Ever since Windows Phone 8 came out people have rightly wanted Skype. And so they got it, albeit a preview edition which in our vernacular reads ‘beta’ and beta it is.
Previously we’ve passed on a few tips for people who have had battery issues and we can absolutely confirm one of them now: Skype. No, it doesn’t occur often in fact this was our first time with the problem ever since Skype hit the Store a few weeks ago.
The issue started when we were updating some contact info and then we force synced our Microsoft Account under Settings (hold down the account, hit Sync). Only problem was, it wouldn’t stop ...ever.
Of course we have many phones here at Windows Phone Central HQ, many tied to the same MS account and none of them, even when forced synced, were having the same problem. We tried disabling data (Airplane Mode) or toggling WiFi to no avail—as soon as data returned, the endless sync also came back.
Soft resetting with a combo of the above also did not do anything. We would have just deleted our Microsoft Account and tried again but alas, you can’t delete the master account on the phone, nor can you cancel the sync. At this point, we were considering a hard reset and with the WP8 app and settings backup (which did sync fine) we weren’t too upset with the idea, though obviously we shouldn’t have to do that.
You son of a...
Finally we remembered all the Skype reports people have sent us and we figured we’d give it a go: tap to uninstall and reboot the phone and voila, problem was 100% fixed. Force syncing our Microsoft Account worked perfectly and we were happy again. We're not confident that it was the force sync that caused the Skype issue just that it was our situation when it occurred. We have no idea what induces this, if anything at all.
Point being? Microsoft—you should really look to fixing this because we know that quite a few people are experiencing this problem and they’ll never pin it to Skype. What’s worse, a lot of you won’t even notice the constant failed syncing except for the warm phone and depleting battery.
So take this as a warning, if you’re battery life is dropping and you’re having some sync issues, check under Settings à Accounts and peep what’s going on behind the curtain. If your syncing won’t stop and you have Skype installed, try uninstalling that bad boy and soft resetting.
Remember, Skype for Windows Phone 8 is still in beta, so these things will happen.
Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.
