Microsoft Teams is a resource-heavy application that continuously caches files, images, icons, and chat histories locally on your machine to improve loading times. Over time, this cache can become corrupted or excessively large, leading to a variety of frustrating issues such as messages failing to sync, missing profile pictures, stuck loading screens, or general application sluggishness.
When you encounter unexplained bugs in Teams, the fastest and most effective troubleshooting step is to completely clear the local cache. Reinstalling the application often doesn’t remove the cache, so manual deletion is required.
How to Clear Teams Cache in Windows 11 and Windows 10
Before you can clear the cache, you must ensure that Microsoft Teams is completely closed. If the application is running in the background, Windows will prevent you from deleting the cache files because they are currently “in use”.
- Fully quit Microsoft Teams: Right-click the Teams icon in the system tray (the bottom right corner of your taskbar, near the clock) and select Quit.
- Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialogue box.
- In the Run dialogue, type the following exact path and press Enter:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Teams
- A File Explorer window will open, displaying the internal Teams application data.
- Press Ctrl + A to select every single folder and file within this directory.
- Press the Delete key to permanently remove all selected items. (Alternatively, right-click and select the trash can icon in Windows 11).
- Empty your Windows Recycle Bin just to be thorough.
- Relaunch Microsoft Teams from your Start menu.
Note: When you open Teams after clearing the cache, it will take significantly longer to load than usual. This is normal, as Teams must redownload fresh data from Microsoft’s servers. You will also need to sign back into your account.
How to Clear Teams Cache in macOS
The process on a Mac is similar, but the cache is stored in a hidden Library folder within your user directory.
- Fully quit Microsoft Teams: Right-click the Teams icon in your Dock and select Quit, or press Command + Q while Teams is active.
- Open the Finder application.
- In the Apple menu bar at the top of the screen, click Go, then select Go to Folder… (or press Shift + Command + G).
- Paste the following path exactly into the text box and hit Return:
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams
- Select all files and folders inside this directory (Command + A).
- Drag them to the Trash, or press Command + Delete.
- Empty the Trash to free up the disk space.
- Relaunch Microsoft Teams.
Clearing the cache does not delete your chat history, files, or team memberships, as all of this data is securely hosted in the Microsoft 365 cloud. It merely forces the local application to retrieve a fresh, uncorrupted copy of that data.