back to article Can't login to Skype? You're not alone. Chat app's been a bit crap for five days now

A bunch of Skype users are unhappy that they're been unable to sign into the VoIP service for several days. The yakkity-yak app has fallen flat since January 24, leaving a number of punters with two-factor authentication enabled unable to get back into the software after signing out. "Skype users who are signed in are not …

  1. Not also known as SC

    Chat app's been a bit crap for five days now

    Only five days?

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Blergh, we walked into that one.

      C.

    2. sisk

      You beat me to it.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    MS killed off Skype for 32-bit Linux and Windows

    Any good replacement that would be simple for elder users to install?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Any good replacement that would be simple for elder users to install?

      Several. But the criteria you really need to consider is this: "Can I get anyone I want to talk to to install it as well?" :-/

      (I've got both ekiga & linphone installed... but am stuck using skype)

      1. bazza Silver badge

        Re: Any good replacement that would be simple for elder users to install?

        Try BBM. Works on iOS, Android (including new BlackBerries), BB10 (old BlackBerries). My family is using it, crumbly parents included. The video / sound quality is pretty good, and so far zero problems with availability. It does some things really well.

        1. Bronek Kozicki

          Re: Any good replacement that would be simple for elder users to install?

          I am using BBM for family too, it works great and is simple to both install and use. However it is not available on Windows nor Linux, so was looking at alternatives - Signal received serious consideration.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: MS killed off Skype for 32-bit Linux and Windows

      Get on mobile and use Whatsapp. It's fairly ubiquitous these days. I think there's also a desktop client for Windows and Mac.

      I don't think elder folks need to do video conferencing or do video interviews... they just want to keep in touch with their friends and family.

      I only used Skype for a short while when Microsoft merged MSN ('Live Messenger') into Skype. Then my friends stopped using MSN totally and switched over to mobile chat apps. I did likewise.

    3. Tom 7

      Re: MS killed off Skype for 32-bit Linux and Windows

      I think they killed off 64bit for linux too. My installations all stopped working - I couldn't log in with the same credentials any more. Apparently I would have to pay to get it working again.

    4. Adair Silver badge

      Re: MS killed off Skype for 32-bit Linux and Windows

      Try Wire. Works well for me, and for my old Mum on the far side of the planet.

      Ring is an interesting distributed-secure setup, but still a bit raw for non-user users, if you know what I mean.

    5. Nimby
      Trollface

      Re: Any good replacement that would be simple for elder users to install?

      I believe that would be called a "phone". People pick up the dangly bit, type in some numbers, and, you know, talk? It may not have all the features we've come to know and love, but it is surprisingly easy to install, is rather reliable, and elder users do tend to have a remarkable amount of prior experience with it, so for them, at least, it is intuitive.

      W: Ahoy-hoy.

      B: Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.

      W: Sorry Bellboy, but this device doesn't support FaceTime.

  3. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Coat

    "the problem is limited to a small number of customers"

    Of course it is. It ALWAYS is.

    Only 1% of 300 million is still 3 million users ; not a small amount in itself, right?

    And if 1% of those 3 million use 2FA and are affected, that's still 30,000 people.

    So yeah, 30k people compared to 300M subscribers is small fry, sure. BTW, how many of you live in a town with 30k inhabitants ?

    Just wondering.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "the problem is limited to a small number of customers"

      Um, each town of 30k would actually have three persons affected out of the 30k. If you group them all in one town, the other 9999 towns would be entirely trouble free.

      Just sayin...

    2. joed

      Re: "the problem is limited to a small number of customers"

      Not just this. The 3 million users may be all active Skype users left and remaining 297 will never complain (I just opened iOS app for the 1t time in a month or more, without much problem, all I've done - disabled some new "features" and exited the app).

    3. earl grey
      Trollface

      Re: "the problem is limited to a small number of customers"

      how many of you live in a town with 30k inhabitants

      I do (as someone once famously said).

  4. Hans 1
    Mushroom

    I avoid skype like the pest ... however ... acquaintance, non-tech, quick issue with computer ...

    I had skype on the system for me daughter ... so, I remember my skype password, so, I attempt to login ... impossible, on the website I can login ... ok, this update BS again (Skype frequently claimes your username/password is incorrect .... when all that is wrong is that an update is available), so download Skype from OFFICIAL website only to be told at install time, Please use the one from the Windows store ...

    ... They are really desperate to get us to use that piece of shit, right ? Even wanted me to select my Linux distribution for Windows 10 in the store just the other day ...

    Listen, MS, your store sucks, we don't want it, please bin it ...

  5. a_yank_lurker

    MS Emails having login problems

    About the same time Skype decided to go wonky SWAMBO noticed her live email account login is being flaky. Are they related issues?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Skype has been crap since May 2011

    Linkedin has been crap since December 2016.

    The reverse Midas touch of Microsoft. Happens all the time.

    1. Robin

      Re: Skype has been crap since May 2011

      "The reverse Midas touch of Microsoft."

      The Sadim touch.

  7. rmason

    Thankfully

    Thankfully we've seen no issues with skype for business, whatever it is, seems to not be worrying that service.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Probably the intercept/slurping infrastructure can't cope...

    ... so they need to let log in only some "selected" users....

  9. g00se
    Headmaster

    Log in

    "Login" is not a verb!

  10. codejunky Silver badge

    Hmm

    Considering skype for linux seems to get poor connection issues for no good reason I dont think it has been right for a while. And the version 13 seems to have major issues (the window turns white). It was so much better before they pushed the upgrade from the old version.

  11. BugabooSue

    iOS 11.3 beta preview version busted too

    At the risk of attracting the Apple haters here, but since the release of iOS 11.3 to us developer types, the Skype app has been busted for about the same amount of time.

    It’s running in the background, and you can kill it and restart it, but as soon as you try to access the user interface, that part does a little animation, and bugs out leaving only the background processes.

    Skype message summaries to my Garmin watch, but that’s the lot. No user access to the interface.

    It might not be M$’s fault as this a preview/beta version of iOS, but it is a bloody PITA for work.

  12. David Gillies

    Linux version has been crap for weeks

    The latest 8.14 release of skypeforlinux is completely non-functional, and it appears 8.12 and 8.13 don't work either. It shows nothing but a blank screen. This is on a generic Ubuntu 16.04 installation. I had to downgrade to 8.11 to get it working. Microsoft's QA is generally pretty abysmal but this takes the cake. People have been shrieking on the laughingly-titled 'support' forum for ages and the response from MS has been the square root of bugger all.

  13. Nimby
    Joke

    Folks have also taken to Twitter to complain

    Shocking! Just shocking!

  14. noskype

    Just like Nokia.

    I've got 10 quid that says the Microsoft manager of the Skype acquisition was the same person who managed the Nokia acquisition.

  15. Problem Solved

    SOLVED...for me at least

    If you are a 2FA user suffering with this SfB login issue try this.

    1. Disable 2FA against your account in O365 (if you're not an O365 admin you will need one to do this for you).

    2. Try logging in to the SfB app again. Probably still fails.

    3. Now enable 2FA for your O365 account again (or the admin does this for you)

    4. Now try logging in again.

    I bet it worked for you too!!! You're welcome :-)

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