Teams FAQs to be deleted
On this page are Frequently Asked Questions about Microsoft Teams
Account & Tenant FAQs
Desktop app
Microsoft Teams are currently implementing a new feature allowing users to more easily switch between separate Teams accounts (such as student, personal and work accounts) on the Teams desktop and mobile apps. Note that this feature is not yet planned for Teams browser.
This feature is listed on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap as “rolling out” and therefore will not be available for all users at the University of Edinburgh yet, however some users may see the option. This FAQ will be updated when this feature is launched.
Mobile app
The Teams mobile app does have a feature which allows you to easily switch between accounts
Note that you may need to manually update the Teams mobile app by:
- Going to your device’s app store and searching “Microsoft Teams”
- If the app needs to be updated, you will see an “Update” button to the right of the “Microsoft Teams” name, click this and wait for the app to update
To add an account, allowing you to switch to this account when you want to:
- Click your profile picture / initials in the upper left of the Teams window
- Click “Add Account” from the list
- Click “Sign in with another account”
- Type the email address of the account you want to add
- You will then be prompted to add your password and sign in
- Teams will automatically open the new account you have added
- You can switch between your accounts by clicking your profile picture / initials and click the account you want under “Accounts and Orgs”.
Breakout Rooms FAQs
Can I use Teams for... FAQs
Yes, while the University recommends that you use Blackboard Collaborate for formal teaching events (lectures, tutorials, seminars) and teaching based content, you can use Teams in conjunction with this, as a way to communicate with your students and to allow students to communicate with each other. However, before using Teams with your students, please read our "How can I keep students safe while using Teams for distance learning" FAQ below.
For further information on this, please have a look at our Teams Use Cases page, under "Using Teams in academic spaces".
You can also have a look at the following information from Microsoft to help you set up and organise Teams for your classes:
Yes - Before conducting the interview, make sure to consider the usual process involved in hosting interviews.
There are a few things that we recommend with interviews in Teams:
- We recommend that you set up separate meetings with each candidate to ensure the interview is private
- We also strongly recommend that you review our "Privacy and your meetings" information on our Meetings guidance page before hosting interviews:
Channels FAQs

Yes, if you are the Team owner you can recover a deleted Channel for up to 30 days after it was deleted.
To do this:
- Locate your Team with the deleted Channel
- Next, click "More options" (icon with 3 dots) beside the Team and a list will appear
- Then, click "Manage Team" and a new page will appear
- Then, select "Channels" from the top bar
- Next, click the "Deleted" drop down and your deleted Channel will show
- Then, click "Restore" beside the Channel and a box will appear asking if you want to restore the Channel, click "Restore"
- The Channel should now appear in your Channels list
Chats
When you add files to a Chat, your file is stored in your OneDrive for Business document library.
To access your Chat files in OneDrive:
- Open OneDrive in your browser
- Then, sign in with your University log in details (UUN@ed.ac.uk and password)
- Open the "Microsoft Teams Chat Files" folder
Note - You can also access your Chat files from within Teams, by clicking the "Files" tab along the top bar of the Chat that you added the file to.
Channels
When you add files to a Channel, your file is stored in the Team SharePoint site.
To access your Channel files in SharePoint:
- Open SharePoint in your browser
- Next, locate the Team you added the file to in SharePoint (the SharePoint site will have the same name as your Team). This may be listed under "Recent"
- Then, from the navigation list on the left of the SharePoint window select "Documents"
- Next, click the Channel that the file was added to
- Your file will appear in the list
Note - You can also access your Channel Files in the "Files" tab along the top bar of the Channel that you added the file to.
For the most up to date information on Teams limits, please see the following from Microsoft:
Feature | Limit |
---|---|
Teams a user can create | 250 |
Teams a user can be a member of | 1000 |
Members in a Team | 25000 |
Owners per Team | 100 |
Channels per Team | 200 (including deleted Channels) |
Private channels per Team | 30 (including deleted Channels) |
Members in a Private Channel | 250 |
Channel conversation post size | Approximately 28 KB per post |
Members of a private chat | 250 |
Participants in a video or audio call from chat | 20 |
Number of file attachments | 10 |
Chat post size | Approximately 28 KB per post |
Number of people in a meeting | 300 (users with an A3 license can organise meetings with 10,000 view-only attendees) |
Maximum PowerPoint size (when sharing a PowerPoint in a meeting) | 2GB |
Meeting recordings stored for (not uploaded to Stream or other service) | 20 days |
It is possible that you are trying to name the Channel with a character or word that Channels cannot be named with:
- Channel names can't contain certain "special" characters, such as: ~ # % & * { } + / \ : < > ? | ' " ..
- Channel names also cannot contain the following words: forms, CON, CONIN$, CONOUT$, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1 to COM9, LPT1 to LPT9, desktop.ini, _vti_
- Channel names cannot start with: an underscore (_) or a period (.)
- Channel names cannot end with: a period (.)
No - the University of Edinburgh does not have any retention policies currently in place for Teams.
The only retention related information that may be important to note, is that meeting recordings which are not automatically uploaded to Stream, are only held on Teams for 20 days before deletion.
Office 365 Groups, Teams and SharePoint are all different things within Microsoft's Office 365 suite.
An Office 365 Group is a group of users in the Azure Directory who share access to a SharePoint site, a Yammer group, Planner and OneNote. When you create a Team, you are also creating an Office 365 Group for that Team, allowing the members of your Team access to everything within the Office 365 group for that Team (shared Planner, SharePoint site, OneNote etc). For further information on Office 365 Groups and how they relate to Teams, please have a look at Microsoft's guidance:
Office 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams
Teams is a collaboration platform, in which you can have conversations with your colleagues, collaborate on documents, have meetings, and share files. It is one platform within the wider group of platforms.
SharePoint is a programme which provides a site for your group to store, organize, share, and access information easily, in one place. Again, SharePoint is a part of the wider Office 365 group. For more information about SharePoint, please have a look at the SharePoint Solutions Service's webpages:
Yes - We have identified some issues which can occasionally arise with Teams, and have troubleshooting steps for these issues. Up to date information on known issues with Teams, including fixes for these issue is available from Microsoft:
Known issues and fixes in Teams
Issue: Microsoft Teams is stuck in a sign-in loop (Edge/Internet Explorer)
The Teams site loops at sign-in meaning you can never sign-in to access Teams. This is caused by the Trusted Sites settings in your browser.
To resolve this you need change your settings in Internet Explorer or Edge. Guidance on how to do this is available here
Issue: Messages in Teams won't load/I cannot see new messages
This issue prevents you from being able to see new Teams messages and only older messages will load. This is a more common issue with the desktop version of Teams.
To resolve this, if you are using the desktop version of Teams try force quitting the app so that it refreshes. You can also try signing out and back in to the desktop app. If neither of these steps work try using the broswer version of Teams instead (Chrome or Edge).
Issue: Microphone or webcam not working during my Teams meetings/calls
There can be a number of reasons why your microphone and/or webcam aren't working during Teams meetings.
To resolve this, first make sure the webcam/microphone buttons on the meeting bar are turned on (if they are off they have a strick through them).
Then, try clicking the more options button (icon of 3 dots) on the meeting bar, then clicking "Show device settings". Make sure that Teams is connecting to the correct microphone and camera.
If the above don't work, you may not have given Teams permission to use your microphone and/or webcam. For desktop Teams - Access the privacy settings on your device, and make sure Teams has permission to use your camera and microphone. For browser Teams - Access the settings/preferences of your browser and find your site settings. Within camera and microphone make sure Teams has permission to use your camera and mic.
If none of these options work, there may hardware issues with your mic or webcam.
Issue: Teams keeps freezing
This issue is likely caused by your network connection.
To resolve this - You may want to try restarting your router, or contacting your provider. However, if your connection is working as expected you may need to refresh Teams. If you are using the Teams desktop app, first try force quitting Teams then try sign out and signing back in. If you are using the browser app try signing out and back in to Teams.
Issue: Colleagues tell me that they can hear an echo of their own voice through my device
This issue is likely caused by you using the internal microphone of your device and not using headphones/earphones while in calls/meetings. For your next meeting/call try using headphones or earphones and ask your colleagues if they can still hear an echo.
Issue: I selected to leave a meeting chat and now want to rejoin but I am unable to
This issue arises when you click the 3 dots beside a meeting chat in your chat space and click Leave. You will still be able to join these meetings and should be able to see the chat but may not be able to add anything to the chat.
To resolve this - The only resolution for this is to decline the recurring meeting invitation, and have the meeting organiser send you the meeting invitation again. Another option if that doesn't work is to ask the meeting organiser to completely delete the meeting series and create a new one. This bug has been reported to Microsoft and any updates will be given.
Resolution 1
Users can only be added to private channels if they are already members of the Team that you are adding the private channel to.
If the users you are trying to add to the private channel are not members of the Team, you should:
- Navigate to the Team you want to add the users to
- Click the More options ellipsis (3 dots) beside the Team name
- Click "Add member"
- Type the names of the users you want to add
- Click "Add"
Now you should be able to add them to your private channel
Resolution 2
If the users are already members of the Team, you can try removing the users from the team and adding them back again. Then trying to add them to the private channel.
Help with how to remove and add users to a Team is available through the links below:
Resolution 3
Alternatively, you can try downloading the Teams mobile app and create the private channel through the mobile app. You should also add the users to the private channel through the Teams mobile app. Help with adding channels to Teams through the Teams mobile app is available through the link below:
Add channels to Teams through the Teams mobile app
Yes, this can be done through Outlook (it is available in both the desktop app and browser versions).
Outlook on desktop
- Click the email message you want to share
- Click the “See more items” ellipsis (for me this is along a bar at the top of the Outlook window, below the search box)
- Click the “share to teams” option and a share to teams box will appear
- Type the Team / Channel name in the “Share to” box (you can only share the email one at a time, so if they wanted to share it with a channel and a individual in a chat, they would have to follow these steps twice).
- Then, type any message you want to add to the “Type a message” box
- Click “Share”
- The email will be shared to Teams
- The email and message will now show in the Team Channel it was shared with. Members of the Team will be able to open it in Teams to make it bigger and download it
Outlook on web
- Click the email message you want to share
- Inside the email message, to the right of the Outlook window there should be a “more actions” ellipsis. Click the “more actions” ellipsis
- Click “Share to teams”
- Type the Team / Channel name in the “Share to” box (you can only share the email one at a time, so if they wanted to share it with a channel and an individual in a chat, they would have to follow these steps twice).
- Then, type any message you want to add to the “Type a message” box
- Click “Share”
- The email will be shared to Teams
- The email and message will now show in the Team Channel it was shared with. Members of the Team will be able to open it in Teams to make it bigger and download it
Chat FAQs
Yes, chat bubbles can be disabled within your meeting by:
- Clicking the More actions (ellipsis icon) on the meeting bar
- Then, by selecting "Don't show chat bubbles"
Yes, this can be done through Outlook (its available in both the desktop app and browser versions).
Outlook on desktop
- Click the email message you want to share
- Click the “See more items” ellipsis (for me this is along a bar at the top of the Outlook window, below the search box)
- Click the “share to teams” option and a share to teams box will appear
- Type the name of the individual in your chat or the name of your group chat in the “Share to” box (you can only share the email one at a time, so if they wanted to share it with a channel and a individual in a chat, they would have to follow these steps twice).
- Then, type any message you want to add to the “Type a message” box
- Click “Share”
- The email will be shared to Teams
- The person / people this was shared with can then see the email, open it in Teams to make it bigger and download it
Outlook on web
- Click the email message you want to share
- Inside the email message, to the right of the Outlook window there should be a “more actions” ellipsis. Click the “more actions” ellipsis
- Click “Share to teams”
- Type the name of the individual in your chat or the name of your group chat in the “Share to” box (you can only share the email one at a time, so if they wanted to share it with a channel and an individual in a chat, they would have to follow these steps twice).
- Then, type any message you want to add to the “Type a message” box
- Click “Share”
- The email will be shared to Teams
- The person / people this was shared with can then see the email, open it in Teams to make it bigger and download it
Connection FAQs
First, check that your internet connection is working as expected.
If your internet connection is working as expected, check if you are able to connect to Teams on a different device. If you can connect to Teams on the other device, then there is likely something in the settings of your device or browser blocking your access (for example, Parental Controls or Firewall). Check your device's settings.
If you cannot connect to Teams on any device, check your router configuration. Are you using Parental Controls or a Proxy on your router? - If you are then this may be blocking your access to Teams, try turning off your Parental Controls or Proxy.
Desktop App FAQs
Yes, this happens if the version of your Teams desktop app is older than 3 months. Microsoft have introduced this feature to ensure users have the most up to date versions of the desktop app for security reasons.
If you are taken to this redirect page, click the "Update Teams" button and wait for the app to update.
If you see a banner notification to update the Teams desktop app you should update the app, as this means your version of the app is 3 months older than the latest version.
To do update the app you can either:
- Click the link in the banner notification OR
- If the banner notification has disappeared:
- Click the "settings and more" button (icon of 3 dots) to the left of your profile picture / initials in the upper right of the Teams window
- Then, click "Check for updates"
- Then, click the "Refresh" link when this appears as a banner along the top of the Teams window
Guest User FAQs
Can I invite guests (without a University of Edinburgh account) to my Team?
Yes - Guests can be invited to join Teams but there are data loss prevention policies in force which might prevent you from sharing information containing terms which are subject to University terms of disclosure, GDPR or for general communications compliance. Please, familiarise yourself with the University of Edinburgh's policies before adding someone as a guest:
List of Data Protection Champions
How to add a guest to your Team:
Note- you must be the Team owner to add a guest user
- Access the Team you want to add the guest to
- Next, click "More options" (3 dots icon beside the Team name) and a list will appear
- Then, click "Add member" from the list
- Next, type the person you want to add as a guest's email address into the "Start typing a name of group" box
- Then, click the option to "Add ... as a guest" that should appear below the email address
- Next, add your guest's name by clicking the "Edit guest information" icon (pen icon)
- Then, click "Add"
- You should then inform your guest that they will receive an email invite from Microsoft Teams to become a guest on our tenant. They will have to follow the prompts in that email, and accept to become a guest before they can access the Team.
You may also need to inform your guest that they may need to manually change to our tenant in order to access your Team / Chats. There are different ways they may have to do this, either:
- They will see an organisation name beside their profile picture / initials, they should click this and change it to "University of Edinburgh (guest)" OR
- They should click their profile picture / initials in the upper right of the Teams window, then select "Accounts and orgs" from the list and select "University of Edinburgh (guest)"
Note - You cannot invite guests using a "Join code". Anyone without a University of Edinburgh account has to be added following the steps above.
Guest Capabilities
Guests have slightly different access capabilities than members of the University.
Guest Users Can | Guest Users Cannot |
---|---|
Make private calls | Edit or delete their own messages |
Use their camera in meetings | Use gifs, memes or stickers in their messages |
Share their screen in meetings | Start or stop recording meetings or webinars |
Start "Meet now" meetings | Share files in private chats |
Have private chats | Add apps |
Post in Channels | Create, edit or delete Teams |
Join meetings / webinars | Join public Teams |
Produce or present in Live Events | Access a Teams calendar |
Share files in Channels | Add guests to Teams |
Edit Team / Channel permissions | |
Add or remove Team members |
Guests and Teams meetings
You can also invite guests to join meetings, without having to add them to one of your Teams. Guidance on how to do this can be found here:
Yes - If another organisation has requested that you become a guest user on one of their Teams, you can do this. The other organisation should add you to their Team. You will then receive an email asking you to join as a guest to their Teams, you should follow the prompts in this email to accept this.
Then, make sure to switch your organisation from the University of Edinburgh to the other organisation when prompted. You can do this by clicking your profile picture / initials, selecting "Accounts and orgs" and changing the selected account to "Other organisation name (guest)".
This is likely because the user has not switched to the University of Edinburgh tenant in Microsoft Teams.
You can inform the external user to either:
- Open the Teams desktop app, click their profile picture / initials in the upper right of the Teams desktop window, select "Accounts and orgs" and change the selected account to "University of Edinburgh (guest)" OR
- Click their organisation name to the left of their profile picture / initials and select "University of Edinburgh (guest)"
If the user does not see the organisation name / cannot change it to University of Edinburgh (guest):
- Make sure you have added the correct account as a guest to your team and that you have not made any errors in the email address you added
- Ask the user if they have followed the prompts in the invitation email sent to them from Microsoft Teams and have accepted to join our tenant
- Ask if they are signed in to the Teams desktop app with the account you added as a guest user to your Team
- If they are signed in using the correct account, ask them to:
- Click "settings and more" (icon of 3 dots) beside their profile picture / initials in the upper right of the Teams window
- Click "Check for updates" from the list
- Wait until a banner shows along the top bar of the Teams window, asking the using to "refresh teams"
- Click the "Refresh Teams" link
- Teams will restart
- Have them check if they now see the organisation name beside their profile picture
Meetings FAQs
By default everyone can present in Teams meetings, with all participants (except the organiser who can access meeting options) having the same roles. This can be changed, however.
There are 3 roles in Teams meetings, an organiser, presenters and attendees.
The following table explains the key capabilities of the 3 roles in Teams meetings, as you can see attendees have less permissions than the organiser and presenters:
Capability | Organiser | Presenter | Attendee |
---|---|---|---|
Access and change meeting options | ✓ | ||
Speak and share video | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Participate in meeting chat | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Share content (screen, a PowerPoint, etc) | ✓ | ✓ | |
Request control of someone else's PowerPoint presentation | ✓ | ✓ | |
Mute participants | ✓ | ✓ | |
Remove participants | ✓ | ✓ | |
Admit people from the lobby | ✓ | ✓ | |
Change participant roles during the meeting | ✓ | ✓ | |
Start and stop meeting recording | ✓ | ✓ |
By default the participants you invited to your meeting will be added as presenters.
We recommend that you change your participants from presenters to attendees for privacy and security reasons, unless all participants need to have presenter capabilities.
You can do this either before the meeting or during the meeting, however we recommend that you do this before your meeting as it is easier.
To change participants to attendees, follow these steps:
- Schedule your meeting and send the invite to your participants (for help with this see this page)
- Then, click the "Calendar" icon in Teams (on the left navigation bar)
- Then, find your meeting and click it
- Next, click "Meeting options" (beside the time zone option)
- Then, a new window will be opened in your broswer with meeting options
- Next, click the drop down beside "Who can present?" and select either Specific people (if you want others to have the same permissions as you) or Only me
- Then, if you selected "Specific people", enter the names of your presenters beside "Select presenters for meeting"
- Finally, click "Save. You can now close this browser window, and all meeting participants will be added to your meeting as attendees (unless you added them as presenters).

You can also change participants roles during your meeting if you need to (this can be useful if you have changed all participants to attendees beforehand and need to allow someone to present). However, we recommend you try to do this before the meeting wherever possible, as to change participants to attendees during the meeting you have to manually go through each participant and change their role.
Further information on changing participants roles during a meeting, as well as further information on meeting roles is available from Microsoft:
Yes - You can stop all meeting participants, except yourself, from being able to record your meeting, or you can specify certain participants who can turn on meeting recording while preventing everyone else from doing so. To do this you have to change your meeting participants to attendees from the default presenter.
We recommend that you change your participants to attendees for privacy reasons. To do this:
- Schedule your meeting and send the invite to your participants (for help with this see this page)
- Then, click the "Calendar" icon in Teams (on the left navigation bar)
- Then, find your meeting and click it
- Next, click "Meeting options" (beside the time zone option)
- Then, a new window will be opened in your broswer with meeting options
- Next, click the drop down beside "Who can present?" and select either Specific people (if you want others to have the same permissions as you) or Only me
- Then, if you selected "Specific people", enter the names of your presenters beside "Select presenters for meeting"
- Finally, click "Save. You can now close this browser window, and all meeting participants will be added to your meeting as attendees (unless you added them as presenters).

You can also change participants roles during your meeting if you need to. However, we recommend you try to do this before the meeting wherever possible, as to change participants to attendees during the meeting you have to manually go through each participant and change their role.
Further information on changing participants roles during a meeting, as well as further information on meeting roles is available from Microsoft:
There is no option in Teams which allows you to easily add all members of a Team, however there are some workarounds which may help you.
Workaround 1
You can add the meeting to a Channel by scheduling your meeting in Teams. To do this:
- Click the "Calendar" icon in Teams
- Then, click "New meeting" in the top right of the Teams window
- Next, add your meeting details. Do not add any attendees and select the Team and Channel you want to have your meeting in from the "Add Channel" box.
- Finally, click Send
Note - Doing this will not add the meeting into the Team members calendars.
Workaround 2
Another option, if this is a Team / group of people you work with frequently, is to contact IS Helpline, and ask for a dynamic distribution group email to be set up for all members of that Team. Once that is set up, schedule your Teams meetings in Outlook and add the distribution group email address to the invitees box.
Yes, you can change who has to wait in the lobby in your meetings. By default everyone with a University of Edinburgh email address can bypass the lobby in your meetings and guests (anyone without a University of Edinburgh email address) will wait in the lobby. We recommend that you always have guests wait in the lobby. However, you can change the setting so that everyone, except you, has to wait in the lobby before the meeting until you admit them.
To do this follow the steps included in the link below:
Yes you can playback recordings for meetings you attended, by default the owner of the recordings can only download and delete the recording.
Note: For now, guests and external people who attend the meeting can't view the recording.
The original owner of the video can name additional owners and share the video more widely if required.
Cause
This error relates to the clock changing from GMT to BST, or back from BST to GMT.
Resolution
Broswer
- Sign out of Teams on your browser by clicking your profile picture / initials and selecting "Sign out".
- Then, clear your broswer cache:
- Finally, sign back into Teams on the browser
Alternatively, if the above does not resolve your issue, you could try scheduling the meeting through the Teams desktop app.
Desktop
Resolution 1
Uninstall, then reinstall the Teams desktop app
Resolution 2
- Sign out of the Teams desktop app and quit the app
- Open the date and time preferences on your computer
- Change your timezone to another timezone, and save that change
- Open the Teams desktop app and sign back in
- Again, sign out of the Teams desktop app and quit the app
- Switch your timezone back to the correct timezone
- Again, open the Teams desktop app and sign back in
Yes, if you are a meeting organiser you are able to prevent attendees from unmuting their mics or using their camera through the meeting options.
First, you must set the meeting participants to attendees as this is not on by default. To do this:
- Schedule your meeting as normal
- Click the "Calendar" icon in Teams
- Then, find your meeting and click it
- Next, click "Meeting options" (beside the time zone option)
- Then, a new window will be opened in your broswer with meeting options
- Next, click the drop down beside "Who can present?" and select either Specific people (if you want others to have the same permissions as you) or Only me
- Then, if you selected "Specific people", enter the names of your presenters beside "Select presenters for meeting"
- Keep the meeting options page open
Then, to prevent attendees from unmuting, click the toggle beside "Allow mic for attendees" to change this to "No"
To prevent attendees from using their cameras, click the toggle beside "Allow camera for attendees" to change this to "No"
Finally, click "Save"
You will be able to allow attendees to unmute their mics and use their cameras during the meeting. Go into the participants list, find the attendee you want to allow to speak or use video, click the ellipsis beside their name and select "Allow mic" or "allow camera". The attendee must then still turn these on themselves for privacy reasons.
You may also wish to try out Teams Webinar if you need this feature. Teams Webinar requires that attendees register for the event, and are automatically set as attendees with disabled cameras and mics.
Unfortunately Microsoft have not yet added the ability to schedule meetings in private channels to Teams.
Yes, both meeting organisers and presenters can lower all hands in a Teams meeting. This may be useful if you know you have answered all questions and the attendees have not lowered their hands.
To do this:
- Click "Show participants" from the meeting bar
- Then, click "More actions" (ellipsis icon) to the right of the "Participants" heading
- Then, click "Lower all hands"
Cause
Note - the following only applies to non-channel meetings.
The reason the user cannot access the meeting chat after the meeting has ended is because of the way they were added to the meeting.
For users to be able to access the meeting chat after the meeting ends, you must invite them to the meeting (add their name / email to the invitees box) or forward them the meeting invite. If the user is added via the participant's pane during the meeting or is just sent a meeting link, they will not have access to the meeting chat after the meeting.
Resolution
If you are the organiser of the meeting, you can give the user access to the chat after the meeting has ended. To do this:
- Open the meeting chat in your recent chat list
- Click "View and add participants" (icon of two people and a plus icon) in the upper right of the teams window
- Then, click "add people"
- Then, in the add box, type the name or email of the user who needs access.
- Then, select "Include all chat history" and click "Add"
- Finally, type a new message into the chat so that the user will see that chat
Yes, you can set your Teams meeting up in this way.
We advise, to do this, you first set up the meeting options to set specific people as presenters and everyone else as attendees. Then, when the meeting starts you can spotlight up to 7 presenters to keep them on screen at the same time for your attendees.
To do this:
- Schedule your meeting in the way you normally would
- Then, open the Teams calendar and double-click your meeting
- Then, click "Meeting options". This should be beside the timezone information, or it may be listed under an ellipsis icon beside the timezone information or "Category".
- In meeting options change "Who can present" to "Specific people" and add the names of your presenters.
- Then, click "Save"
To spotlight the users during your meeting:
- Join your meeting and wait until the point in your meeting that you want to have the panel of presenters appear
- Then, click the participants button in the meeting bar
- Then, find your presenters and hover over their names
- Then, click the "More options" ellipsis that shows to the right of their name
- Click "Spotlight"
- You can do this for up to 7 presenters
Mobile app FAQs
Yes, from May 2021, if you have the Teams Android App you can access your files through the app while offline.
To access your files while offline:
- Update the Teams app for Android through your device's app store
- Open the Teams app
- Click "More"
- Click "Files"
- Open the file you need
This feature is not currently available for Teams on iOS. This FAQ will be updated if and when, the feature becomes available for iOS.
Notifications / Status Message FAQs
Yes, you can choose to use Windows native notifications.
To do this:
- Open the Teams desktop client
- Then, click "Settings and more" (ellipsis icon) to the left of your profile picture
- Then, click "Settings"
- Then, click "Notifications" from the list of settings
- Then, under "Appearance and sound" click the drop-down beside "Notification style"
- Select "Windows" to change the style to Windows native notification style
Yes, you can choose your preferred means of Teams notifications delivery, either via the Teams built-in notification system or via Mac.
You must make sure that you update your Teams desktop app to use this feature. You can do this by clicking "settings and more" to the left of your profile picture / initials and seleting "check for updates".
Minimum requirement Mac OS - 10.15
You can change to Mac native notifications. To do this:
- Open the Teams desktop client
- Then, click "Settings and more" (ellipsis icon) to the left of your profile picture
- Then, click "Settings"
- Then, click "Notifications" from the list of settings
- Then, under "Appearance and sound" click the drop-down beside "Notification style"
- Select "Mac" to change the style to Windows native notification style
This feature is rolling out now at the University of Edinburgh.
If you do not see the feature yet, update your Teams app by clicking "Settings and more" (icon of 3 dots) to the left of your profile picture / initials and selecting "check for updates". A banner will appear telling you Teams is checking for updates. In a short time a new banner should appear which allows you to click "refresh teams" to update. If you still do not see the feature, it has likely not rolled out to you yet and will soon.
To set your out of office, click your profile picture / initials, then click "set status message". Then, click "Schedule out of office". A window should appear, and you can set your out of office.
Certain notification settings not taking effect when a user sets teams and channels notifications to "all activity" is a known issue in Teams.
Microsoft have stated that they are working to resolve this issue.
Until Microsoft resolve this issue, you will have to configure your notification settings in each of your channels to see notifications for all activity.
Sound / Video FAQs
Windows
Yes, real time noise suppression is currently available for Windows devices. Noise suppression will help to lower any background noise during your Teams meetings / audio calls.
Mac
This feature is currently rolling out for Mac users. Some users will be able to use the feature now, but some may not see it yet.
If you do not have the feature try updating your Teams desktop app by clicking the "Settings and more" button beside your profile picture and selecting "Check for updates" (alternatively you may have to click your profile picture / initials and select "check for updates").
How to turn on noise suppression
- Select the "Settings and more" button beside your profile picture, in the top right of Teams and then select "Settings".
- Select Devices on the left and then, under Noise suppression, select an option.
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The options are:
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Auto (default) - The Teams app decides on the best level of noise suppression based on local noise
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High - Suppresses all background sound that isn't speech. This option may be useful if, for example, you have a window open and there is a lot of noise outside. There are some prerequisites to using this option:
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The High option is not available where the meeting is being recorded or live captions is on
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High requires that your computer's processor must support Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (AVX2).
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The high option is currently not available for Mac devices using an M1 ARM processor.
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Low - Suppresses low levels of persistent background noise
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Off - Noise suppression is disabled
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Windows
Yes, you can do this.
- To share sound from your computer, select Share content in your meeting controls and then click the include computer sound toggle to the top left of the share window
- When you share, all audio from your computer, including notifications, will be included in the meeting.
Mac
Note - this feature requires a one-time installation of an audio driver.
To do this:
- Select Share content in your meeting controls and then click the include computer sound toggle to the top left of the share window
- You will then be prompted to install the audio driver
- Once installed, you can freely toggle to "include computer sound"
- When you share, all audio from your computer, including notifications, will be included in the meeting.
Mobile app
The ability to include device sound while sharing your screen on the teams mobile app is now available.
You may need to manually update the Teams mobile app to see it. To do this, open your device's app store, search for "Microsoft Teams" and click "Update", if this shows up beside the Microsoft Teams entry.
To use the feature:
- While in your meeting, click the ellipsis button on the meeting bar (beside the sound button)
- Then, select "Share" from the list
- Then, when you select "Share screen" there should be an option to include device sound
Previously, outgoing video was not available in the Safari browser, and users could not use their cameras in meetings or video calls.
Safari users can now use their camera during meetings, enabling other meeting participants to see their video.
Note - this is only available on Safari 14 or higher.
Teams FAQs
Yes, you can do this. Get in contact with your local computing officer as they will be able to create an AD security group to allow this.
Transcription / Captions FAQs
Currently, the live transcription feature is not available on our Teams tenant. This is because live transcription is not yet available for Teams Education tenants. However, Microsoft have announced that they will be making this feature available to us.
The following features are expected to be rolled out by Microsoft in August 2021:
- Live transcription to be available across all Office and Microsoft 365 license types, including academic A1/A3/A5.
- Live transcription to be available across all meeting types: private, channel, and ad-hoc meetings (currently available to just private meetings).
- Live transcription to always be generated when a user starts recording a meeting on desktop client (currently Live Transcription needs to be started separately from the recording).
Microsoft may delay the roll out of one or all of these features, and this FAQ will be updated if this happens.
Transcription after the meeting
You can get a meeting transcript of a recorded Teams meeting after the meeting has taken place. Only the recorded parts of the meeting will be transcribed.
Note, how you get this transcription will differ depending on your Microsoft license. To check your license, click "Subscriptions" in your Office 365 Profile: My account.
Users with A3 licenses
Your Teams meeting recording will be automatically saved to Stream after your recording is stopped in Teams.
To get your transcript,
- Log into Microsoft Stream and access My videos
- Then, scroll to find the recording you need the transcript for and click "Update video details" (icon of a pen) to the right of the video
- Then, under the "options" heading, beside "Captions", click "Download file"
- Your transcript will be downloaded to your computer and can be edited
Users with A1 licenses
Your Teams meeting recording will be uploaded to Teams itself. This recording will be available to download for 21 days.
To get your transcript,
- First download the recording from Teams within these 21 days
- Then, log into Microsoft Stream
- Click the "Create" tab and select "upload video"
- Either drag the video file into the box or click "browse" and select the video file
- Add your video details (name, description, change permissions
- Click "publish"
- Go to "My content" and select videos
- The uploaded recording should be the first video in the list
- Click "Update video details" (icon of a pen) to the right of the video
- Then, under the "options" heading, beside "Captions", click "Download file"
- Your transcript will be downloaded to your computer and can be edited
Yes, transcriptions are available after your Teams meeting if the meeting has been recorded. Only the recorded parts of the meeting will be transcribed.
Note, how you get this transcription will differ depending on your Microsoft license. To check your license, click "Subscriptions" in your Office 365 Profile: My account.
Users with A3 licenses
Your Teams meeting recording will be automatically saved to Stream after your recording is stopped in Teams.
To get your transcript,
- Log into Microsoft Stream and access My videos
- Then, scroll to find the recording you need the transcript for and click "Update video details" (icon of a pen) to the right of the video
- Then, under the "options" heading, beside "Captions", click "Download file"
- Your transcript will be downloaded to your computer and can be edited
Users with A1 licenses
Your Teams meeting recording will be uploaded to Teams itself. This recording will be available to download for 21 days.
To get your transcript,
- First download the recording from Teams within these 21 days
- Then, log into Microsoft Stream
- Click the "Create" tab and select "upload video"
- Either drag the video file into the box or click "browse" and select the video file
- Add your video details (name, description, change permissions
- Click "publish"
- Go to "My content" and select videos
- The uploaded recording should be the first video in the list
- Click "Update video details" (icon of a pen) to the right of the video
- Then, under the "options" heading, beside "Captions", click "Download file"
- Your transcript will be downloaded to your computer and can be edited
Yes, live English (US) captions are available in Teams meetings.
To turn these on click the "More options" ellipsis in the meeting and select "Turn on live captions"
Upcoming features FAQs
Yes - Microsoft frequently add new features and functionality to Teams. If you are interested in keeping up with these updates or you want to find out what is coming in the future, we have a list of features coming soon to Teams under "Teams Notice Board" on our Teams Landing page:
You can also find further information (and suggest features you want to see) from Microsoft:
Suggest new Teams features and see what features are currently planned or in testing
Microsoft regularly trials new features that will not be available to all users on Teams. These features are unsupported by Information Services, though if you would like to try them you can enable these yourself by using the instructions below.
- Make sure you are using the Teams Desktop client.
- Click your profile picture and highlight About > Ensure that the "Developer Preview" is ticked.
- Access your settings from the list under your profile picture, and in General under "Application" ensure "Turn on new meeting experience" is checked.
- If it's not checked, check it and restart the Teams desktop app.
If you find that these produce instabilities within your client, please follow the instructions below to disable them.
- Make sure you are using the Teams Desktop client.
- Click your profile picture and highlight About > Ensure that the "Developer Preview" is unticked.
- Restart your Teams Client.