Microsoft Teams won't load, sync or connect
Most Teams faults are a stale cached session or a network problem rather than an outage. Signing out fully, clearing the cache and testing a call in the browser separates the three causes quickly.
Step-by-step troubleshooting
- 1
Quit Teams properly, not just close it
Closing the window leaves Teams running. On Windows find the Teams icon near the clock, right-click and choose Quit. On a Mac use Teams then Quit Teams. Then reopen it.
- 2
Test in a browser
Open teams.microsoft.com in Edge or Chrome and sign in. If everything works there, the fault is the installed app on that computer and we can rebuild it — tell us that in the ticket.
- 3
Sign out and back in
Click your picture, top right, then Sign out. Sign back in with your full email address and complete the MFA prompt. This fixes most 'stuck on loading' and 'we couldn't connect' errors.
- 4
Clear the Teams cache
Quit Teams, then on Windows press Windows+R, paste %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams and delete everything in that folder (nothing important lives there — chats are stored in the cloud). Reopen Teams. Call us if you'd rather we did it with you.
- 5
Missing a chat, channel or file?
Check the hidden teams list at the bottom of the Teams list, and search for the name in the top search bar. Files inside a team live in that team's SharePoint site, so if the team was deleted the files went with it — log a ticket, deleted teams are recoverable for a limited window.
- 6
Nobody can hear or see you
In Teams go to Settings then Devices and run Make a test call. Check the correct microphone, speaker and camera are selected, that no other app is holding the camera, and that Windows privacy settings allow microphone and camera access.
- 7
Poor call quality
Use a wired connection or move closer to the Wi-Fi access point, close large downloads and Teams video if audio matters most, and use a headset rather than laptop speakers. Our call quality article goes deeper.
Contact us straight away if…
- Several people at the same site can't use Teams — likely a network or tenant issue.
- You are stuck in a sign-in loop or told your account isn't allowed to use Teams.
- A team, channel or its files have been deleted.
Include this in your ticket
- Whether it fails in the app, the browser, or both
- The exact error wording or a screenshot
- Whether other people at your site have the same problem
- For call issues: who you were calling, when, and whether you were on Wi-Fi or cable
Still stuck? We'll take it from here
Log a ticket with what you already tried and our Australian help desk will pick it up. Anything urgent, phone 1300 904 635.
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