I don't know why I didn't think of trying this before.. but I just created a new skype account and added my real account as a friend. When I log in on the n900 with the new account I can see myself and the sound test service ok in the address book and when I go to "new im". The new account seems to work fine, so maybe the n900 has decided it doesn't like one of my friends names anymore on my real account and it is causing the whole friends list to be unreadable.

I seem to have fixed the problem, but not exactly sure how. I went through my skype list on my PC and deleted about 10 contacts which I hadn't seen online for a very long time. When I logged in with the n900 again everything was working
Maybe one of the old contacts had been deleted by skype admin in some recent cleanup and it was causing problems for the n900, but that is just a guess

Wow, super thanks thanks thanks! That was truely a big help and saved my beloved N900 from ending up in the toilet while the mistake was at skype. Just Great

Ok, I fixed mine too. What I did was delete my original account from my N900 (backup everything first). Create a new account with skype and log into this new account on my N900. I log into my original account on my PC and add the new account as a contact; everything works on the N900 as it should, I can see the online status and make skype calls.
I then re-add my original account to the N900, and all the contacts resync. My messages haven't synced up yet though, so I had a few random conversations lying around that I deleted.

I don't know if you need to delete the original account from your N900, its worth a shot just adding the new one and save the hassle.

Cheers af7567

All my contacts show up as offline now too since sometime in July 2012 I think. I still haven't been able to fix, and so I can not call skype to skype from my phone.

Using a different skype account on the n900 works but I need my account to be working because it has skype credit.

Using my skype account on a PC with skype 4 on linux also works fine.

I have already tried:
- deleting old contacts from my pc
- deleting conversation history on n900
- deleting call history on n900

Let me know if a solution is found.

[Solved] I can now see availability of [my-skype] contacts and make skype-to-skype calls because I did:
# mv ~/Skype/[working-skype] ~/.Skype/[my-skype]

Detailed Steps to Fix (all done from n900):

1. find a [working-skype] account to login where you can see contact availability.

2. logout of all skype accounts.

3. Open [X Terminal] and do:
# cp .Skype .Skype.backup
# cd .Skype
# ls
# mv [working-skype] [my-skype]

4. login to [my-skype] and send a [Skype IM]. The n900 will ask which skype account do you want to use for the contact and select [my-skype].

You should now be able to see the contact as online and make skype to skype calls again.

For other contacts repeat step 4.

Note: Keeping the skype [echo123] contact on the desktop will show if skype availability is working.

after typing this commands it says (mv: cannot rename 'working-skype': No such file or directory)

@sandymahrok [working-skype] and [my-skype] will be different for everyone.

[working-skype] is the account name for the skype that is working to show availability on the n900. ie) fakeuser24

[my-skype] is just the accout name for the skype that is broken when showing availability on the n900. ie) bob17

More Info:

Keep in mind my solution requires at least one skype account working to show availability already on the n900.

I edited my previous post and added the ls command in the details to show you what skype users exist in the ~/.Skype directory on the n900. ie)
# ls
shared.lck
shared.xml
fakeuser24
bob17

I should also mention my Maemo Version:
21.2011.38-1Tmaemo4.1

Hi,

It looks like I have something very similar, but on N9.

Now there is no possibility to see if someone from skype contacts is online or not.

On fresh reinitialisation of Skype account there are NO skype contacts shown.

I am going through reset/clear device/reflash, nothing helped.

Any ideas?

Paul

For the N9, please make sure that you've filled out your SCREEN NAME.