Microsoft Teams unable to send and receive calls for some after update

Microsoft Teams was updated last week to version 1.5.00.2164 and its most notable feature, for at least some users, is not being able to send or receive calls. This is perhaps less than ideal given that Teams is intended as a collaboration and meetings tool. The Teams desktop app, according to several users, has been …

[Anonymous Coward]

Meh. It's a Microsoft product - of course it is buggy as hell and perpetually hosed.

My installation hasn't let me switch chats for over a month - I have to "pop out" the chat window if I want to chat with anyone other than who it had on top when it started. And then every once in a while it decides that the pop out windows should be invisible so I have to kill off the fool thing and relaunch it.

We also get problems with major echoing if certain Linux users of the tool join a call. That has been going on for about 2-3 months.

The one thing you can count on with a Microsoft product? Abject failure to deliver basic functionality on a random basis for the entire existence of the product as they "enhance" the product until it is broken. Truly an engineering mentality over there. "If it ain't broke, enhance it until it is..." :(

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you tried clearing your Teams cache?

[runt row raggy]

the op wasn't looking for a solution. the op said teams was buggy. seems like it is, and you are emulating clippy

[Anonymous Coward]

you are emulating clippy

Best burn this week. Hahaha :)

[Paul Crawford]

You mean it is too buggy to maintain cache sanity on its own?

[Sam Liddicott]

quit, then:

rm -fr .config/Microsoft/Microsoft\ Teams/

then login and it works.

Until you have to re-auth. Rinse and repeat

[MrBanana]

Teams ability for windows to "pop out" , "pop under", "pop over to another desktop", "pop up nowhere", and generally cock about with your workflow is truly staggering.

[ChrisC]

I'd be happy if it could at least consistently pop-out the notification that lets people know when a meeting has started.

No, let me rephrase that, because I realise I'm being unfair to Teams here - it *does* consistently pop-out the notification, it just seems utterly incapable of doing so consistently at the START of the meeting...

So I'd actually be happy if it could at least consistently pop-out the notification within, say, 30 seconds of the start of the meeting, rather than at a random time somewhere between "right there and then" and "about 20 minutes after the meeting has ended, no matter how long the meeting actually took".

[T. F. M. Reader]

@MrBanana: even more staggering workflow effects are common on, say, macOS. With Mission Control (AppleSpeak for virtual desktops) especially.

Meeting comes up in the calendar or someone just calls you. You are, say, on a virtual desktop with the Teams window. You click on the link in the calendar invitation or on the Join button, as appropriate.

The display switches to a different virtual desktop, something flashes there, too fast for human eye. The display switches back to the original virtual desktop before you realise that something happened.

You need to figure out that the OS for some reason thought that a URL (or the button) should be handled by your browser. It is the browser that realises that the URL should be handled by Teams. If you know that then you know enough to switch to the virtual desktop where your browser is open, and you'll find another Teams window with the call (not joined yet!) there.

As for "something went wrong", "we have encountered a problem", and "reconnecting" - those are there all the time: leave teams alone for longer than 15 minutes, connect to or disconnect from VPN, just about anything causes inability to connect to calls, send/receive messages, messages arriving out of order, etc., etc.

Clippy: I see you are expecting that it should "just work", eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

I managed to avoid Teams so far because we have ripped out Microsoft products wholesale where I work for security reasons, but I had to battle with this rubbish because my son needed it for a job interview and the agency doing the interview demanded it.

The crud I had to go through to stop it from using his Uni logon and actually work is unbelievable, also because of what Microsoft sarcastically refers to as its "help" where it states that you can use a browser if you only disable every conceivable security protection when it talks to Microsoft. When you do so in Safari and Firefox (which they indicate as "supported" with instructions on how to set it up), you /still/ end up with a page that says "this browser isn't supported, download our application" - which is the exact thing that gives problems. I'm guessing they just hope you leave your browser now unprotected (fat chance).

In the end we chose the safe route and stuck it on his iPad, with the firm decision to nuke it straight afterwards.

It doesn't surprise me one bit that ransomware and security breaches are rampant - if Microsoft can't even manage to properly code a simple video application there really is no reason to expect any better from any other of their software. It's impressively hopeless.

[NATTtrash]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

Similar experiences here. Especially on the so-called "help", "productivity", and "required" items.

However, being a bit more reflective, one can ask oneself what the real PITA issue is with these kind of things: the fact that it is crappy absolute rubbish self serving lock in malfunctioning software with a very specific manual, or the fact that the rest of the world can't look beyond it and judge it for what it is...

... because my son needed it for a job interview and the agency doing the interview demanded it.

...

Can't you send it as a Word file, please?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

Yeah, we had the Word file question too.

They got a PDF :).

[ChrisC]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

"We asked you to send it to us as a Word file"

"I did"

"No, you sent a PDF"

"Yes, that's one of the options Word gave me when I went to save the file"

"But that's not what we need"

"Then learn to construct your requests in a way which a) shows you understand what you're actually asking for, and b) leaves the recipient in no doubt over what it is you're asking for. Cheers"

[nick of herts]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

We advertised for a tech support role.

Half the CVs were sent in as DOC files, so failed to even get read let alone make it to the long list.

[Sam Liddicott]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

not that you were in any doubt, you just wanted to enjoy the party

[Sleep deprived]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

The few times I had to run Teams for a video call, I just opened the link in Edge, which doesn't require any installation or login. Microsoft products get along better with each other. This is my only use of Edge, as I do all my browsing in Firefox.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

There is, however, no hope in hell I will ever install Edge on my Mac, especially since it states "Easily sync your passwords, favorites, and settings across many devices".

No way, ever.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

@ A/C

Strange comment from a Mac user, as anyone who reads my previous comments will know, my business uses only Macs.

In my experience, Macs will automatically sync passwords, favourites and bookmarks across all Mac devices. Hell, that's one of the reasons I pay the Appletax.

So, why is Edge doing it wrong?

[DJV]

Re: So, why is Edge doing it wrong?

It's the Microsoft Way^TM

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

So, why is Edge doing it wrong?

Because, based on the telemetry they haul out of Windows, I don't trust them to not quietly make their own copy, a sort of WhatsApp approach to browsers.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

"So, why is Edge doing it wrong?"

*knees jerk*

MICROSOFT BAD!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I will NEVER use this rubbish voluntarily

Amen to that! I don't use teams for web conferencing (but do for some file sharing and colab), but had to for a job interview. It tried to force me to "upgrade" to Windows Hello for the account I use for colab, then it wanted to use my windows login, and then refused to work in Firefox. Only using it in Edge (so it is actually good for something after all) worked.

It takes a LOT of effort to make WebEx looks polished and sophisticated, but Microsoft somehow has managed to do it.

[Mayday]

"Microsoft Teams is running normally"

"We resolved an issue that may have prevented a very limited number of users from making or receiving calls in the desktop app."

Very limited number of users=

Anyone silly enough to update an M$ product as soon as it initially wants to.

[Ken Hagan]

Re: "Microsoft Teams is running normally"

Teams updates itself on its own schedule, in my experience.

[Mark #255]

Re: "Microsoft Teams is running normally"

this is a change, then: previously each (per-user) installation on a computer had to be updated independently; and the only way to initiate it was from within Teams.

[ChrisC]

Re: "Microsoft Teams is running normally"

Usually about 5 minutes before the start of your next scheduled meeting...

[Anonymous Coward]

270M - bull

It may be installed on 270M computers, but they don't have 270M users. Just because its configured as auto-start nagware doesn't mean people use it. I've had it installed for months and have used it a grand total of 5 times.

[A Non e-mouse]

Re: 270M - bull

Lies, dammed lies & statistics.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: 270M - bull

Given the number of companies and institutions that have drunken the koolaid and forced it on users because it is part of the Microsoft 24//7/365/na subscription.

I don't like it, not least because it keeps wanting to use my camera, but I do think it has improved over the last few years. Then again, I would never use any of this shit for working with the PSTN.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: 270M - bull

"Just because its configured as auto-start nagware doesn't mean people use it."

I have two enforced instances, one on my company laptop and one on the odd times I have to log into an RDS instance. I've managed to stop it auto-launching on the laptop, but can't do anything about it opening FULL SCREEN every time I open the RDS instance. Fortunately, I only need to use the RDS instance for one specific app, so it's not very often, but for some reason, no matter how long I wait, it always seems to suddenly go full screen just as I'm half way through logging into the app I need to use. Why can't it default to opening in the background and just have a taskbar icon? Why would MS assume EVERYONE with Teams installed wants it full screen every time they boot up? To me, that just reminds me how arrogant MS devs are. (They're not the only ones!)

[Mike Lewis]

Running normally?

Does "running normally" mean it's back to only one person having both audio and video while half of us have audio but no video and the other half have video but no audio?

[TRT]

Re: Running normally?

I'm (half) hearing you buddy!

[Mr Dogshit]

"Something went wrong"

Lovely error message, "Something went wrong".

Microsoft wrote the application, Microsoft wrote the damn operating system, and the best error message Microsoft could come up with is "Something went wrong".

[Shalghar]

Re: "Something went wrong"

Guru meditation error unavailable because guru is having a nervous breakdown.

"Something went wrong" is something that the user is already aware of but says a great deal about how much effort was going into error handling when not even a simple error code is displayed.

Also says quite a lot about how motivated microsoft is to actually help and diagnose in case of failures.

That at least on the visible user side, maybe all the useful information is sent home via the rest of all those intentionally implemented backdoors, security leaks and other kinds of not user controllable "telemetry".

[Blitheringeejit]

Re: "Something went wrong"

>> "not even a simple error code is displayed"

As opposed to Windows Update errors, which display an error code about which no further information can be found - so useful.

If you're not going to bother publishing a list of what your error codes mean, you might as well just say "Something went wrong". Or perhaps more accurately "Sorry, but Microsoft's piece of crappy software for which you so happily pay through the schnozzle every month has fallen over again.".

[Mike 137]

Re: "Something went wrong"

"the best error message Microsoft could come up with

Unfortunately I think this is not due to limited technical expertise, but to an intensely patronising view of their customers. They believe "the poor dears" will be confused by informative error messages.

[AndrueC]

Re: "Something went wrong"

Let me introduce you to a Win32 API error message that I've received back a few times:

0x80070057 ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER - The Parameter is Incorrect.

I've had that when talking to SCSI devices when the call required that I pass over two dozen parameters.

[Mopey_]

Update from Microsoft

Did Microsoft make any mention as to what the issue was and how the fix has been applied? As far as we can see there isn't a new update for Teams yet. Still on 1.5.00.2164.

We've noticed that the issue seems to affect users that have a open bracket in their Windows Profile Folder name which isn't then closed with a closed bracket. It's common if for instance you put your company name in your Display Name in 365. : https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftTeams/comments/ss9vae/teams_update_breaks_video_and_audio/

[DevOpsTimothyC]

Re: Update from Microsoft

The fix probably starts with re-installing windows

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it proves that Microsoft is "secure"

After all, communication that never happened is about the safest you can get..

/s

[Anonymous Coward]

Teams has lept 2 organisations I work with afloat through Covid

Whilst all the usual Microsoft haters are piling on I think there is room for the opposite view. When the Pandemic hit I was working in a County Council Social Services Department implementing new the finance modules of a care management application. We had to go from 300-400 concurrent remote workers at any time to over 3000 in a matter of days. We also moved from mostly Face to Face meetings with very occasional teams meetings to all meetings being on teams. Whilst I don't love Teams its no worse than most other corporate comms systems I've used. I was able pretty much able to decamp home, buy another monitor and better webcam and hook up a hi fi to my docking station and just work.

I have had issues like everyone else but working from a rural location with occasionally very dodgy broadband and no 4g signal to fall back on I've been very happy with the product. Mid Pandemic I changed roles to lead a systems Implementation in the NHS this has been a roller coaster project and we use teams not just within the project team but across 3 health trusts and 3 external providers. Its been an absolute life saver with most of both Our and the vendors teams still working remotely due to Covid Safety protocols.

During the implementation we've trained 1500 colleagues in the use of the new system, recorded videos for future reference and support using teams and provided 1-1 support using screen sharing as we could not use floor walkers. On a project spread across several hundred square miles doing this virtually has been a huge efficiency.

This working method is likely to become the norm over the next few years as the Trusts do not have the physical capacity to accommodate project teams across their existing estates and Teams will be the foundation for the delivery of projects, not having to hire additional office space for project teams will be a significant saving. I know I'm picking up the costs of running my own office but at a personal level it means I dont have a 2-3 hour a day commute I typically have on projects and I have my Labrador snoozing under the desk to keep me company.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Teams has lept 2 organisations I work with afloat through Covid

All your IT are belong us.

[DJV]

Re: Teams will be the foundation for the delivery of projects

Teams will be the reason for the failure to deliver projects

FTFY

[Blitheringeejit]

Re: Teams has lept 2 organisations I work with afloat through Covid

I'm guessing that if you're happy with Teams, you haven't tried any alternatives.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Teams has lept 2 organisations I work with afloat through Covid

To be fair, when Teams was first installed and working properly, it was pretty decent for our project. It wasn't until fall that Microsoft really managed to start borking the thing. :(

[Dwarf]

You would have thought by now, what with all the products being riddled with telemetry, then they would know about all the errors and be able to do something useful with all the AI and ML, heck for fun, lets throw in blockchain (even though its completely irrelevant, like every other time the word is used)

You would also expect that the lack of testing and use of FrAgile might be starting to appear on someone's analytics about the likely causes of the constant failures when things are rushed or insufficient oversight is being used for the less capable programmers.

If they can't get the basics right, then I suggest that they throw away the telemetry and go back to what used to work about 5 years ago, we've tried other things now and its not working out well for customers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh. Perfect. Hopefully this is simply a case of botched testing and a bug that slipped through. My employer is phasing out the collaboration tool that most people are comfortable using and migrating everyone to Teams. Now that we're all using Teams, MS decides to blow away the feature that most of us are using it for: one-on-one calls with occasional screen sharing. Just when ya think that MS has gotten its poop in a pile, they do something like this.

[DJV]

Re: MS has gotten its poop in a pile

Yes, and now it wants its users to be in the poop as well.

[John Brown (no body)]

"botched testing "

That would be a huge step up for MS. Any kind of testing would be better than what they seem to normally do.

[The Empress]

Who cares?

98% of all calls and meetings are an utter waste of time and effort

[Sam Liddicott]

my fix

It's been like this for months on Linux.

After: rm -fr .config/Microsoft/Microsoft\ Teams/

it will work, until I have to re-auth, and then the audio and video don't work until I quit and remove the config