Last updated: 24September, 2026 | Read time: 8 minutes
Getting randomly signed out of Teams. Sometimes during a meeting. Is more than an inconvenience. It usually indicates that something specific is happening with your organization’s security policies, your credentials or a background sync issue. We tested the common patterns to find what actually stops Teams for good.
Quick Answer
Frequent Teams sign‑outs are usually caused by a session or token expiry policy set by your organization’s IT administrator, a corrupted local Teams cache or conflicting credentials from multiple Microsoft accounts on the same device. Clearing the Teams cache. Checking for conflicting accounts resolves this for most personal and small‑business users. For company‑managed accounts the fix often requires an IT administrator to adjust the session policy.
Why Teams Keeps Signing You Out
1. Organization Session Policies (Conditional Access)
Many organizations configure Microsoft 365’s Conditional Access or session timeout policies to force re authentication for security reasons. Sometimes as often as every few hours. If this is the cause it is not a bug all; it is IT policy working as designed and only an administrator can extend it.
2. Corrupted Local Cache
The Teams desktop app stores a cache of your session and credentials. If this cache becomes corrupted. After an unexpected app crash or an interrupted update. Teams can repeatedly fail to maintain your login even though your credentials themselves are correct.
3. Multiple Microsoft Accounts Conflicting
If you are signed into Windows or your browser with a Microsoft account and also using a separate work or school account in Teams the two can occasionally conflict, especially around single sign‑on (SSO) causing Teams to silently drop your session.
4. App Version
Older versions of Teams have shipped with known authentication bugs that Microsoft has since patched. Running a build is a common easily overlooked cause of repeated sign‑outs.
5. Password or MFA Changes Not Fully Propagated
If you or your IT administrator recently changed your password or reset multi‑factor authentication, cached credentials on some of your devices can keep trying to use the session information for a short period triggering repeated sign‑out prompts until everything fully syncs.
Step‑by‑Step Fix
Step 1: Clear the Teams Cache
Fully quit Teams (right‑click the system tray icon → Quit).
On Windows open File Explorer. Go to %app data%\Microsoft\Teams.
Delete the contents of the “Cache,” “blob storage,” and “GPU Cache” folders.
On Mac go to ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams. Clear the same folders.
Reopen. Sign in fresh.
Step 2: Sign Out of Conflicting Accounts
If you use Microsoft accounts on the same device sign out of the ones you are not actively using for Teams, particularly in your browser and Windows account settings to remove any SSO ambiguity.
Step 3: Update Teams to the Latest Version
Click your profile picture → Check for updates. Authentication bugs are patched regularly. An outdated client is one of the easiest causes to rule out.
Step 4: Check With Your IT Administrator About Session Policy
If you are on a work or school account and the sign‑outs happen at a predictable interval (for example exactly every eight hours) this is very likely an intentional Conditional Access session policy. Ask your IT administrator whether the sign‑in frequency setting can be adjusted for your role.
Step 5: Reinstall Teams
If clearing the cache does not resolve it a full uninstall and reinstall clears any corruption in the local app data that a simple cache clear might miss.
Step 6: Check for Device‑Level Sync Issues
On Windows make sure your device is properly Azure AD joined or hybrid joined if your organization requires it. A broken device trust relationship can cause repeated authentication failures that look like sign‑outs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is getting signed out of Teams every hours normal?
For work or school accounts yes. Many organizations intentionally set short session lifespans, for security. If it is happening on an account with no organizational policy involved it is more likely a cache or app issue (Steps 1–3).
Does clearings my cache delete my chat history?
No. Your messages and files are stored in the cloud not on your computer. When you clear the cache you only delete temporary files. Teams then has to download the needed data. This action does not delete anything from your account. I know it can be confusing.
Why does this happen often on a personal laptop than on a work laptop? Work laptops are usually properly joined to the organization’s identity system. This keeps sessions stable. A personal device that uses a username and password is more likely to face session conflicts and cache problems.
About This Guide
They tested it with both organization‑managed Microsoft 365 accounts, on Windows 11 and macOS.
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