You launch Teams, the splash screen appears, and then nothing. The dots spin, or the window just sits there grey, and the app never reaches your chats. A stuck loading screen is one of the more demoralizing Teams faults because there’s nothing to click — no error, no button, just a frozen launch.
Behind that frozen screen, Teams is failing at one of a few specific steps: reading its local cache, rendering its interface through the WebView2 runtime, reaching the Microsoft 365 endpoints it needs, or authenticating you. Each has a different fix, and working them in the right order saves you from reinstalling when a 30-second cache clear would have done it.
The single most useful first move is to test the web client. It instantly tells you whether you’re chasing a desktop problem or something bigger.
Quick triage before the deep fixes
Run these first. They’re fast and they clear the easy cases.
First five minutes
- Test the web client at teams.microsoft.com to isolate desktop vs account
- Fully quit Teams from the system tray and relaunch (not just close the window)
- Restart Windows if you haven't since the last update
- Confirm you have a working internet connection in a browser
- Check Microsoft 365 service health in case the outage isn't yours
A clean restart of the process — or the whole machine — resolves a fair share of stuck loads on its own, especially right after a Windows or Teams update that hasn’t fully settled.
It’s also worth knowing where the splash screen freezes, because it hints at the cause. A hang on the very first logo screen usually points at the cache or WebView2 — the app can’t render its own interface. A hang after you’ve entered credentials, with a brief flash of the UI, points more at the network or a token problem — the app renders but can’t finish talking to the service. You don’t need to be precise about it, but it tells you which fix to try first.
Fix 1: clear the Teams cache
A corrupted local cache is the most common reason new Teams hangs on the splash screen. Clearing it forces a clean rebuild on the next launch.
Quit Teams completely first (confirm the ms-teams process is gone in Task Manager), then clear the cache folder:
Get-Process -Name ms-teams -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
Remove-Item -Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\*" `
-Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinueFor classic Teams, the path is %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams instead. The full walkthrough for both clients, including the safety notes, is in clear the Microsoft Teams cache on Windows. Relaunch afterward and expect a slower first load while the cache rebuilds.
Fix 2: repair the WebView2 runtime
New Teams renders its entire interface through the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime. If WebView2 is missing, corrupted, or badly out of date, new Teams can stall on the splash screen with no error.
Check that it’s installed and repair it:
- Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps and look for Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime.
- Select it, choose Modify (or Advanced options > Repair), and let Windows repair the runtime.
- If it’s missing entirely, install it from Microsoft, then relaunch Teams.
Keeping Microsoft Edge updated generally keeps WebView2 current too, since they share the same engine. A machine where Edge has been blocked from updating for a long time is a classic candidate for a WebView2-related Teams hang.
Fix 3: check the network and proxy
Teams can’t finish loading if it can’t reach the services it depends on. This is the usual cause when the web client also hangs, or when the problem hits a whole office at once.
Teams needs a defined set of Microsoft 365 URLs and endpoints to be reachable. Two things commonly break that:
Network causes of a stuck load
| Proxy doing TLS inspection | Intercepting Teams traffic can break sign-in and initial load — exempt Teams/M365 endpoints from deep packet inspection where possible |
|---|---|
| Firewall blocking M365 URLs | Required Microsoft 365 URLs/IPs must be allowed outbound — a blocked endpoint stalls initialization |
| VPN forcing all traffic through tunnel | Backhauling Teams traffic adds latency and can break connectivity — split-tunnel Teams/M365 where policy allows |
| DNS resolution failing | If the client can't resolve M365 hostnames, it can hang before showing anything useful |
If you’re not the admin, the quick test is to try Teams on a completely different network — a phone hotspot, for example. If it loads on the hotspot but not the office network, the network is the problem and it’s a conversation with whoever runs the firewall or proxy. Microsoft publishes the required URLs and IP ranges so network teams can allow them precisely.
Fix 4: sign out and clear stale credentials
If Teams hangs partway through sign-in rather than on the first splash, a stale token may be the issue. Sign out fully from Teams, and if that doesn’t help, remove cached Teams/Office credentials from Windows Credential Manager, then sign in fresh.
A persistent sign-in loop is a slightly different problem with its own causes — Conditional Access blocking the device, modern auth issues — and is covered in Teams keeps asking you to sign in. If the loading hang turns into a repeating credential prompt, follow that path.
Fix 5: reset or reinstall Teams
When cache, WebView2, network, and credentials are all ruled out, the install itself is suspect. This is the last resort because it’s the heaviest.
- Reset: Settings > Apps > Installed apps > Microsoft Teams > Advanced options > Reset. This clears local app state more thoroughly than a cache clear.
- Reinstall: uninstall new Teams and reinstall it. Admins can deploy or repair it with the Teams bootstrapper, and
wingetcan reinstall it on managed machines.
After a reinstall, the first launch downloads and rebuilds everything, so give it time before deciding whether it worked.
# Remove, then reinstall the new Teams client
winget uninstall --id Microsoft.Teams
winget install --id Microsoft.TeamsIf a single machine keeps ending up stuck on loading after each fix, the problem may be deeper than Teams — a damaged user profile, an antivirus or endpoint agent interfering with the packaged app, or a Windows servicing issue. Testing with a fresh Windows profile is a quick way to tell: if Teams loads cleanly under a new local account, the original profile is the problem, not the Teams install.
A sensible order to work in
The reason this guide is numbered is that each step is cheaper than the next, and most stuck-load cases resolve early. Working out of order — reinstalling before you’ve cleared the cache, say — wastes time on the heavy fixes when a light one would have done it.
Stuck-load fix order
- Test the web client and restart the process (free, instant)
- Clear the cache (fast, fixes the majority of cases)
- Repair WebView2 (quick, common cause on new Teams)
- Check network / proxy (test on a hotspot to confirm)
- Sign out and refresh credentials
- Reset, then reinstall as the last resort
Wrapping up
A stuck Teams loading screen has a short list of causes, and the order matters. Test the web client to split desktop from account, clear the cache, repair WebView2, rule out the network and proxy, refresh your credentials, and only then reset or reinstall. Most cases fall out at the cache or WebView2 step.
The web client test is what keeps you honest. If it loads, stop blaming the service and work the local install. If it doesn’t, stop reinstalling the client and look at your network or account instead. For related client faults that show up alongside loading problems, the Teams meeting troubleshooting guide is a good next stop.
