A Solution to Problems with Skype Video Calling

This is just a quick post about some problems I had with video calling on Skype recently.

If you aren‘t sure how to make a video call on the new Skype (version 6) please read the walk through on the Skype website here. 

So my problem was that, although I had previously tested my built-in Macbook camera was working (but not running in the background) and I could even see myself under the Audio/Video tab in Skype Preferences, every time I pressed the video call button it tried its best to switch to video and then reverted back to voice call. 

I really didn‘t understand what was going wrong.  As usual I turned to the internet for help, but in the end I managed to solve it myself with a few pointers to the reasons causing the problems. 

Problem Reason 1.

If you are talking to someone who is using a previous version of Skype earlier than version 4.2, and you have a later version, video calling will not work (as far as I can tell). 

Problem Reason 2.

Skype has forced most people to upgrade to the latest version so this is not a problem for most people, however, if you are running the latest version (which is currently 6.4.59.833) you may have problems with anyone using a version earlier than 5.0.

 

OK, so the solution is simple – downgrade. 

And then make sure you tweak your Skype to stop it upgrading automatically. 

Here‘s what worked for me.  (I managed to video call my mum who is still using version 2.8.0.886.)

Step One.

Download version 6.0.0.2946 of Skype.  You can download it here.

Step Two.

Remove your existing version of Skype by dragging it from your Applications Finder window to the Trash.  You can open the Applications Finder window by going to the menu bar and then going to

Go > Applications

Step Three.

Install Skype 6.0.0.2946 which you just downloaded. You can do this by double clicking on the .dmg and then dragging the Skype icon into your Applications folder.

Step Four.

Open Skype and Sign in.

Step Five.

At this point or quite soon after you will be faced with this message. 

Always choose Skip Update.  If you choose Install on Quit you will just be back to square one.

Step Six.

Go in to your Skype Preferences and under the General tab make sure Always keep Skype up to date is NOT ticked. 

And that’s it!

Now when you make a call regardless of the version your contact is using you should be able to video chat.  Hurrah!