How to Fix Teams Not Loading or Stuck (Clear the Cache and More)

Teams spinning on its loading screen, freezing mid-chat, or refusing to show messages you can see on your phone? These fixes go from quickest to most thorough. Stop as soon as one works.

1. Fully quit and reopen

Closing the window doesn't close Teams. Right-click the Teams icon in the system tray (bottom right, next to the clock; click the ^ arrow if it's hidden) and choose Quit. Then open it again.

On a Mac, right-click Teams in the Dock and choose Quit, or press Command + Q.

2. Check it isn't the service

If colleagues have the same problem at the same time, it may be Microsoft. Check status.cloud.microsoft or the Microsoft 365 status account on social media. Nothing to fix on your side.

3. Sign out and back in

Click your profile picture > Sign out, then sign in again. This refreshes your login tokens, which cures a lot of "stuck on loading" problems.

4. Clear the Teams cache

The cache is where Teams keeps a local copy of everything. Corrupt cache, confused Teams. Clearing it is safe: nothing is deleted from your account.

Windows (new Teams):

1. Quit Teams completely (step 1).
2. Press Windows key + R, paste this and press Enter:

%localappdata%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams

3. Delete everything in that folder.
4. Open Teams and sign in.

Mac (new Teams):

1. Quit Teams.
2. In Finder, press Command + Shift + G and go to:

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.teams2

3. Move that folder to the Bin.
4. Open Teams and sign in.

You'll need to set your preferences again, and the first load takes a little longer.

5. Update Teams

Click ⋯ Settings and more > About Teams and let it check for updates. Updates for the new Teams app also arrive through the Microsoft Store on Windows, so open the Store and check Library.

6. Repair or reinstall

Windows: go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps, find Microsoft Teams, click ⋯ > Advanced options, then Repair. If that fails, Reset, and if that fails, Uninstall and reinstall from microsoft.com/teams.

Mac: drag Teams from Applications to the Bin, empty it, and reinstall.

7. Use Teams in the browser meanwhile

Go to teams.microsoft.com in Edge or Chrome. Everything important works there, so you can get through the meeting while the desktop app sulks.

Troubleshooting specific symptoms

Teams opens then disappears. Usually a crash on start. Clear the cache (step 4).

Messages are old or out of order. Sync problem. Sign out and in (step 3).

"We're sorry, we've run into an issue." Sign out, clear the cache, then update.

Teams is extremely slow. Check free disk space and memory. Close browser tabs and other apps. Teams needs a few gigabytes free to behave.

Wrapping up

Quit properly, sign out and in, then clear the cache. Those three fix almost everything. Keep teams.microsoft.com in a bookmark for the days when the app just won't play.