Microsoft Teams Free offers a powerful collaboration experience for individuals and small groups, but like any evolving platform, it sometimes comes with a few limitations or known issues. This page has information about the most commonly reported challenges users may encounter while using Teams Free.
1) In-chat search does not work in all chats migrated from Skype
Issue: Users are unable to use the in-chat search feature in some chats migrated from Skype.
Cause: These chats are still in the older format and not fully compatible with Teams Free search capabilities.
Workaround: Migration of the old chats to the new format is underway. Before the migration is complete, users may need to manually scroll through chat history to locate messages.
Status: Known issue, under active migration effort.
2) Limited permissions in chat for Skype-originated users
Issue: Some users joining Teams Free chats via Skype links cannot start calls or remove participants in the chats.
Cause: These users are not granted full permissions due to legacy join paths.
Workaround: Users should be added via a Teams Free link to ensure proper permissions.
Status: Known issue, workaround available.
3) Notification issues on Windows
Issue: Notifications do not work on Windows unless the app is brought to the foreground at least once. This affects incoming call alerts and activity feed updates.
Cause: The app fails to register or trigger background notification listeners until it is manually foregrounded.
Workaround: Users should manually launch the app to the foreground after reboot or login to activate notification listeners.
Status: Known issue, workaround available. Investigation is ongoing across multiple engineering teams.
