Microsoft Teams notifications not working? Fixes & an alternative

Many businesses use the Microsoft Teams app. While there is plenty to love about Teams, the app is prone to notifications-related issues. 

This can be a huge problem for your employees’ productivity, especially because instant messages, approvals, mentions, and file updates all flow through the app. Alerts may not appear on their desktops or their smartphones. Notifications could even arrive hours too late. 

In this article, we’ll break down the most common reasons behind Teams notifications issues so you can find and fix them. 

Common reasons Microsoft Teams notifications are not working

Even if you know how to use Microsoft Teams very well, you may run into notification issues that lead to missed deadlines and communication headaches. Here are some of the most common reasons your Teams notifications stop working. 

Notification settings are disabled or misconfigured in Teams

Teams allows granular control over the notifications you receive. These settings are easy to change accidentally. Here are some quick fixes for Teams notifications problems:

• Open Teams and click Settings.
• Go to Notifications. 
• Make sure alerts for chats, mentions, and channels are enabled.
• Set important notifications to Banner and Feed.

These steps should enable Microsoft Teams notifications in most cases. If you don’t have access to these settings or can’t find them, reach out to your IT team. (Most IT teams allow users to customize their notification settings.) 

You’ve muted channels or conversations

Muting channels suppresses alerts for even new messages. This is one of the easiest issues to fix:

• Open the affected channel or chat.
• Check for a Mute icon.
• Unmute the channel or reset your notification preferences for that conversation.

Check your Microsoft Teams chat settings anytime you think your Teams notifications are broken. It’s most likely a simple muting issue that you can resolve in under a minute. 

Operating-system notification restrictions are in place

Both Windows and macOS can block notifications at the operating system level, especially after system updates. If you are using a Windows PC, do the following:

• Go to Settings.
• Click System.
• Click Notifications.
• Find Teams.
• Enable notifications.

If you are using a macOS computer, you will need to

• Go to System Settings.
• Click Notifications.
• Select Teams.
• Allow banners and sounds.

There are background app or power-saving restrictions (for mobile device users) 

Mobile devices often limit background activity to conserve battery power, and this can prevent Teams from pushing alerts. You can usually resolve the issue by

• Disabling battery optimization for Teams
• Allowing a background refresh
• Confirming mobile notifications are enabled in both the app and the system settings

Keep in mind that Teams will consume more power on your laptop or mobile device when you disable optimization settings. However, it should not diminish your device’s performance, unless you use Teams heavily throughout the day. 

Impact of these issues

When Microsoft Teams notifications don’t work, the consequences can include one or more of the following: 

1. Missed form submissions, approvals, or time-sensitive internal messages

Microsoft Teams is a great tool when employees need answers fast. For example, if they submit a form or need approval on an asset, in Teams, they can ask the appropriate supervisor to take a look. If that supervisor does not get the message for hours or days, it holds up everything. The more time-sensitive a message is, the greater the consequences of Teams notification errors. 

2. Recurring notification failures that undermine workflow reliability

If your employees frequently have Microsoft Teams notification problems, they’ll lose faith in the platform altogether. They will view your workflows as unreliable and begin to seek alternative options on their own, which will lead to lower app usage rates and a declining return on your technology investment. 

If you want your team to have confidence in the tech you provide, you must find and fix errors proactively. Address Microsoft Teams notification errors at their source, and provide alternatives that promote stable communication at scale. 

3. Lost visibility into urgent tasks or customer inquiries

When your Teams Calendar doesn’t sync with Outlook, employees lose visibility into urgent tasks. This issue can be especially detrimental when staff miss appointments with customers or fail to follow through on service- or sales-related commitments. 

Missing an appointment with a new customer can cost you someone’s business permanently. At scale, that leads to long-term revenue loss that severely damages your bottom line. 

4. Wasted time on constant troubleshooting instead of work

Notification failures in Microsoft Teams should not become a daily occurrence for your staff. If it does, you’ll find that your employees are wasting productive time troubleshooting instead of working on things that add value to your business. 

This kind of ongoing frustration contributes to employee disengagement, which has serious consequences for your bottom line and can stop you from reaching established productivity milestones. 

5. Delayed responses

When Teams doesn’t work correctly, and the Microsoft Forms email notification system isn’t functioning either, it leads to delayed responses. These delays can interfere with the work of multiple departments and create frustration among workers, vendors, and supervisors. 

Don’t allow Teams notification errors to turn into a systemic problem that grinds your business’ productivity to a halt. 

6. Inconsistent team visibility

Employees need to know who is available on Teams and whom to contact when they need support. You’ve built a talented team of employees. Make sure they can collaborate effectively by providing consistent visibility at scale. Otherwise, all of that talent won’t reach its full potential.

7. Fragmented communication that leads to operational bottlenecks

Inefficient communication among your employees can lead to bottlenecks that hold up entire workflows. While employees may be able to circumvent these bottlenecks by using an alternative form of communication, such as email or text, it’s difficult to get everyone on the same page with work-arounds. The whole point of having an app such as Teams is to unify your communication.

A reliable alternative: Jotform native Teams notifications

Jotform Form Notifications is a solution you can rely on, even when Team alerts fail. Here’s why Jotform is one of the best Microsoft Teams alternatives:

• Alerts are triggered at the server level and are not based on user device behavior.
• Jotform offers native Teams delivery, so no device-specific settings are required to fix alerts.
• Notifications are delivered across multiple channels simultaneously, including SMS, WhatsApp, Push, Slack, and, of course, Teams.
• Even if Microsoft Teams notifications fail, users still receive alerts via SMS or Push.

Jotform Form Notifications are ideal for mission-critical workflows, such as approvals, bookings, and lead capture. Our solution sends notifications across multiple channels, which ensures that the message gets through, even if Teams is malfunctioning.

Build a more reliable notification system with Jotform

When Microsoft Teams notifications issues become a recurring theme around your office, it can be incredibly frustrating. While the tips we’ve provided can help you find and fix the problem, it’s also important to build in redundancies so your employees don’t miss important alerts.

Jotform Form Notifications solves notification issues by providing server-level, multichannel delivery across SMS, Push, Slack, WhatsApp, and Microsoft Teams. Your employees can receive consistent, real-time alerts for submissions, approvals, bookings, and more without having to constantly troubleshoot malfunctions.

Jotform backs its notification system with fast, high-quality customer support. Contact us to learn more about Jotform Form Notifications.