Thursday, April 23, 2015

A hack to continue with Skype 6.3 on MacOS 10.5.8

Today Skype users on MacOS 10.5.8 were surprised again that Skype rejected the login and requested to upgrade to a new version. Navigating to the new version download announced once again:

This had happened in the past and the solutions then ranged from installing every old versions of Skype (2.8) to tampering with certain system settings, last year Skype released an officially supported version 6.3 for MacOS 10.5.8 but this only lasted until today.

So I tried various things and a variation of earlier solutions did it for me which I would like to share with the community. In summary: trick Skype into thinking that you are running a higher version than 6.3.

Change 3 settings in the info.plist file

  • First of all quit Skype so that no Skype process is running anymore
  • Open info.plist with the property editor (in Finder -> Applications choose Skype, right-mouse click and choose Show Package Contents, in the new window double-click on Contents and double-click on info.plist )
  • Change 
    

    BuildMachineOSBuild 12F45
    

    Bundle versions string, short 6.15
    

    Bundle version 6.15.0.330
    The previous settings were for me 6.3.0.604 and 12C3103.
  • Close the property editor and Save the file

    Change the /etc/hosts file

    This prevents that your network contacts the Skype download server.

  • Edit the /etc/hosts file (with your editor of choice)
  • Enter this line 
    127.0.0.1       ui.skype.com
  • Start Skype and login again

    There you go.
    Let's wait and see until this solution becomes obsolete.

    • Posted by Andreas at 22:22
    Labels: ,

    12 comments:

    1. AnonymousApril 26, 2015 at 2:31 PM

      Thank you. Can you go a little more into detail concerning the etc/hosts-file change for those of us who have no idea what they're doing (maybe a screenshot or something?).

      ReplyDelete
    2. UnknownMay 2, 2015 at 10:21 PM

      Great! Many thanks from all PPC people!

      ReplyDelete
    3. AnonymousMay 4, 2015 at 10:43 PM

      thanks thanks thanks

      ReplyDelete
    4. AnonymousMay 15, 2015 at 2:08 PM

      Огромное спасибо!!!!! Thank you very much!!!!

      ReplyDelete
    5. AnonymousJuly 10, 2015 at 2:43 AM

      Hey all (especially the first commenter), here is a guide using Terminal, the editor that comes with the Mac: http://www.mactip.net/how-to-edit-the-hosts-file-on-a-mac/
      Be careful to follow all the directions, especially using TAB (no spaces!) to separate "127.0.0.1" from "ui.skype.com"

      ReplyDelete
    6. AnonymousJuly 10, 2015 at 7:40 PM

      It is still working! Great - no need to update to 10.6 (have several expensive programs that won't run on 10.6 or later)!

      Many thanks!
      Andrei

      ReplyDelete
    7. AnonymousJuly 11, 2015 at 10:42 AM

      Dear Andreas,

      I have a question associated with Skype usage on a macbook pro. Can you advice on how to solve the camera malfunctioning issue (the system profiler does not detect it anymore)? My iSight worked for about a year and then just stopped working. I tried different "solutions" posted on the web, but neither of them worked (PRAM resetting, iSightFix from codium, etc.). So I am currently using a third-party webcam.

      Looking forward to hearing from You,
      Andrei

      ReplyDelete
    8. AnonymousJuly 13, 2015 at 11:59 PM

      After making all the changes I get the message

      Skype can't connect


      ReplyDelete
    9. AnonymousJuly 19, 2015 at 8:56 PM

      same here... any solution?

      ReplyDelete
    10. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2015 at 12:35 AM

      Thanks a lot !!!!!! I am using it again !!!!

      ReplyDelete
    11. AnonymousSeptember 5, 2015 at 8:33 PM

      Thanks a lot! Now I got it working again on iMac G5.

      ReplyDelete
    12. UnknownJune 16, 2017 at 11:53 PM

      Rather use 0.0.0.0 ui.skype.com - if you run some sort of local server, then you don't want skype to permanently ask your server for spam.

      ReplyDelete

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