rated message to a potentially new boss intended for SOMEONE ENTIRELY different. WHOOPS!
Yes, that would certainly have a been a strange start to a business relationship, MPC.
Glad this helped you!
You have no clue how much this saved me! Thank you so much!!!
Hi Annie,
Be careful what you type into Skype. In general, never forget there is no privacy on the internet. Best to meet personally for explicit messages. Of course in that case, there’s not much need for text messages.
Glad this helped (I used it myself again last week actually).
Thank-you!! You just saved me from a lot of misery at work!! xxx
Thanks for the tip. But yes, here is a way to completely get off the hook. You don’t need to explain an error message than errant information. Instead of deleting the message, edit it! Substitute it for any other phrase like “I tried to talk to you, but you were off line …”
That’s a clever tip Jorge. Thanks!
what a marvelous feature! Thank the Lord. Nearly had a heart attack! Thanks for sharing! Muahhhh!!
Thanks alottttttttttttttttttttttt. and by the way are you sure this works and the person that it is sent to wont see the old message if you edit the message?
How to review the message which has been removed ?? Is it possible ?? Thanks
As far as I know, Khaoula, no.
The messages are in main.db.
HI, I was switching with communications between my supplier and client, something happened I mistakenly drag my suppliers contact to my client chat bar, and it wrote book mark .
I tried to remove message but it didn’t go , I clicked on it but there is no icon to remove my suppliers skype which is showing on line on the clients bar chat.
Please I need help.
and i have a question… i accidentally send a contact to my friend.. i want to delete the contact that i send to my friend… but… when i click on the right and there is no option for delete. there is just copy, bookmark, etc… PLEASE HELP,, how to delete contact that we send to our other friends… thank you :)
I have had the same probs as the people above: I accidentally dragged someone’s contact into the chat box of another of my contact but I don’t want hi to receive the other person’s contact!I right clicked on the message but there’s no delete or edit option???? I have not temporarily deleted the contact that has mistakenly received the message, as the message is still pending…could you please help me on this??? THANK YOU!
As far as I know, there is no way to remove a contact that you posted to another friend. I’ve tried literally everytthing and gotten nothing. I’m pretty intelligent when it comes to things like this. Here are some helpful tips. If you are in a group chat, only the host of the group can remove any message and or edit them. If you aren’t the host you may only edit or remove it yourself. I’ve also found that you cannot bring back a message that has been removed. And as Jorge said, editing is much better than removing if you have said something you wish unsaid. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the guide, as for the time limit the message I sent was over 20 hours using mac, saved me from a drunk message thanks!!!
I was going to try this feature but just as I went to try it, the contact came online. I had sent the message about like about 25 days before. Anyway, when I checked to see if it had indeed been delivered, there was a ! next to it saying that it failed to be delivered. So, I was wondering did it really fail? If so, will skype continue to try to deliver it we when we are online at the same time? Even though it says it was not delivered, I think it was, because my contact logged off after a couple of minutes. Also, I was on my work computer when this happened and the message was originally sent from my home computer.
brilliant !!!! thank you :)
How is that better? Curiosity is always a worst effect that confusion. You people are retarted, because your gonna have to explain it anyway and if they don’t believe you then only there imagination can limit what the message could have been.
I assure you Louis, wondering can sometimes be much better than the explicit text. Imagine you confused a client with your girlfriend.
Let them wonder.
Are you sure that the deleted messages (if the receiver wasn’t online and had no chance to receive them) will be seen? I mean will it be written that “the message has been removed”? Does it happen only in Mac? I deleted some messages to some friends before they received it and they had no clue that there was any message deleted (didnt receive the notification about it)… But not sure that all of them use Mac. Do you know exactly how it works? If I delete the message from Windows that was sent to Mac – can the receiver notice that? Thanks!
Awesome! I found this feature but I did not know if it really deletes the message at the other side as well… Great help! Thanks man!!!!
this is a really cool feature.
one suggestion in addition: to vote “edit message” instead and replace the ‘wrong’ message with a single space stroke …
then the reciever can wonder if the cat was walkin over or another transmission error occured ..
APPLIED BUT UNVERIFIED! :)
OMG!!! U ve just saved my life :DDD
Hi, I had at the same time my Iphone skype open and the Ipad skype, when I chatted with the guy I am dating. there was always an update between the two devices, sometimes his messages arrived first at the phone sometimes at the I pad. Then i saw a message in the push function of the phone coming up, but I never showed up in real on either device. Could it be that he has deleted it quickly? There was no notification about that. I just read the beginning in the push message, it seemed to be very personal message … so I was wondering how I could still read it…
if you delete your chat history, will pending messages be deleted as well? wish I had seen your tip. I deleted all chat history.
i did the same mistake few minutes ago, glad this post was available & i could delete the pending msg, i can see on skype it says, “this message has been removed”, that’s something i can explain if the other person asks me, better than to explain why i wrote the previous text…
If i delete my chat history…will it delete the pending msg aswell…or it will b sent in this case aswell!!
get this software sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/ edit the database main.db in your skype profile folder. the table “Messages” ist the one you want. search by dialog partner, or just browse the most recent entries you can delete at will. your skype should be off for that. then because only your local skype knows the message and you deleted it from it’s database not even a message removed should appear.
i’m quite certain cause the messages vanished from the chat window whereas the old messages i didnt delete didnt. but i dont know if it saves the messages for delivery separately, but i highly doubt it. theyll just be flagged for delivery or sth.
whatever it’s the best i got and it’s not that critical in my case ;)
To delete individual messages from your own history, you can download SkypeX. It makes it easy to choose any message or many messages and delete them. You can find it here:
bryancockerham.com/skypex-delete-skype-messages
I send a msg and still pending. I tried to delete it from my I Phone and it showed me that it is deleted. When I opened the skype account from my computer which use Window 7 it showed me the same massage as pending and not deleted. Is this massage will arrive to it is wrong distination. Please let me know what to do in order to avoid having it sent.
I met a guy online and we have been having kinky convos. But apparently while skyping, he was completely cut off. Happened before, he has Internet problems, cause he’s sharing. But the point is I sent him offline messages and its been 2 weeks and its still pending. I go on Skype invisible just to check regularly if he’s online. I believe that even if both sides are invisible but They are online, the messages should go through? And it makes me wonder. Has he really not come online since then or none of my messages went through?? I really need help. I’m just trying to figure out this guy. Please help guys!! And also on my Mac, when I go to his name there’s this block that pops up saying “last seen on so and so” is that true too?
Hi Sandy,
If he hasn’t blocked you, then it may be that he needs to send you a message for you to start to see one another again.
Happens more often than it should in our own office.
Just FYI, the SQLite removal method won’t work with the Android version of Skype. They used to use main.db, but now they use an encrypted file in the .android_secure directory.
The Remove Message method works fine on Android though.
WARNING: SkypeX doesn’t do anything that Skype doesn’t do for free. (save yourself USD 4.99)
I’d be interested to know if there is a way to remove/edit pending messages where you don’t keep history. What can you do in situations where you have closed skype and then can’t see the messages any more. The pending message must be sitting somewhere right?
All of the remedies here rely on you either keeping the history or keeping the window open.
Thanks! You’re a lifesaver!
Thanks so much for posting!!!
Okay, so let’s just say i made the biggest mistake of my life by sending the wrong message. (Skype) the message was already sent, and it didn’t say pending, and i removed it. Is there anyway that it worked even if it wasn’t pending?? help!!!!!
.. what if it’s a video message.?i accidentally sent a video message to the wrong person. how can i delete that video before he sees it?
Please help ive sent a voicemail to the wrong person how can i delete it
Hi Jane and Aim,
Bad news. You can’t get back a video or voice message as far as I know.
What i LOVE about your article is “..and it works even on the Mac version.” That comment really cracked me up! Thanks for the laugh!
if both people involved in a conversation delete all of their history and delete each other from skype, can ANYONE (police, hacker, skype ppl, etc) find these message anywhere?
I completely forgot the word used to describe the mistake of sending a message to the wrong person when in chat. Please remind me that word!!! Cheers!
If you want to view the deleted message of your friend from skype means then, here is the solution.. C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\Skype\chatsync\ There will be many sub folders with 2 characters name (ex: b4, e3, etc). These folders will contain the chat history in .dat format which can be read using text editors like notepad++. You will have to arrange them date wise to get you file. If you are patient enough to find your chat (filename.dat), you will see the message history along with junk characters.
I got this information from skype community reviews.. And i got the deleted message from my system ( Computer ) … Just try this out …
hello, I can only see junk character . How could i read those files? is there any software to read it ?
Praveen, thanks for the interesting suggestion. That’s a lot of work to see a missing message. It had better be important!
Hello alec :) how are you, ofcourse yes there is a lot of work to see a missing message by finding through our eyes… but it will like a puzzle & you have to find out your line & this is the only way to catch up the message which is deleted by your friend i think … :)
sure there will be more (log)files in your “chat sync” Folder / Search each and every single (Log)file to locate the deleted message & just delete the unwanted files which will be no useful for you or just delete all the files after you got the deleted message….
Hey Praveen,
That friend better be smoking hot if you are going to go through that much trouble to find the deleted message!
i sent some messages to someone a few months ago, now i want to delete them.is there any way i can get them deleted both from my history and theirs?
How do I remove cancelled files sent?
Hi there! i accidentally recorded a voice message and it got sent but it hasn’t been opened…is there a way to delete it from PC or iphone? Appreciate the help!
Hi Alisa,
With voice messages, you are toast (i.e. you can’t delete it remotely). I’ve even heard rumours that the delete undelivered messages function does not work on the latest Windows clients. If anyone has more detailed information on any changes to the delete undelivered messages functionality, I’d be very grateful to have it.
Thanks Alec! Not a big deal…fortunately, just more an annoyance. I’m not even sure how it recorded was just there, then it showed I had 657 voice messages and then it went away…wtf! So I deleted the account, although am sure its still out here in Skypeland. Hey, if you’re not up to no good then no worries. Haha! Thanks again!
I phoned a person via Skype by accident .Is there any possible way to delete a call, i don t want that person to see that i called her.Please help :(
Hi Olya,
Alas, you are out of luck. The girl knows you called her.
Hi Alec, For some reason, even after it’s been within an hour that I sent a message on Skype, right-clicking only shows me “Copy Message, Copy Selection, Select All, Move Bookmark Here.” I have no idea why the “Remove message” option isn’t showing… it’s bugging me a lot. Do you have any tips?
Hi Katie,
Your subject probably already has your message. S/he has to be offline at the time of send for this to work.
So if there is a “remove” option, that means the person hasn’t read it yet?
Yes, that’s correct Miss Ashley.
I’m a member of a Skype group chat. One member is able to consistently delete all his messages without leaving a “this message has been removed” behind. All people who conversed with him during this time period, their messages are removed as well. Contacted Skype support, and they don’t know how he’s doing this. Thoughts? Tried duplicating these results by creating another chatroom with Master privileges and was unable to do so.
Hi Kamala,
That’s weird. Thanks for sharing. Let us know what Skype tell you.
Maybe your colleague has friends in high places.
I have a problem with messages i send to my contacts through Skype, despite the fact they are online. A round circle appears next to the message which says “not delivered yet”. Also when this problem appears I cannot call my contact. In this way my contacts receive my messages with great delay ( a few hours later or a few days later!). I will be grateful if you can guide me how to solve this problem which appears the last several months and it is very annoying me and my contacts. Thanking you in anticipation!
Hi Andreas,
Are you online when this happens? If you set your account to “Offline” you won’t be able to send outbound messages until you change your status (to “Invisible” for instance).
Let us know if this solves your issue.
I am online when this happens.
is there any way to delete a missed call you placed to someone who is offline?
Hi Sandy,
I’m afraid a missed call will always show up. Be careful when making calls, especially of a sensitive nature.
Hi Andreas,
You should contact Skype support about this issue. This delay is not normal. Let us know if you if you get a good solution for the issue so we can post it for others facing the same issue.
Thanks.
Hi I send someone a message 2 days ago but still it gives me the option to remove or edit it does that mean she hasn’t seen it ? Shows her online though I blocked & removed her before but add her back . Thnks
Hi, savisti,
If you can still see the message options in Skype it suggests the recipient has not seen it. Probably if you sent the message while the other person was blocked the message will never arrive.
By mistakenly i sent a message to wrong contact (mobile number) instead of the person who teased me …15 days back …i am worried too much…i sent another message asking for apology…what can i do now ?
Hi Prabu,
Call the person up and say you are sorry? You should be really careful about dating/skyping two girls at the same time.
Thanks for your note. I hope it works out for you.
Hi! I had a friend whom i removed from my contacts in skype. I thought it is not possible to call to a non skype contact, but it is! He can still call me though a had removed him already from my contact list.Anyways my question is.. Can i receive a skype message from him even he is already removed from my contacts? He said before that he will message me but i didnt receive any. ( Just hoping he messaged me but i cant receive a message from him since he is not in my contact list!) thanks a lot!
Hi,
I accidentally dragged the contact of a person on my friend’s list to another person. I was trying to delete it like deleting a message but its not working that way. Is there a way to remove the contact details I accidentally dragged? please advice.
Thank you and regads
Hi Maxie,
Someone can call you if they have you in their lists unless you specifically block that person (more than just removing him).
HI Grace,
You are out of luck here I think, especially if the other person has logged into Skype in the meantime. Be careful out there!
When you are able to remove an IM message from SKYPE, does it mean the person hasn’t read the message yet? In case the person has already read the message, it will be impossible to remove the IM message?
Thanks for this tip. Nothing worse than sending your ex-wife a really sexy message that was meant for your new girl friend.
They have removed this feature. Not sure when but it is no longer in Version 7.6 (409).
i have skype on my work and home PC (same account). I sent a stupid message from my work PC but was able to use the delete function , recipient was offline. I opened my home skype later that evening and the message appears as ‘sent’ and i cannot delete it. Would it have re sent the message from my home PC ? and possible been read ?
thanks
Hi Buju,
Bad news. This feature doesn’t work in the latest versions of Skype. For the record, Microsoft has killed all earlier versions of Skype: they won’t make calls at all.
Welcome to the Borg.
We are migrating away from Skype and don’t even want to send our conversations across any US service. There’s lots of room for a simple secure European competitor to Skype.
Thanks a lot, saved me a massive embarrassment. To double check I tried to retrieve an older message and the remove option wasn’t there. So I’m fairly confident they didn’t read the message I removed.
please help me , i managed to remove unwanted message from my skype mac , but now its important i remove the notification ( this message has been removed ) and date just as incriminating …. please help ….. thank you
Hi Gordon, I’m glad our how to helped you avoid embarrassment.
Hi Karol, we’ve given you all the advice we could. I’m thinking that this is probably about a message to a woman.
I can only give you advice here. Conversations with women should be like ping pong. You have to wait for them to return the ball. They will sometimes test you to see if you are too interested (yes, we are supposed to be in love, sooner or later, but men should not be too interested).
So lower your communication frequency and you are less likely to end up in incriminating circumstances.
If you’ve done something worse (for instance, dating two women at the same time) and are worried about time stamps on what you did when with whom, then heaven help you.
Have a good weekend, gentlemen.
Thanks so much, so they definetly will only see message deleted?
Hi….How do I know if someone has blocked me on skype? I blocked someone recently and I just wanted to know how If I even appear on his contact list.
I just removed a message I sent on Skype which I did in temper but although it says contact offline they could be on invisible I do not get any message pending icon message looked to have gone straight through But the remove messages ect was there Cani be sure it was not read Thanks
I sent a friend a message that i didn’t mean too and I deleted it. Will it still show up on that persons skype that a message has been sent ? Will that persons skype tab still flash that they have a message ?
Skype provisions its converse narration in a SQLite database. The newest account of Skype for Mac has a narration button for every contact: click on the ‘Gear symbol’, & then choose ‘View Chat History’.
i give him my last message then after sending it i will blocked him or deleted to my contact ..Will he still receive my message or cannot? Thank you!
If i had sent document file to my friend, but i had miss deleted the original file, when i went back skype it show” file cancelled”, can my fren view the file??
Hi Ana,
If the person is always offline to you but you still see the picture, you are probably blocked:
Hi Jen and Daniel,
If you were able to remove the message is still there that means the message didn’t go through.
Hi Macy,
What you sent before blocking or deleting is likely to go to the recipient. It would be an interesting test (particularly the deleting one).
Hi Yen Pin,
File cancelled makes it highly unlikely your friend saw the file.
my question is that if i delete my skype acount permnently ,Will my acount info will still appear in to whom i made calls and please guide me how to delete the skype acount permnently ?
You’re on your own here Juni. I can’t find anyone willing to delete their Skype account to test if the messages disappear.
On the other hand, I’ve had people delete their Skype accounts, even after changing their username and everything else. They still show up in my lists.
I believe your info is there permanently, although you can change it.
Hi Alec, i have skype future at work, i have been using it to chat to my collagues in work hours, some of the conversations not really flatering my boss… Now he decided to go thru everyonce skype history, we all have been using your tip “remove message” so if worst comes to worst he wont be able to see it, but he told everyone that apparently those msgs are not actually removed but hidden and he will get his IT team to investigate this and get all those “removed messeges” back, is this possible?
Hi Cindy,
If you have admin rights you could delete all of your Skype files from your computer (do a search on Skype in filename with a serious search tool, i.e. not Spotlight on Mac, something like FindFile).
When you log in again some of this history will be downloaded again but much of it not. Your company’s IT department is unlikely to have the pull to be able to get Microsoft to release deleted Skype messages (probably requires court order for law enforcement or simple request for NSA).
If you work for either Microsoft or NSA though, even indirectly, start polishing your resumé.
Hi Alec, Thank you for your response, its a great help, am not working for either of those companies, but for a small privately owned company, so I guess I’m safe there, again thanx a lot for your help! :)
Hi Alec I use skype on my sony xperia. I removed one message accidently, how can I recover the same? Whether we can find this in phone memory. Pls reply so its an urgent.
I sent a selfie to a friend if mine but meant it to a different person after sixty minutes is their still a way to remove it ?
i sent video message to someone and deleted them. can the recipient still play the video without saving it to his gallery?
Dear Alec, I just by mistake sent a very private file of someone to a friend of mine on skype. It is a file which is client confidentiality and no one can or should have. I am using a macbookair and right clicked on message in skype and clicked remove message; not instead of the message on my Mac and Iphone too it states, “this message has been removed”. Does this mean it has actually been removed and there is no way the other person will have received or seen the file? Is there anywhere else I could also check to make sure the file is deleted? this is a very serious issue. Thanks in advance for all your help
HI Alec, I sent a very confidential file to a friend by mistake on skype; I immediately right clicked on the option and removed message; instead of file now it says “message has been removed”. Can I be sure that the message has actually disappeared without the person ever getting the possibility of accessing it in his skype? Is there any other way to make sure; like check somewhere, delete history…. thanks a trillion for your help. Tara
I accidentally sent a picture. But the person was not yet online. I deleted the message immediately and It said.. This message has been removed….. If the person comes online, will they still see the pic?
Hi Tara and Anne,
Here’s your situation. If the other user did not have Skype open on any devices when you sent your message or picture, then s/he won’t see the message or picture. With the picture, if the other person is set to only accept images on approval s/he won’t see it.
If s/he accepts images without approval then the horse has left the stable and the other person has seen your private shot (hopefully not an intimate picture intended for someone else).
Hi Alex, Thanks a million for this. I sent a message last night to someone but I wanted to delete it. Even after hours it did give me the option to remove message and I did. The person was offline. I’m wondering if I was given the option bc he didn’t read the message. Am I right? What if he was invisible could he had read that message? Thanks in advance.
Hi Leah,
If you didn’t notice the person online and you were able to delete the message, I believe you’re safe. The best way to doublecheck is to run the experiment with another friend. Do exactly the same thing and see if your friend was able to read the message when invisible and if you were able to delete it. I would be very grateful if you could report the up to date results here for everyone’s benefit.
Thanks.
I have a question, if we send picture wrongly, can we remove that picture,I mean it doesn’t save in her/him phone or in their gallery? I use smart phone.
Hi F,
If the other user has already received your image, unfortunately no. But if it hasn’t been downloaded, yes.
hello Alec, you look very nice and very helpful to me. my boyfriend for some reasons was not on line for months, i sent him a message months ago, the” remove message” still was remained there for months. but today i found the” removed message” was not there any more, does this mean my boyfriend was once on line and read the message? or the” remove message” has gone by the system itself automatically ？ please help, many thanks.
I am confused, and I really didnt understand My boss messaged me and I replied then after almost 15 minutes some other part of the message appeared that I didnt read that what does it mean?
One more question please
If my partner has edited the message so how can I recognize that the message has been edited?
Hi there I’m not sure if I sent the right add to some one and o don’t no if it’s the correct person I sent message and camera come up they won’t see that will they it’s comeing up as the other person offline and has ? Bye the name
If I sent a message on Skype using my iPhone to someone in error and quickly deleted it but then went home and the message was still on my PC does that mean the person who I accidently sent it to saw it anyway?? I assumed if I deleted it from one medium it would delete from them all.
Hi Tricia,
Removing the message only works on your end, the receiver will be able to see it.
Thanks, Eduard
Many thanks ????
If i remove a picture i sent on skype chat, will it be completely removed or the other person you’re chatting with can still see the photo on his chat gallery?
Hi there, is there any way to delete a convo on both sides? I’ve read blogs that say if you delete ALL your Skype convos in IM settings it will work.. I don’t have a toolbar now with the new Skype update/upgrade, so I don’t even have access to the tools menu!!!
I’m still getting remove the message option does that mean I’m safe I by mistake sent a confidential pic