Microsoft’s communication and collaboration platform, Microsoft Teams (MS Teams or Teams), is a dynamic tool that companies can use to keep their staff connected and communicating effectively.

However, from Wi-Fi connectivity issues to error messages, Teams does experience problems that can negatively impact your organization’s productivity. If your business can spot the following issues ahead of time and fix them as they appear, your company will be able to avoid larger problems in the future.

The program does not send notifications to users’ desktops

39% of employees believe their co-workers do not collaborate enough. MS Teams’ notifications are a core part of team collaboration and communication. However, it is a known issue that the desktop app’s notifications do not appear all the time.

In these situations, your account’s permissions have changed and can be fixed by following the next set of steps:

  1. Navigate to your “Settings” in the Microsoft Teams app (accessible via an icon consisting of three white dots to the left of your profile picture in the top right-hand corner of the application).
  2. Click on “Notifications”.
  3. Look over “Chat,” “Meetings and Calls,” and “Other.” These features should have the “Banner” or “Banner and feed” options enabled.

For businesses that prefer to use the web application of Teams, desktop notifications can be turned on via a prompt in the bottom right corner of the device’s screen.

You and your staff are busy and you need to be informed of the latest information and messages. With the steps above, you can have peace of mind knowing your organization is equipped to deal with one of Teams’ problems.

Teams does not load older chats and messages

While Microsoft Teams has real-time communication capabilities for streamlined business processes. It is important that old messages and threads are accessible. You may encounter an issue where Teams will not load older assignment-critical conversations. In these cases, the best solution is to restart the program.

For MacOS systems, you can restart the Teams app by:

  1. Right-clicking on the Teams icon in your Dock.
  2. Select “Quit.”
  3. Wait a few moments before opening the application again.

For Windows systems, you can restart the program by:

  1. Locating the Teams icon in your taskbar.
  2. Choose “Quit.”
  3. Keep the platform closed for some moments before reopening it.

Microsoft’s unified communication and collaboration tool is cloud-based, meaning it relies on the Internet to operate. Outside of restarting applications, you should always ensure that your devices are connected to the Internet with a strong signal and Wi-Fi network.

Unexpected freezes

There is nothing more detrimental to your organization’s processes than frozen programs. These instances can stop a business in its tracks, barring employees from sending messages, wrapping up important meetings, or only receiving half the information they require.

Whenever MS Teams freezes, you can exit the app using the “Force Quit” method. Force quitting an application means closing the program via keystrokes. Like when choosing to restart Teams, the combination of keys differs for Windows and iOS users.

If your organization uses Windows computers, you can force quit Teams by:

  1. Pressing on the following keys simultaneously: Ctrl + Alt + Del.
  2. Access your device’s Task Manager.
  3. Select “End Task.”

Companies who use Macs should follow the steps outlined below:

  1. Press Command + Option + Escape (identifiable as “esc”).
  2. Look through the list of applications in the pop-up window.
  3. Click on MS Teams and choose “Force Quit.”

Wait a few moments before relaunching the app. If you find your Teams desktop application regularly freezes, you can always use the web version to maintain correspondences until the desktop version is updated and working again.

Unable to create additional teams

In the workplace, collaborative work has increased by 50% or higher over the past decade. One of the selling points of Microsoft Teams is its functions that allow you to organize your employee base into separate teams for better communication management and collaboration.

Sometimes, MS Teams’ users are unable to create new teams on the platform.

This is an administrative matter rather than a fault of the program. Whether your company’s digital administrators have limited your ability to create additional teams or your organization’s Teams account has reached its limit, a third-party vendor skilled in Microsoft maintenance can help you and your IT staff fix this problem.

Microphones and webcams do not work

When undergoing a Teams meeting, your webcam and microphone need to be working to ensure communication is seamless and free of delays. If your problems are related to your webcam or microphone, you should check that your hardware is turned on for the meeting.

When opening a call in Teams (on your computer), follow the points below:

  • To turn on your webcam, press the switch to the left of “Background filters” until your image appears in the rectangle above.
  • To turn on your microphone, look under “Computer audio” and turn on the switch beside the microphone icon.

Another way to solve this problem is to permit Teams to access your hardware. For Windows users, this can be done through the Start menu before following one of two methods (depending on whether you run Windows 11 or 10). iOS users can manage their Teams’ permissions through “System Preferences” and “Security & Privacy.”

Overcome your MS Teams troubles with qualified experts

As a leader in the digital technologies space, Microsoft’s products are innovative and equipped to assist the communication efforts of businesses of all sizes. However, your organization’s procedures will be thrown up in the air when problems arise, and you need a team of certified professionals to catch and manage them.

The digital communication and Microsoft consultants at PWR Technologies specialize in empowering businesses with tools that enable secure video meetings, instant messaging, and more collaborative environments. Contact the team today for Microsoft 365 consulting services that will enhance your business’s communication channels.