Woman working on computer in Microsoft Teams

 

Now that hybrid and remote work have become commonplace, the adoption of digital collaboration tools has quickly accelerated as one of the primary means employees use to communicate with one another. Tools like Microsoft Teams have swiftly become the norm for calls and collaboration – but don’t come without the occasional technical challenges.  

Many end-users of the tool still periodically struggle with call quality. This can be caused by several reasons, ranging from VPN usage to running bandwidth-heavy devices on the same connection. The good news is that there is usually a relatively simple solution to improve the quality of Teams calls.  

Below, you’ll find several tips for troubleshooting call quality issues in Microsoft Teams calls. If you happen to have quality issues on your next call, try out these solutions to make sure you’re getting the conversation clear.  

 

 

Tips and recommendations

 

  1. Make sure you are using the latest version of Teams. On a Windows or Mac desktop, Teams should update automatically, but it can be forced to update by clicking the “3 dots” next to your user profile picture and selecting “Check for updates”. 

  2. If you are using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) while using Microsoft Teams, please turn it off before connecting to a Teams meeting. VPNs should not be used with Teams. 

  3. Close any unused applications currently running on the same device as Teams. 

  4. If you are at home, turn off any bandwidth-heavy devices while using Teams (gaming systems, movie streaming services, etc.)  

  5. Check your connectivity between your device and the internet, and from there to Microsoft’s network using Microsoft 365 network connectivity test (office.com) 

  6. Turn off custom background/background blur in Teams using these directions: Change your background for a Teams meeting (microsoft.com) 

  7. Disable GPU hardware acceleration and animations. 

    1. Click the “3 dots” next to your user profile picture and then Settings. 

    2. In the Settings window, under General, select (check) the following items: 

    i. Disable GPU hardware acceleration (requires restarting Teams) 

    ii. Turn off animations (requires restarting Teams) 

    3. Close and restart Microsoft Teams. 

  8. Clear the Teams Client Cache 

    1. Fully close Microsoft Teams and Outlook. 

    2. Right-click the Teams icon in your icon tray in the bottom right corner of your screen, then click Quit. 

    3. To close Outlook, select the File menu and choose Exit or click the X icon in the top-right of the application. 

    4. Open the Run Window by pressing Windows Key+R to open Windows Run, then copy and paste the following into the box and select OK. 
      i. %appdata%\Microsoft

      appdata

       

    5.  Find the Teams folder, then right-click it and select Delete.

      Teams folder

    6.  Relaunch Microsoft Teams.

9. Make sure your device meets the minimum specifications outlined by Microsoft. Hardware requirements for Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs. 

 

Contact us to learn more 

Tom Bernardini

Tom is our Modern Work & Security Engineer in the US, based out of South Florida. Having worked most of his 15 years in the IT industry in the medical sector, he was first introduced to the MDM/MAM while working at BlackBerry. Along with his experience working for an MSP, Tom has a strong focus on clients’ business needs, both large and small