Clearing the Teams cache is the duct tape of Teams support. A client stuck on the loading screen, a sign-in prompt that loops, chats that won’t update, an old profile picture that refuses to die — most of these clear up the moment you wipe the local cache and let Teams rebuild it.
The catch on Windows is that there are now two clients with two completely different cache locations. New Teams is a packaged app that stores its data under the Windows Packages folder. Classic Teams used the old %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams path. Delete the wrong folder and you’ve accomplished nothing, so the first job is knowing which client you’re running.
This guide covers both, the exact paths, how to quit the right process so the files aren’t locked, and what to check when a cache clear doesn’t fix it.
What the cache actually holds
The Teams cache is local, temporary data: UI state, cached messages and images, settings, GPU/render data, and stored authentication tokens. It exists so Teams starts quickly and shows you something while it reconnects.
That’s also why clearing it is safe. Your real data — conversations, channel files, calendar, recordings — lives in Exchange Online, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Wiping the cache forces Teams to pull fresh copies and re-authenticate. The trade-off is a slower first launch and signing back in, nothing more.
Step 1: quit Teams completely
The cache files are locked while Teams runs. Closing the window isn’t enough — Teams keeps running in the system tray. You need the process gone.
- Right-click the Teams icon in the system tray (bottom-right, near the clock) and choose Quit.
- Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and look under Processes. End any process named Microsoft Teams / ms-teams (new Teams) or Teams (classic).
- Confirm nothing Teams-related is still listed before moving on.
You can also do this from PowerShell, which is handy when you’re scripting a fix or helping someone remotely:
# New Teams process is ms-teams; classic Teams process is Teams
Get-Process -Name ms-teams -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
Get-Process -Name Teams -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -ForceBefore you clear the cache
- Teams is fully quit from the system tray, not just closed
- No ms-teams or Teams process remains in Task Manager
- You know your sign-in credentials — you'll need them after
- You've confirmed which client you run (new vs classic)
Step 2: clear the cache for new Teams
New Teams (the MSIX-packaged client) keeps its cache here:
%localappdata%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCachePaste that into the File Explorer address bar (or the Run dialog with Win+R), then delete the contents of the LocalCache folder. You’re clearing what’s inside it, not removing the packaged app itself.
To do the same from PowerShell after quitting Teams:
Get-Process -Name ms-teams -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
Remove-Item -Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\*" `
-Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinueRelaunch Teams and sign in. The first start will be slower while it rebuilds the cache — that’s expected, not a failure.
Step 3: clear the cache for classic Teams
If you’re still on classic Teams, the cache lives in the roaming profile:
%appdata%\Microsoft\TeamsThe supported approach is to quit Teams and delete the contents of that folder. From PowerShell:
Get-Process -Name Teams -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
Remove-Item -Path "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Teams\*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinueMicrosoft’s guidance for classic Teams is to clear the whole %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams folder rather than picking individual subfolders. Relaunch and sign in afterward.
Cache locations at a glance
Keep this handy — it’s the part people get wrong.
Teams cache locations on Windows
| New Teams (cache) | %localappdata%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache |
|---|---|
| Classic Teams (cache) | %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams |
| New Teams process | ms-teams |
| Classic Teams process | Teams |
| Teams Meeting add-in (Outlook) | %localappdata%\Microsoft\TeamsMeetingAddin |
A few notes on the paths above. %localappdata% and %appdata% are per-user, so you clear the cache for whichever Windows account is signed in to Teams — running PowerShell as a different user clears the wrong profile. On shared or multi-user machines, do this while logged in as the affected user.
When clearing the cache won’t fix it
A cache clear resolves a lot, but not everything. If the problem survives, stop deleting folders and look at the actual cause.
Sign-in loops that come back. These often trace to a stale token in Windows Credential Manager or a device that a Conditional Access policy is blocking. Clearing the cache removes the cached token, but if the underlying policy or credential is the issue, the loop returns. This is the point to involve your admin — see Teams keeps asking you to sign in for the full path.
Still stuck on the loading screen. If new Teams hangs on the splash after a clean cache, suspect the network (a proxy interfering with the connection), a broken install, or the WebView2 runtime new Teams depends on. Walk through Teams stuck on loading for the ordered fixes.
One feature is broken, not the whole app. A dead camera, a missing calendar, or a meeting that won’t join usually isn’t a cache problem at all. Those have their own causes — permissions, licensing, policy — and clearing the cache just wastes a few minutes. Start from the Teams meeting troubleshooting guide instead.
Doing this across a fleet
For helpdesk and admin scenarios, the same logic scripts cleanly. Stop the process, clear the matching folder, relaunch. If you’re pushing a fix to many machines, run it in the user’s context (not as SYSTEM or a different admin account) so the right %localappdata%/%appdata% profile is targeted, and warn users they’ll be signed out and the next launch will be slow.
Avoid baking a cache clear into a recurring scheduled task. The cache is meant to persist between sessions; wiping it on a schedule trades a small, occasional problem for slower starts every single day.
Wrapping up
On Windows, clearing the Teams cache comes down to three things: know which client you run, quit the process completely, and delete the contents of the matching folder — %localappdata%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache for new Teams or %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams for classic. Sign back in, accept a slower first load, and most stuck-load and sign-in quirks are gone.
If a clear doesn’t hold, the cache wasn’t the real problem. Move on to credentials, Conditional Access, the network, or the install itself rather than deleting the same folder twice.
