How to Set Out of Office in Microsoft Teams

Setting Out of Office in Microsoft Teams updates your status, displays a message on your profile, and can trigger automatic replies to anyone who messages you — letting colleagues know you are unavailable without needing to manually respond to every message. Whether you are heading on holiday, attending an offsite, or simply away from your desk for a few days, Teams makes it straightforward to keep people informed.

How to Set Out of Office from Teams

The quickest way to set your Out of Office status is directly within the Teams desktop or web app:

1. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner of Teams.
2. Select Set status message.
3. Type your Out of Office message in the text box — for example, “I am out of the office until Monday 12 May and will respond to messages on my return.”
4. Tick the checkbox labelled Show when people message me so the message appears automatically when someone opens a chat with you.
5. Set a clear after expiry date if you want the message to disappear automatically.
6. Click Done.

[Screenshot: Teams profile menu open with Set status message option highlighted]

This sets your status message but does not enable automatic email replies on its own. For full Out of Office functionality including automatic replies, use the method below.

Setting a Full Out of Office with Automatic Replies

Teams integrates with Outlook, so you can configure automatic replies directly from within the Teams interface:

1. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner.
2. Select Set status message.
3. Click Schedule out of office — this opens the Outlook automatic replies panel inside Teams.
4. Toggle Automatic replies on.
5. Set your start and end date and time.
6. Write your reply message for people inside your organisation.
7. If you want external senders to receive a reply too, tick Send replies outside my organisation and write a separate message.
8. Click Save.

[Screenshot: Schedule out of office panel showing date pickers and internal/external message fields]

Once saved, Teams will display the Out of Office banner on your profile, and Outlook will automatically reply to incoming emails for the duration you specified.

Out of Office via Outlook (Alternative Route)

If you find it easier to configure from Outlook directly, the result is exactly the same — the two applications stay in sync:

1. Open Outlook (desktop or web).
2. Go to File > Automatic Replies. In Outlook on the web, click the Settings cog > View all Outlook settings > Automatic replies.
3. Select Send automatic replies.
4. Set your date range and compose your message for internal and external recipients.
5. Click OK or Save.

Once enabled in Outlook, your Teams profile will automatically show the Out of Office indicator — there is no need to set it separately in both applications.

What Colleagues See

When your Out of Office is active, anyone who interacts with you in Teams will see several indicators:

• A yellow dot appears on your profile picture instead of the usual green or red status indicator.
• An Out of Office banner is displayed at the top of the chat window when someone opens a conversation with you.
• Your status message is visible on your profile card when someone hovers over your name.
• Anyone who emails you will receive your automatic reply, provided you configured it via Outlook or the Schedule out of office panel.

[Screenshot: Teams chat window showing Out of Office banner beneath the recipient’s name]

Scheduling Out of Office in Advance

You do not need to wait until the morning you leave to enable Out of Office. Teams and Outlook both support scheduling it to start and end automatically at specific times — useful if you want to set everything up before going on holiday and not think about it again.

When using the Schedule out of office option in Teams, simply set a future start date. The automatic reply and status will activate at that time without any further action on your part, and will deactivate when the end date and time is reached.

Removing Out of Office Early

If you return earlier than planned or need to turn it off manually:

• Click your profile picture > Set status message > clear the text and untick the expiry option > Done.
• Or go to profile picture > Set status message > Schedule out of office and toggle automatic replies off.
• You can also turn it off in Outlook via File > Automatic Replies > Do not send automatic replies.

Turning it off in either application will remove the Out of Office indicator from your Teams profile.

Out of Office on Mobile

Both Teams and Outlook mobile apps support Out of Office configuration if you are setting it from your phone or tablet:

• Teams mobile: Tap your profile picture (top left on iOS, top right on Android) > Set status message > the same options are available as on desktop.
• Outlook mobile: Tap the Settings cog > select your email account > Automatic Replies > toggle on and configure your message and dates.

Common Issues

Teams shows Out of Office but automatic email replies are not sending. The status message in Teams and the Outlook automatic reply are separate settings. If you only set a status message in Teams without using the Schedule out of office option, email replies will not be sent. Go back and enable automatic replies via the Schedule out of office panel or directly in Outlook.

Status is not updating after setting Out of Office. This occasionally happens due to a Teams cache issue. Try signing out and back in, or clear the Teams cache by closing the app, navigating to %appdata%MicrosoftTeams on Windows, deleting the cache folder contents, and restarting.

Out of Office message is still showing after returning. If you did not set an end date, Teams will not remove the message automatically. Go to profile picture > Set status message, clear the message field, and save. Also check that Outlook automatic replies have been turned off, as the two will continue to display the OOO indicator if either remains active.

Schedule out of office option is not visible. This feature requires a Microsoft 365 account with an Exchange Online mailbox — it is available on Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium plans. If your organisation uses a third-party email provider rather than Exchange Online, the deep integration between Teams and Outlook may not be available, and you will need to configure automatic replies in your email platform separately.

Related articles: Microsoft Teams Chat vs Channels: What’s the Difference?, How to Use @Mentions in Microsoft Teams, How to Pin a Message in Microsoft Teams, How to Search in Microsoft Teams

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