Have you had any issues with Teams lately? Time to clear your cache.

Microsoft Teams is one of the greatest tools for any modern office. It enables quick information sharing through chat, features exhaustive collaboration options through video chat and an interactive whiteboard, and integrates with countless third-party applications.

However, that does not mean that it is free from random quirks and irritancies.

A common issue that’s been plaguing Teams and Outlook for nearly a decade is the occasional inability to switch avatars, or even failing to display avatars at all.

Most recently, on October 25, Microsoft again alerted users that video may fail to display during calls, instead displaying avatars only. Microsoft allows admins to enable incident notifications, which can be turned on by unchecking, or off by checking, the settings box in Outlook under File > Options > Advanced > Other.

Luckily, the fix for this bug, and many others, is easy. And it doesn’t even require restarting your computer.

In order to fix this issue, you’ll need to clear your cache. Clearing your cache is very simple.

Clear Teams Cache on Windows

1. Fully quit Microsoft Teams and ensure it’s not still running in the toolbar at the bottom right of Windows.
2. Navigate to %appdata%/Microsoft/Teams in a File Window.
3. Select everything in the folder.
4. Delete everything.
5. Open Teams and wait for it to download required files.

Clear Teams Cache on Mac

1. Quit out of Teams completely.
2. Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft.
3. Right-click the Teams folder then select Move to Trash.
4. Navigate to Keychain Access.
5. Search for ‘Microsoft Teams’ and delete the entry.
6. Open Teams and wait for it to download required files.

This alone may be the only thing you need to do to ensure that your latest avatar is displayed, that your chat and file access is restored (if that was an issue),

Bonus: Teams released end-to-end encryption. Don’t hesitate to turn that on.

An administrator should already know how to do this, but in case not:

1. Visit the IT Admin portal
2. Navigate to the Enhanced Encryption policies
3. enable E2EE for their staff.

OR

1. Visit the Teams admin center
2. Navigate to Other settings > Enhanced encryption policies, and select a new policy
3. Name and enable a new policy

Remaining up-to-date on the tools and security your organization needs can be exhausting. When you partner with Tigunia, we do it for you. To learn more, contact us today.