Teams Status stuck on Out of Office, Offline, Away, Unknown, Busy

It’s possible; you access your Microsoft Teams account from two different devices. For example, when you are away, you may use your PC to log in to Microsoft Teams and, in return, use your work laptop/desktop. The switching, however, becomes troublesome when you find your Microsoft Teams status is still stuck as Out of Office, Offline, Away, Unknown or Busy.

This may affect their communications as others will presume that the user is not online and refrain from messaging. It can also affect your reputation in an organization as you will appear to be offline and not working. Hence, it becomes crucial to fix this problem.

There can be various other reasons why your Teams status is stuck and not changing. It might be a glitch with your account or the problem might be triggered due to a damaged cache file associated with the Teams app. Apart from that, it can also occur in case you have logged into Teams on more than one device. Other reasons for the same can be invalid entries in your Calendar, outdated app, VPN interference, or corrupted/incorrect installation of Teams.

Microsoft Teams Status stuck on Out of Office, Offline, Away, Unknown, Busy, etc

Canot change Microsoft Teams status

The problem mainly occurs when someone sends you a calendar invite with date ranges extending from a current to a future date and with any of the other options like Out of Office, Offline, Away, Unknown, Busy, etc. checked. This forces Microsoft Teams to stick somehow to this status.

Here are the methods you can use if Microsoft Teams status is stuck on Offline, Away, Unknown, Busy, etc. on Windows PC:

Restart Microsoft Teams.
Log out from your Microsoft Teams account, then login back.
Delete Outlook invites showing ‘Out of Office, Offline, Away, Unknown or Busy’ status.
Terminate other sessions.
Delete Microsoft Teams cache.
Change your Status Message in Teams.
Clear your Calendar schedule.
Turn off the Don’t send automatic replies
Move or Delete Settings.json file
Update the Teams app.
Disable your VPN.
Schedule an all-day meeting.

But, before you try these fixes, we recommend you update your Windows OS. And also, check your network connection and make sure you are connected to a stable and reliable internet connection.

1] Restart Microsoft Teams

It is recommended to first try restarting the Teams app to fix this issue. It might be a temporary glitch causing the problem. Hence, end all tasks related to Teams and then relaunch the app to check if the problem is resolved. To do so, open Task Manager using Ctrl+Shift+Esc and then use the End task button to close Teams tasks. You can then reopen Teams and hopefully, your status won’t be stuck at Offline, Away, Unknown, Busy, etc. anymore.

2] Log out from your Microsoft Teams account, then login back

Another thing you can do is log out of your Teams account and then re-add your account to check if the problem is resolved. This workaround has proven to be effective in this case. So, you can try doing the same and see if your status has been updated or not.

To do that, click on the profile icon from the top and then select the Sign out option. Once you are logged out, you can sign back into your account by entering your login credentials. Check if the issue is fixed now. If not, you can move on to the next fix to resolve it.

See: Fix Microsoft Teams Login issues: We couldn’t sign you in.

3] Delete Outlook invites showing ‘Out of Office, Offline, Away, Unknown or Busy’ status

Firstly, verify if any invitation is highlighted as ‘Out of Office, Offline, Away, Unknown or Busy’.

If seen and you find such an invitation, remove it from your calendar to change the status to ‘Available’.

4] Terminate other sessions

If your Teams status is still stuck and not updating, the issue might be caused if you have signed into Teams on multiple devices. Hence, log out of the Teams app from other devices and then check if the problem is fixed.

5] Delete Microsoft Teams cache

The following method you can use to solve this issue is by clearing up Microsoft Teams Cache. Before clearing up the cache, close the Microsoft Teams window by clicking on the Show hidden icons arrow on the taskbar, right-click on the Microsoft Teams icon, and click on Quit.

First, open the Run dialogue box by pressing the Windows key + R.
Copy and paste the following path %appdata%/Microsoft/Teams and press the OK button.
All items in the directory should be deleted to clear the caches.
Open Teams and check whether you can update the status.

6] Change your Status Message in Teams

To set your status message in Teams, navigate your mouse cursor to your profile pic at the top of Teams and select ‘Set status message’ to view your options.
Type the message that you want to be displayed to other people in the box.
If you want to show people your status when they message or @mention you, select ‘Show when people message me’.
Select the time following which you would like the message to disappear.
Hit ‘Done’.

If you are still not able to change your Teams status in the desktop app, you can try changing it through the web app of Teams.

To do that, just open the official website of Microsoft Teams in a web browser and click on the Sign in button. After that, enter your login username and password. Once done you are signing into your account in a browser, click on the profile icon, change your status to Available or as required, and then log out of your account. Now, reopen the desktop app of Microsoft Teams and see if the problem is resolved. If the problem is still the same, you can move on to the next solution to resolve this issue. If you have Teams installed on your mobile, you can try changing your status using it. Hopefully, it will work for you.

7] Clear your Calendar schedule

This issue might also occur if your Outlook calendar has an invalid entry. For example, if you have added a vacation or holiday to your Calendar, your status is likely to show Offline, Away, etc. Hence, if the scenario is applicable, remove such entries from your Calendar and check if the issue is fixed. So, open your Outlook app and verify your calendar. If there are incorrect or invalid events, remove them. You can then re-login to your Teams account and see if the problem is gone.

If your Teams status is still stuck on Offline, Away, Unknown, Busy, etc., use the next potential solution to resolve the issue.

8] Turn off Don’t send automatic replies

Go to Outlook Web App.

Click the gear button to access ‘Mail’ > ‘Automatic processing’> Automatic replies.

Here, check ‘Don’t send automatic replies’ to turn off the Out of Office setting.

9] Delete or remove the Settings.json file

Logout from Microsoft Teams.

Navigate to the following path address –

C:/Usersusername/AppData/Roaming/MicrosoftTeams

Here, search for the file Settings.json.

When found, either delete the file or move it to another location.

10] Update the Teams app

It is recommended that keep your Teams app up-to-date. With the outdated Teams app, you will experience problems and issues like status being stuck. Hence, make sure you are using the latest version of Microsoft Teams.

Although the desktop app is mostly updated automatically, you can also manually check for available updates. For that, open Teams, click on the Settings and more menu button > Settings option and tap on the update option under the About Teams section.

11] Disable your VPN

In case the issue continues, turn off your VPN and see if the problem is resolved. It might delay Teams communication with its remote servers and as a result, the status gets stuck on Away, Offline, Unknown, Busy, etc. Hence, if the scenario is applicable, you can disable your VPN software on your PC and check if the problem is resolved.

Read: Microsoft Teams does not ring when being called.

12] Schedule an all-day meeting

If the issue remains the same, there is a workaround you can try. You can schedule an all-day meeting on Teams and it should reset your status to Online.

To do so, you can ask for help from one of your colleagues or friends. Just open Teams and go to Calendar. After that, click on the New Meeting button and then enter the details of the meeting including time, attendees, etc. Choose the current date and then time its duration for 24 hours. Once done adding the details, press the Save button. You can now ask your friend to attend the meeting. Let the meeting go on for at least five minutes. You can then leave the meeting and then check your current status. It should be changed to Online.

If nothing helps, it is recommended to perform a clean installation of the Microsoft Teams app on your computer.

How do you delete a status message from a team?

Open Teams, and click on your Profile.
In the flyout menu, click on the Edit Status message
This will open the text editor, where you can edit or delete your status.
To delete, remove the text and save it.

Why can’t I change my status on Microsoft Teams?

At times Microsoft Teams app fails to change the status. In that case, you can log out and log in to see the update. If this doesn’t work, check for an update, change the status again or Start a meeting, and hopefully, the status will change.

Why is the Microsoft Teams status Unknown?

If the status of a person is set as Unknow, and it’s not an intentional edit, then it could be related to privacy settings or Teams failing to retrieve the staus. So all you need is to wait it out to fix itself. You can also cross-check by logging into Teams from the browser.

I hope that helps!