A Teams client that prompts for sign-in every time you open it — or kicks you out mid-day — is almost always a token problem. Teams authenticates once and caches a token so it can stay signed in. When that token can’t be stored, gets corrupted, or keeps getting invalidated, the app falls back to the only thing it knows: ask again. The fix is to find out why the token won’t stick.
Most of the time the cause sits on the local machine: a bad cache or stale credentials saved in Windows. Sometimes it’s a tenant policy forcing frequent reauthentication. This guide works from the quick local fixes to the policy-level ones, so you can stop as soon as the prompts stop.
Clear the Teams cache
A corrupted cache is the most common reason Teams won’t hold a session, and it’s the quickest thing to rule out. Broken token data in the cache fails every time the client tries to use it, which triggers yet another prompt. Clearing it forces a clean sign-in and a fresh token on the next launch.
Quit Teams completely first. Right-click the tray icon and choose Quit, or end the process in Task Manager — the cache can’t be cleared while the app is running. Then clear the folder for your client version.
Teams cache locations
| Classic Teams | %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams |
|---|---|
| New Teams | %localappdata%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache |
For classic Teams, PowerShell does it cleanly. Quit Teams, then:
Get-Process -Name Teams -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
Remove-Item -Path "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Teams\*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinueRelaunch, sign in once, and check Keep me signed in if you’re prompted. If the loop continues, the credential store is the next place to look.
Remove stale credentials from Windows Credential Manager
Windows caches Office and Teams tokens in Credential Manager. When those entries go stale or duplicate, Teams keeps reading bad data and re-prompting. Clearing them out forces a fresh, clean sign-in.
Open Control Panel > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials. Scroll through Generic Credentials and remove any entries tied to Teams and Office. Common names start with:
msteamsMicrosoftOffice16_Data:...(Office identity tokens)MicrosoftAccount:...linked to your work account- Anything referencing
office,outlook, or your tenant
Delete those entries, then relaunch Teams and sign in again. This step also tends to fix the related case where Outlook on the same machine keeps prompting — the two apps share the Office identity store, so a bad entry can affect both.
Local fixes — first pass
- Teams cache cleared for the correct client version
- Stale Teams/Office entries removed from Credential Manager
- Signed in fresh with 'Keep me signed in' checked
- Only the correct work account is signed in (no leftover personal account)
- Windows date, time, and time zone are correct (token validation depends on it)
Sort out multiple accounts
If Teams or Windows is juggling more than one identity — a personal account and a work account, or the same email registered twice — the client can get stuck choosing the wrong one and prompt over and over.
Sign out of every account in Teams first. Then check Windows itself: go to Settings > Accounts > Access work or school and remove any stale or duplicate work-or-school connections that don’t belong. Reboot, open Teams, and sign in with only the correct account.
Confirm modern authentication is enabled (admin)
Modern authentication (OAuth 2.0) is how Teams obtains and refreshes tokens cleanly. In current Microsoft 365 tenants it’s on by default, but older tenants or hardened configurations sometimes have it disabled, which forces clumsy, repeated prompts.
For Microsoft 365, modern auth for Teams is controlled tenant-wide and through the org-wide authentication settings. If you’re running a hybrid or legacy setup where legacy auth was deliberately enforced, that’s a likely source of repeated prompts. Confirm modern authentication is enabled for the organization and that the client is allowed to use it.
Auth layers that affect Teams sign-in
| Modern authentication | Must be enabled tenant-wide for clean token refresh |
|---|---|
| Conditional Access | Sign-in frequency and device rules can force reauth |
| MFA | Required factor the client must be able to satisfy |
| Credential Manager | Local store of Office/Teams tokens on the machine |
Check Conditional Access and token policies (admin)
If the prompts arrive on a schedule rather than every launch, a Conditional Access policy is the prime suspect. A short sign-in frequency setting tells Teams to reauthenticate at fixed intervals, which users experience as Teams “keeping” them signing in. Policies that require a compliant or hybrid-joined device, or an MFA prompt the client can’t satisfy silently, produce the same pattern.
In Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) > Protection > Conditional Access, review the policies that target Teams or Office 365. Look at:
- Session controls > Sign-in frequency — a low value (for example, a few hours) causes frequent prompts by design.
- Grant controls — require compliant device or hybrid join can block sign-in on machines that don’t meet the bar.
- MFA requirements the desktop client can’t complete without interaction.
Entra ID > Conditional Access
├─ Session controls > Sign-in frequency -> short interval = frequent prompts
├─ Grant > Require compliant/hybrid device -> non-compliant device blocked
└─ Grant > Require MFA -> client can't satisfy silentlyReinstall Teams as a last resort
When the cache, credentials, accounts, and policies all check out but the prompts continue, a damaged install can be the cause. A clean reinstall removes any broken local state the cache clear didn’t reach.
Quit Teams, uninstall it from Settings > Apps, then reinstall the current client. For classic Teams, removing the leftover %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams folder after uninstalling ensures the next install starts clean. New Teams is delivered as an app package, so let it reinstall and re-provision before signing in.
Get-Process -Name Teams -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
Remove-Item -Path "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Teams" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinueSign in once after the reinstall, check Keep me signed in, and watch whether the session now persists across restarts.
Still prompting? Narrow it down fast
If you’ve worked through everything and Teams still won’t stay signed in, a couple of splits show you where the fault lives:
- Test Teams on the web. If teams.microsoft.com stays signed in but the desktop app doesn’t, the desktop client or its local credential store is the problem. If the web client also reprompts, the cause is account-wide or policy-driven.
- Test another user on the same machine. If a second account signs in fine on the same computer, the issue is tied to the first account’s profile or credentials, not the machine.
- Test the same account on another machine. If it loops everywhere, suspect a Conditional Access or token policy rather than one device.
For the broader set of Teams meeting faults, see the Microsoft Teams meeting troubleshooting guide. If the Calendar is also missing for the same account, the Teams Calendar missing fix covers the mailbox and policy side. And because Teams and Outlook share the Office identity store, the Outlook keeps asking for a password fix often resolves the same root cause on the mail side.
Wrapping up
Teams asking you to sign in repeatedly is a token that won’t persist. Start local: clear the cache, remove stale Credential Manager entries, fix the clock, and make sure only the right account is signed in. If the prompts arrive on a schedule instead of every launch, move to the tenant side and review modern authentication and Conditional Access sign-in frequency. Reinstall only when everything else is ruled out. Match the fix to the prompt pattern and you’ll spend a lot less time chasing the wrong layer.
