Some users may encounter the “Failed to establish connection” error in Skype. This message appears on the user authorization screen. A similar error can occur if Skype does not receive a response from the official servers when verifying your login information.
Reasons for the error
Such a problem can arise for various reasons:
- an outdated version of Skype is installed on the user’s computer;
- problems with the network connection or its parameters;
- a single bug in the work of the Skype program;
- system firewall blocked Skype;
- Skype servers are currently experiencing difficulties and are unavailable;
Solutions
Method # 1 Installing the latest version of Skype
First, you should make sure that you have the latest version of Skype installed on your computer. Yes, some users prefer to delay software updates for one reason or another, but this can lead to various unpleasant situations. The error “Unable to establish a connection” in Skype may just be one of them. Walk on this link to the official website of the program and download the installer. Remember to remove the old version from your computer before installing the new version.
Method # 2 Checking the firewall
There is a possibility that the “Failed to establish connection” error occurred because Skype was blocked by your operating system’s firewall. You need to try to disable the firewall first, and then try to log into Skype. If the error disappeared and you logged in normally to the program using your data, then the problem was obviously in the firewall. So, in order not to keep the firewall constantly disabled (this is a very bad idea), you need to create an inbound and outbound rule for Skype so that the connections it creates are no longer blocked. After that, the error “Failed to establish a connection” in Skype will be eliminated.
Method number 3 Reset Internet Explorer settings
In some cases, incorrect Internet Explorer settings can lead to similar problems. You may ask: what does Internet Explorer have to do with Skype? Well, many people do not know this, but Internet Explorer is an extremely important component of the Windows operating system, the misconfiguration of which can lead to many disastrous results. For example, some network functions of various programs may stop working properly. So try opening Internet Explorer and resetting it to its defaults. Once you’ve done that, go back to Skype and check if the “Connection failed” error has been resolved.
Method number 4 Deleting certain files
The next method will require you to remove two important configuration files from your computer: shared.lck and shared.xml. Both of them can be found in the% appdata% Skype directory. The fastest way to open this location on your computer is to use the Run utility. Do the following:
- press Windows + R;
- enter in the empty line of the utility% appdata% Skype ;
- press Enter.
Once in the desired folder, find the files and permanently delete them with the CTRL + SHIFT + DELETE combination. Once you’ve got rid of your files, restart your computer and try signing in to your Skype account again. The “Unable to establish connection” error should be resolved.
Method number 5 Waiting for a solution to the problem
It may also happen that the Skype servers are actually experiencing some kind of difficulty at the moment. Go to this link and check if Skype services are working normally. If you see that there are indeed problems, then you just need to wait for the solution of the situation by the developers, after which the error “Unable to establish a connection” in Skype will resolve itself.