Here’s the problem – you’re happily chatting away in Skype on your Mac and suddenly your connection drops. You can reconnect, but it will happen again. Not repeatedly, not predictably, but it WILL happen again. This was happening to me and it was driving me nuts, when Chuck Joiner, the man of many podcasts including Mac Voices and Mac Notables told me what was causing it.
I have no clue how he figured this out, but evidently it was being caused by the Mac checking with the Network Time Servers. To turn that feature off, all you have to do is go to the System Preferences, open the Date & Time Preference Pane, and uncheck the box that says “Set date & time automatically” as shown below:
Well this is all swell but that means every time you want to use Skype, you have to open System Preferences, navigate to Date & Time, uncheck the box, close System Preferences, and launch Skype. Then of course you want to have the benefits of the network time servers, so when you’re done you have to quit Skype, launch System Preferences, navigate again to Date & Time and turn the feature back on. Whew, I’m tired just describing it!
This is where our hero, Connor, comes into the plot. I mentioned this problem to Connor and the fact that it sure sounds like a good Automator script. I went outside and washed my car, and when I got back there was a tweet from Connor telling me he’d written the scripts for me! He wrote two of them, the first turns off the time server checking and launches Skype. The second one quits Skype and turns the time servers back on. I chose to plop them both into the left sidebar so they’re right at my fingertips for easy use no matter what window I’m in.
The best news is that Connor has generously agreed to let me post his Automator scripts so that you too can maintain a steady and happy Skype connection! Below is a link to a zip file containing both Automator scripts:
Fix Skype Dropout Scripts by Connor
Save the zip file to disk, navigate to it and double click to unzip the two Automator scripts. You’ll now have a folder called skype_fix, and inside will be two scripts:
- turn_off_network_time_open_skype
- quit_skype_activate_network_time
double click each of them and the first time you run them you’ll see a warning that says they’re applications from the internet. Judge for yourself whether to trust Connor and I. When you do launch each of the scripts, they’ll come up with a window asking you if you want to Run the script or Quit, I suggest Run! Note that they’ll get confused if you do them in the wrong order!
Enjoy!
