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Skype no longer works on Mac OS X Leopard or earlier versions (update)

Skype no longer works on Mac OS X Leopard or earlier versions (update)
Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

  • Updated:

Mac users running OS X 10.5.8 and below can no longer use Skype. The latest update no longer supports these older versions of Apple’s operating system.

Last week, some Skype users started to notice that they could no longer access the service, and after a few days Microsoft responded on the Skype community forums, clarifying what has happened:

Hi everyone,

There seems to be a lot of confusion around this. First, let me assure you that no-one is locking you out from using Skype on OS X 10.6 – 10.8 and there is no need to upgrade to Mavericks or (the new OS X now in dev preview) Yosemite if you don’t want to.
All OS X 10.6 – 10.8 users can head over to http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-mac/downloading/ and get version 6.15. This is a very solid release and you can still use all of the main features without any problems (i.e. group video, group chats, screen sharing etc).
Note that you should only use the link above, it serves you with a correct update for your OS version, direct links (to DMG files) can work, but are not guaranteed to do so.
That said, we still encourage you to stay up to date, meaning upgrading to Mavericks and getting the latest Skype.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.
If you have problems updating, please let us know in this thread and I’ll try to help you.
-Rene

This means that anyone using OS X 10.5 or earlier versions can no longer use Skype, and if you use OS X 10.6 to 10.8, you have to use Skype version 6.15.

It’s worth noting that OS X 10.5 Leopard is almost seven years old, and is actually used by a tiny fraction of OS X users. All Macs manufactured since late 2006 use Intel processors, and are therefore able to upgrade to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (and use Skype).

Mac users might feel a little upset though, as you can still run Skype on Windows XP PCs, which is a much older operating system.

UPDATE: According to 9to5Mac, Microsoft will be re-releasing a legacy version of skype for OS X 10.5 Leopard users soon but no date was provided. “We have a Skype version for Mac OS X 10.5 users which will soon be available for download,” says a Microsoft spokesperson.

Source: Skype

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Jonathan Riggall

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