Guides / Teams notifications not working on desktop or phone

Part of: Meetings, calls and chat problems

Last reviewed 6 Oct 2026 · By Harry

Teams notifications not working on desktop or phone

Missing Teams banners, no phone alerts, or calls that never ring? Focus modes, Teams settings, mobile timing and Windows notification checks.

"I didn't see your message" is not always an excuse. Teams notifications fail in ways that look random: banners stop on the laptop, the phone stays silent, or incoming calls never ring and land straight in missed calls. Before you assume an outage, separate two questions. Did the message arrive in Teams? And did the device tell the user? If the message is sitting there when they open the chat, delivery works and you are troubleshooting notifications, not Teams itself.

Is it Teams?

Check the Teams status page and Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Microsoft sometimes posts advisories about delayed notifications or presence. If one is open, tell users to keep Teams in view and wait. If status is clear and only some users are affected, carry on. If messages are not arriving at all, use Teams chat messages not delivering instead.

Desktop: user checks

1. Teams presence. Do Not Disturb suppresses banners except from priority contacts. Presenting, or being in a meeting, can do the same. Set presence to Available and test.
2. Teams notification settings. Open Settings → Notifications and activity. Check that chat, mentions and calls are set to show banners, and that the notification style is the one the user expects (Windows-style or Teams built-in).
3. Muted chats and hidden channels. A muted chat never banners. Channel notifications default to activity feed only — the user must turn on channel notifications per channel if they want banners.
4. Windows notifications. Settings → System → Notifications. Notifications must be on, and Microsoft Teams must be allowed. Check that Do not disturb is off and that no Focus session or automatic rule (for example when duplicating my display) is silencing alerts.
5. macOS. System Settings → Notifications → Microsoft Teams: allow notifications, choose Banners or Alerts, and check Focus is not active.
6. Sign out and restart Teams. Fully quit from the system tray, reopen, and send a test message from a colleague.

Phone: user checks

• Mobile timing. Teams mobile can hold notifications while the user is active on the desktop. In the Teams mobile app, look under Notifications for the setting that controls whether alerts are blocked while active on desktop. This is the single most common cause of "phone never buzzes".
• Quiet hours. Teams mobile has its own quiet time and quiet days settings, separate from the phone's Focus or Do Not Disturb.
• OS permissions. iOS: Settings → Notifications → Teams. Android: Settings → Apps → Teams → Notifications. Battery optimisation on Android can kill background apps; exempt Teams.
• Signed in to the right account. Users with a guest account in another tenant often get alerts for the wrong organisation. Check the account switcher.
• Work profile. On Android Enterprise work profiles, paused work apps receive nothing until the profile is turned back on.

Calls that never ring

If calls go straight to missed or voicemail, check call settings in Teams: call forwarding, simultaneous ring, and unanswered call rules. A forwarding rule set during a holiday and never removed explains plenty of these tickets. Also check that the chosen ringer device in Teams device settings is a speaker the user can actually hear, not a disconnected headset.

Admin checks

• Client version. New Teams and classic Teams store settings differently. After migration, some users lose notification preferences. Confirm everyone is on the supported client.
• Intune app protection policies can restrict notification content on mobile ("You have a new message" with no detail). That is policy, not failure.
• VDI. In virtual desktops, notifications depend on the VDI optimisation and the local endpoint. Test on a physical PC to separate them.
• Enterprise Voice settings. For Teams Phone users, check that the voice routing and calling policy are assigned. A user without the right calling policy may not receive inbound PSTN calls.

When to escalate

Escalate to Microsoft when Service health shows a notification or presence advisory, or when many users across devices and networks stop receiving alerts at the same time. Escalate to your mobile device management owner when only managed phones are affected. A single user on Do Not Disturb since last Tuesday is a quick fix, not a ticket to Microsoft.

Related status pages

• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft 365

Related guides

• Teams chat messages not delivering or stuck sending
• Teams stuck on loading or a white screen: what to do
• Microsoft Authenticator not getting notifications: fixes

FAQ

Why am I not getting Teams notifications?

Check presence is not Do Not Disturb, the chat is not muted, Teams notification settings are on, and Windows or macOS allows Teams notifications with Focus turned off.

Why does Teams not notify my phone?

Teams mobile can hold notifications while you are active on the desktop. Also check Teams quiet hours, phone notification permissions, battery optimisation and that the right account is signed in.

Why do Teams calls not ring?

Call forwarding or unanswered-call rules may be sending calls elsewhere, or the ringer is set to a disconnected device. Check Teams call settings and device settings.

Are missing notifications a Teams outage?

Usually not. If messages are in the chat when you open Teams, delivery works. Check the Teams status page only when many users lose notifications at once.