Microsoft Teams Update Problems: Stuck, Failed or Won’t Update

Microsoft Teams is designed to update automatically in the background, so most users never need to think about it. When that process breaks down — Teams gets stuck on an update screen, shows an error like “We couldn’t update Teams”, or simply runs an outdated version indefinitely — it can cause subtle problems that are hard to trace back to the update failure. This guide covers the most reliable fixes for Teams update problems on Windows and Mac, for both the classic and new Teams clients.

Understand How Teams Updates Work

Classic Teams and new Teams handle updates differently, which matters when troubleshooting.

Classic Teams downloads updates automatically when the app is running and applies them when you restart Teams. You can manually trigger a check via your profile picture > Check for updates. Classic Teams installs updates into %localappdata%MicrosoftTeams on Windows.

New Teams is distributed as an MSIX package via the Microsoft Store or a direct Teams installer. Updates come through the Microsoft Store or via an automatic background updater. You can check for updates in the Microsoft Store directly.

Restart Teams and Wait

If Teams shows an “updating” message that appears stuck, the update may simply be in progress. Fully quit Teams via the system tray (right-click the Teams icon and choose Quit), wait two minutes, then relaunch. Teams will often complete the update on the next launch.

Run Teams as Administrator

Permission issues are a common cause of update failures on Windows, particularly on managed devices where the logged-in user does not have full write access to the Teams installation directory. Right-click the Teams shortcut and choose Run as administrator, then check for updates again via your profile picture menu.

Manually Check for Updates

Classic Teams

1. Click your profile picture in the top right.
2. Select Check for updates.
3. Teams will display a banner at the top saying it is checking or that an update is available.
4. If prompted, click Refresh now to apply the update.

New Teams

1. Open the Microsoft Store.
2. Click Library (bottom left) and then Get updates.
3. If a Teams update is available, it will appear in the list. Click Update.

Clear the Teams Update Cache

Classic Teams stores its update files in %localappdata%MicrosoftTeams. A partially downloaded update can prevent future updates from applying correctly. To fix this:

1. Fully quit Teams via the system tray.
2. Open File Explorer and navigate to %localappdata%MicrosoftTeams.
3. Look for folders named previous and stage — these contain old and pending update files.
4. Delete the contents of the stage folder (leave the previous folder intact as a fallback).
5. Relaunch Teams and attempt the update again.

For broader cache issues that may also be affecting Teams’ performance, see the guide on how to clear the Microsoft Teams cache.

Check Available Disk Space

Teams updates can fail silently if there is insufficient free disk space on the system drive. Check that you have at least 1 GB free on the drive where Teams is installed. On Windows, open This PC in File Explorer and look at the available space on your C: drive. Clear temporary files via Settings > System > Storage > Temporary files if needed.

Check Antivirus and Group Policy Settings

Enterprise antivirus products and Group Policy can block Teams from writing to its update directory or downloading update packages. If you are on a managed device and the update consistently fails, check with your IT team whether:

• Teams is excluded from real-time antivirus scanning in the %localappdata%MicrosoftTeams directory.
• Group Policy is restricting application updates.
• The device has internet access to teams.microsoft.com and the required Microsoft CDN endpoints.

Perform a Clean Reinstall

If Teams is persistently stuck on an old version or keeps showing an update error, a clean reinstall is the most reliable solution.

Classic Teams (Windows)

1. Go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps and uninstall Microsoft Teams.
2. Also uninstall Teams Machine-Wide Installer if it appears in the list, as this will otherwise reinstall the old version.
3. Delete the residual folders: %appdata%MicrosoftTeams and %localappdata%MicrosoftTeams.
4. Download the latest installer from the Microsoft Teams download page and run it.

New Teams (Windows)

1. Go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps and uninstall Microsoft Teams.
2. Open the Microsoft Store and reinstall Teams from there, or download from the Teams download page.

Mac

1. Quit Teams.
2. Drag Teams from the Applications folder to the Bin.
3. Remove residual data from ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams and ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams.
4. Reinstall from the Mac App Store or the Microsoft Teams download page.

Related Issues

Outdated Teams versions are a common underlying cause of a range of other problems. It is worth checking whether other issues you experienced are now resolved after updating. Common update-related issues include Microsoft Teams notifications not working and Microsoft Teams running slow or not loading. For microphone problems that may have appeared after a recent update, see Microsoft Teams microphone not working.

For a full index of every Teams guide and troubleshooting fix on Serverman, see the Microsoft Teams complete guide and troubleshooting hub.