Microsoft Teams rounds out the whole cycle for those heavily invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem of software services. In addition to the fact that Microsoft has decided to discontinue Skype for Business, you should definitely look for a worthy replacement. That’s not the only problem. Other users have complained that Teams never loads or opens for them.
While there’s nothing you can do about the initial issue, there are steps you can take to fix the loading issue. The solutions are easy enough to follow.
Let’s start.
1. Downtime
As discussed in the opening paragraph, servers can be off-putting with many people around the world relying on Teams to communicate and collaborate on tasks. But how do you know?
You can check the working status of the software by visiting Downdetector instead of taking it to Twitter. A great site that monitors popular apps and services. There is a live outage map with details of the most commonly reported errors. You can also check past events.
2. Known Error Codes
Here are some common error codes that will help you understand the problem in more detail. Have you seen any of these error codes on your screen?
- 0xCAA20003 – Authorization problem
- 0xCAA82EE2 – Request timed out
- 0xCAA82EE7 – Named server not resolved
- 0xCAA20004 – Request not approved
- 0xCAA90018 – Incorrect login information
- none – re-enter PIN with smart card
These errors are easy enough to fix and you won’t need my help here.
3. Try Another Platform and Connection
Troubleshooting can take time and there is work to be done. Here is a quick fix. The Microsoft Teams app is available on the web, desktop, and mobile. Have you tried a different platform like Windows, Android or a different browser like Firefox?
You should try to sign in to Teams using a different internet connection. If it works, you should check your antivirus and firewall settings. Microsoft has created a handy URL and IP address range guide for Microsoft Teams and other apps. Check them out.
4. Restart and Try Again
Close the application and restart your computer once. Save everything so you don’t lose important data. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, but it’s known to help with a few common software-related errors. Restart the app and check if Teams is still not loading or opening properly.
5. Sign Out
Quite a few users have tagged this to work in a Microsoft thread. Worth to try. If Teams crashes before doing anything in Windows 10, look for the Teams icon in the System Tray area. Does it appear and disappear in a second?
This will take some time and practice, but all you have to do is right-click on that icon and click sign out. This applies to desktop users. If you’re fast enough, you’ll have to log out/Log out and Teams will load correctly the next time you start it.
For those looking for details, the error is related to the event log DCOM permission (10016) entry.
6. Troubleshooting Teams
Press Windows key+I shortcut to open settings. To call Find and fix problems with Windows Store Apps in the search box.
From the window that opens, click the box in front of ‘Apply repairs automatically’ and select Next.
After that, follow the on-screen instructions to fix the Microsoft Teams not working issue.
7. Remove and Delete Cache and Other Files
The steps will vary depending on the platform you’re experiencing the Teams not installing issue on. We want to clear the cache and other temporary files. Let’s start with Windows 10. Quit Teams completely so it doesn’t run in the background or even in the System Tray. You can either right-click and exit there or press the Ctrl+Shift+Esc shortcut to open Task Manager and end the Teams task from there.
Uninstall the app from Control Panel or use a third party app. Press Windows key+E to open File Explorer and pass this location in the address bar:
%appdata%\Microsoft\teams
In the window that opens, you will see that you need to delete Teams before restarting.
- App Cache > Delete all files in Cache
- Delete all files in blob_storage, Cache, databases, GPUCache, IndexedDB, Local Storage and tmp folders.
Here are the steps for Android users. Open Settings and go to the app list or go to manage apps and search for Teams.
Tap the Clear data button at the bottom of the screen and select both options one by one.
Reinstall Microsoft Teams. We did this so that old data and cache wouldn’t be an issue when performing a clean reinstall.
If you’re having this issue with the Chrome browser, try clearing the browser cache.
Reinstalling Teams from scratch will get you up to speed with the latest version that may carry some performance improvements and major fixes.
8. Reinstall in Default Location
You can skip this solution if Teams loads fine until it starts acting randomly. If this is your first time installing Teams and it won’t open or show a white screen, continue.
Microsoft says Teams should be installed in the following default location:
C:\users\\appData
Most users install the Windows operating system on the C drive where the above folder should be located. If this is not the case, you will need to reinstall Teams in the correct, default location. Once done, check again if Microsoft Teams can be opened/installed.
Teamwork Rocks
Microsoft Teams is evolving into one of the best apps for communication and collaboration. It is an improvement over Skype for Business and brings a lot of features even from Slack. It makes a lot of sense if you’re already using the Office suite in a certain capacity. I hope this guide was able to solve your Teams not loading or opening error.
Next: Need to get more from Teams? Here are 8 tips and tricks to use Microsoft Teams like a pro. Stop wasting time and get more done.
