Blog Post

Can’t Receive Calls From a New Skype Number on Mac OS - Problem Solved

15/12/2017

I signed up for a new Skype number today and then spent two frustrating hours trying to get it to receive calls before finally stumbling upon the solution.

I use Skype on a Macbook with the latest version of Mac OS. And I was using the latest version of Skype - the new redesigned app. All the searches I did on the web pointed me to this Skype support page:

support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10615/why-am-i-not-receiving-calls-to-my-skype-number

The issue is that the advice on the page refers to the old classic version of Skype. The current version - on a Mac at least - doesn’t have the “Receive calls to my Skype Number from” option under Skype > Preferences > Privacy.

The solution was:

  1. Delete the latest version of the Skype app (support page says use the latest version - not what I did).

  2. Download and install the classic version (7.59) - still available from www.skype.com/en/get-skype/

  3. Then follow the instructions on the support page - I had to do the second step, switching from ‘Anyone’ to ‘Only people in my contact list’ and then back to ‘Anyone’ 5 minutes later.

Problem solved - I could then get calls on my laptop.

But I wasn’t quite done - I discovered that I still couldn’t get Skype on my iPhone 8 to pick the calls up. Another reinstall did the trick - deleting and then reinstalling the latest version of Skype from the App Store. I think the issue there was permissions - doing the reinstall made me give Skype permission to access the iPhone’s microphone and camera.

Now everything seems to work ok. Frustrating though that the new desktop version of the Skype app seems to have less functionality than the old version (maybe that's a Mac OS only issue) and even worse, the support docs are out of date.