Notifications for teams on windows are stuck on screen

Hi @Brandon Tune,

Good day, and I appreciate the clear explanation of your concern.  

From your description, it looks like Teams notifications on Windows remain stuck on the screen and do not disappear automatically until you open the Activity tab.

Below are several troubleshooting steps that often fix this issue:

1/ Toggle Teams notifications off and back on

In the Teams desktop app, go to Settings > Notifications and Activity. Temporarily turn notifications off (or disable the main categories), wait about 30 seconds, then turn them back on. This refreshes the notification pipeline and can clear stuck banners.

2/ Sign in to Teams on the web

Go to https://teams.cloud.microsoft/ and make sure all items are read/cleared there. This can force a sync with the desktop client and remove lingering notifications.

3/ Update Microsoft Teams

Notification issues are often fixed in newer releases. Check for updates under Settings > About Teams or update through your organization’s software center.

4/ Clear Teams cache

Windows:

• Quit Teams from the taskbar.
• Press Windows + R, then enter: %userprofile%\appdata\local\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams
• Delete all files and folders in that directory.
• Restart Teams.

macOS:

• Quit Teams from the dock.
• Open Terminal from Applications > Utilities.
• Run the following commands:

rm -rf ~/Library/Group\ Containers/UBF8T346G9.com.microsoft.teams

rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.teams2

• Restart Teams.

 Reference: Clear the Teams client cache - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn.

5/ Repair or reset the Teams app (Windows)

• Search for Microsoft Teams in the Start menu > select App settings.

• Scroll to Reset section and choose Repair.

• If the issue continues, select Reset to remove corrupted data or misconfigured settings.

I hope these steps help. Please try them and let me know the results. If the issue continues, we can explore additional troubleshooting options together.

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Hi everyone,

Thank you for your response.

I’ve seen reports from multiple users experiencing the same notification issue, so this does not appear to be an isolated case.

If other users in your organization are also affected and the problem continues, please ask your IT administrator to report the issue through Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin center. When issues are reported at the tenant level, Microsoft can collect diagnostics across environments, identify broader impact, and engage the product team more quickly.

Submitting the report via the admin center is currently the most effective way to help Microsoft investigate and prioritize a fix for this behavior.

I appreciate everyone’s patience and cooperation while this is being investigated.

Warm regards.

Teams desktop notifications are controlled by both Teams’ own settings and Windows notification behavior. When banners stay on screen until the Activity tab is opened, notification configuration should be checked in both places.

Try these steps on Windows:

1. Check Teams notification settings
   1. In Teams, select Settings and more (three dots) > Settings > Notifications and activity.
   2. In General, review:
      • Mute all notifications (except for calls and meetings) – turn this off if enabled.
      • Show message and content previews in notifications – toggle as desired.
      • Show notifications during calls and meetings – adjust if banners are lingering while in meetings.
   3. In Chat and channel sections, confirm items like Chat message notifications and @Mentions are set to Show in banner or Show in Activity and banner according to preference. If banners are too persistent, try changing some to Show in Activity only.
   4. Use Test notification at the bottom of the page to verify behavior.
2. Use the Activity feed instead of relying on persistent banners
   • Teams is designed so that the Activity feed (top left of Teams) is the central place to see everything that happened across teams and channels. Banners are transient; the feed is the long‑lived record.
   • To clear the on‑screen banner quickly, open the Activity view and review or mark items as read; this is what currently dismisses the stuck notifications in the described behavior.
3. Check Windows notification behavior
   • In Windows, go to Start > Settings > System > Notifications.
   • Ensure Get notifications from apps and other senders is on and Do not disturb / Focus settings are configured as desired. Misconfigured system notifications can cause odd persistence or delivery issues.
4. If using Teams Free
   • In Teams Free desktop, go to Settings and more > Settings > Notifications and activity.
   • Under Chat, verify:
     • Chat message notifications = Show in banner.
     • @Mentions = Show in Activity and banner.
     • Likes and reactions = Show in Activity and banner (or reduce to Activity only if banners feel “stuck”).
   • If banners still behave incorrectly, check Windows notification settings as above.

If, after adjusting these settings, notifications still remain stuck until the Activity tab is opened, this indicates a client or platform issue rather than a configurable behavior. In that case, collect details (Teams version, Windows version, whether it happens for all users) and escalate through admin/support channels.

References:

• Manage notifications in Microsoft Teams
• First things to know about notifications in Microsoft Teams
• Troubleshoot Microsoft Teams Free notifications
• Use a screen reader to check recent activity in Microsoft Teams