Quick answer
First, quit Teams completely (right-click its taskbar icon → Quit) and reopen it. If it's still stuck, sign out and back in, then check for updates. Meeting starting? Open teams.microsoft.com in a browser as a stopgap. The steps below take you from quickest fix to full reinstall.
WHY IT HAPPENS
Usually a stale app, not a broken one.
Teams hanging on "Loading" almost always comes down to a handful of things: a local cache that's gone stale or corrupted, an app that's fallen behind on updates, or a sign-in that's got tangled after a password or MFA change. Less often it's a patchy internet connection or a genuine Microsoft 365 outage. The good news is that the fixes are quick and low-risk — your chats, files and meetings all live in the cloud, so restarting, re-signing-in or clearing the cache won't lose anything. Work down the list until it opens.
THE FIX
Work through these in order.
- Quit Teams fully and reopen itClosing the window isn't enough — Teams keeps running in the background. Right-click the Teams icon in the taskbar (or the tray by the clock) and choose Quit. If it won't budge, open Task Manager, end any Microsoft Teams entries, then reopen Teams from the Start menu.
- Sign out and sign back inIf Teams opens but stays stuck or shows the wrong account, sign out (click your profile picture top-right → Sign out) and sign in again with your work email. This clears a confused session, which is a common cause after a password or MFA reset.
- Check your internet and Microsoft 365 statusOpen a website in your browser to confirm your connection works. If it does but Teams still won't load — especially if colleagues are affected too — it may be a Microsoft-side issue. Check the Microsoft 365 Service health / status page, or ask your IT provider before troubleshooting further.
- Update Teams (and use new Teams)An out-of-date app is a frequent culprit. In Teams, click the ... menu near your profile and choose Check for updates. If you're still on classic Teams, switch on new Teams — Microsoft has retired the classic app, and the new version is faster and better supported.
- Restart your computerA full restart clears half-loaded processes and network glitches that a simple app relaunch can't. It's a two-minute step that resolves a surprising number of "Teams won't open" cases — worth doing before the heavier fixes.
- Clear the Teams cacheIf it's still stuck, delete Teams' local cache so it rebuilds a clean copy. This is safe and doesn't touch your data — see our step-by-step guide on clearing the Teams cache for the exact folder paths for new and classic Teams.
- Reinstall TeamsAs a last resort, uninstall Teams from Settings → Apps → Installed apps, restart the PC, then download and reinstall it from Microsoft. A fresh install fixes damaged program files that the earlier steps can't. Signing back in restores everything from the cloud.
Need Teams working right now? While you troubleshoot, open teams.microsoft.com in Edge or Chrome and sign in — the browser version lets you join meetings and chat without the desktop app, so you're not stranded before a call. If Teams keeps failing to load, or the same fault hits several staff, that's the point to loop in your IT provider.
