Estimated Time to Fix: 6 minutes

Summary

Fix Microsoft Teams notifications that aren't showing on your desktop or phone. This guide covers Teams settings, Windows notification settings, Focus Assist conflicts, and cache clearing.

Symptoms

• Teams chat messages arrive but no notification banner or sound appears.
• Meeting reminders don't pop up before meetings start.
• Channel messages show unread counts but don't trigger notifications.
• Notifications work in the browser but not in the desktop app (or vice versa).
• Notification sounds are missing even though banners appear.

Before You Start

• Microsoft Teams (desktop app or mobile app).
• Windows 11 or 10 (for desktop-specific steps).

Instructions

1. Check Teams Notification Settings

Make sure Teams is configured to send notifications.

1. Open Microsoft Teams and click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to your profile picture.
2. Select Settings > Notifications and activity.
3. Under Notifications, verify that Chat, Meetings, and Other are not set to Off.
   • Set critical ones to Banner and feed or Banner, feed, and email.
4. Scroll down and check that channel notifications for important channels are set to All activity or Custom.

TIP

If you only want notifications for channels you care about, right-click the channel name in the Teams sidebar, select Channel notifications, and choose All activity. This is more effective than turning on notifications for every channel.

If Chat and Meetings were already switched on when you opened this screen, Teams is not the thing holding the alerts back. Continue to Step 2.

2. Check Your Teams Status

Your status directly affects whether notifications are delivered.

1. Click your profile picture in Teams.
2. Check your status. If it's set to Do Not Disturb, all notifications are silenced.
3. Change your status to Available or Busy (Busy still delivers notifications with a visual indicator).
4. If you set a status duration, clear it by selecting Reset status.
5. If your status was already set to Available and messages still land silently, the block is outside Teams. Continue to Step 3.

3. Check Windows Notification Settings

Windows may be blocking Teams notifications at the system level.

1. Press Windows + I to open Settings.
2. Go to System > Notifications.
3. Make sure the master Notifications toggle is On.
4. Scroll down to the app list and find Microsoft Teams.
5. Click it and verify:
   • Notifications is turned On.
   • Show notification banners is checked.
   • Play a sound when a notification arrives is checked.

If Windows already had all three of those turned on for Teams, permission is not the problem and something is muting the banners after Windows allows them. Continue to Step 4.

4. Check Focus Assist / Do Not Disturb

Windows Focus Assist silences all notifications — including Teams.

1. Click the clock or battery icon in the taskbar to open Quick Settings.
2. Look for Focus or Do not disturb. If it's enabled, click it to turn it off.
3. To keep Focus Assist on but allow Teams through, go to Settings > System > Focus and add Teams to priority notifications.

WARNING

Focus Assist can turn on automatically during certain times (like presentations or when duplicating your display). Go to Settings > System > Focus > Automatic rules to review and adjust these triggers.

If Focus was already off and no banner appears when a colleague messages you, every setting is correct and the app's local data is the remaining suspect. Continue to Step 5.

5. Clear the Teams Cache

A corrupted cache can break notifications silently.

1. Close Microsoft Teams completely (right-click the Teams icon in the system tray and select Quit).
2. Press Windows + R, type %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams, and press Enter.
   • For new Teams, type %localappdata%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams instead.
3. Delete all contents inside the folder.
4. Restart Teams and sign back in.

Teams rebuilds its cache. Check if notifications are working.

If messages still arrive with no banner and no sound after the cache rebuild, raise a ticket saying that notifications are enabled in both Teams and Windows, whether the same messages do notify you on your phone, and the Teams version from Settings > About Teams.

6. Verify the Fix

Confirm notifications are working.

1. Ask a colleague to send you a Teams chat message.
2. You will see a desktop notification banner and hear a sound.
3. If notifications appear, the fix worked.

Troubleshooting

WARNING

If you're using both the desktop app and Teams in a browser tab, notifications may only appear in whichever client is currently active. Close the browser tab if you want all notifications to go through the desktop app.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Notifications work in browser but not desktop app	Desktop app notification permissions revoked	Go to Windows Settings > System > Notifications, find Teams, and re-enable notifications.
No sound with notifications	Teams sound muted or system volume too low	In Teams Settings > Notifications, make sure Play sound for notifications is checked. Also check your system volume.
Notifications delayed by several minutes	Teams running in background with battery saver	Go to Settings > System > Power & battery > Battery saver and exclude Teams, or disable battery saver.
Mobile notifications not working	Phone's Do Not Disturb or battery optimization	Check your phone's Settings > Notifications > Teams and make sure notifications are allowed. Disable battery optimization for Teams.
Channel notifications never appear	Channel set to "Only show in feed"**	Right-click the channel > Channel notifications > change to All activity or Custom.
Notifications stopped after a Teams update	Cache conflict with new version	Clear the Teams cache (Step 5) and restart.

Related Articles

• How to Manage Teams Notifications
• How to Use Focus Assist on Windows
• How to Clear the Microsoft Teams Cache
• How to Set a Custom Status Message in Teams
• How to Fix Microsoft Teams Not Opening or Loading

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