Teams stuck on the loading spinner. Messages that everyone else can see but you can't. A colleague's profile photo from two jobs ago. Nine times out of ten the fix for this family of problems is the same boring thing: clear the cache. The catch in 2026 is that most guides on the internet still point at a folder the current Teams doesn't use.
Classic Teams — the old Electron app that kept its cache in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Teams — was retired by Microsoft: support ended July 1, 2024, and the client stopped working entirely on July 1, 2025. Everyone is on the new Teams now, and the new Teams keeps its cache somewhere completely different. If you've been dutifully deleting the old folder and wondering why nothing changed — that's why.
Where the new Teams cache actually lives
The new Teams is a Windows packaged app, so its data sits under the packages directory:
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams
That MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe part looks like line noise, but it's the app's package identity and it's the same on every machine — you can paste the full path exactly as written. This is also the location Microsoft's own documentation tells IT admins to clear.
The old %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Teams folder, if it still exists on your machine, is a leftover from classic Teams. Nothing uses it anymore.
What a cache clear actually fixes
Cache corruption has a recognisable flavour: Teams works, but it's showing you a slightly wrong version of reality. The classic symptoms:
- Stuck on "Loading…" or a spinner that never resolves after sign-in.
- New messages not appearing until you restart, while your phone shows them instantly.
- Outdated profile pictures, display names, or status for people who changed them weeks ago.
- Images, GIFs, or shared files showing as broken squares.
- Settings changes (like notification preferences) that don't stick between sessions.
What a cache clear doesn't fix: sign-in loops caused by your organisation's login system, missing channels you were removed from, and call/audio device problems. Those have different causes — clearing the cache first is still a fair move because it takes a minute, but don't expect miracles there.
Clear it — step by step
Step 1 — Quit Teams properly
Closing the window with the X doesn't quit Teams; it keeps running in the tray. Right-click the Teams icon in the system tray (bottom-right corner, near the clock — click the ^ arrow if it's hidden) and choose Quit. If you skip this, Windows will refuse to delete half the files because they're in use.
Step 2 — Open the cache folder
Press Win + R, paste this, and press Enter:
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams
Step 3 — Delete the contents (not the folder)
Press Ctrl + A to select everything inside, then Delete.
⚠ One real warning: delete the contents of that MSTeams folder — don't go up the tree and delete the whole MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe package folder. Wiping the package folder also wipes your Teams app settings, and you'll be re-configuring notifications and devices from scratch. Contents only.
Step 4 — Restart Teams
Open Teams again. The first launch will be slower than usual — it's rebuilding everything you just deleted — and you may be asked to sign in again. Give it a minute before judging whether the fix worked.
What you lose — and what you don't
Your messages, chats, files, channels, and meeting history live on Microsoft's servers, not on your disk. Clearing the local cache cannot touch them. What you actually give up:
- The local cache itself — avatars and media re-download as you use Teams, which is the point.
- Custom meeting backgrounds — these are stored inside the cache folder, so re-add any custom images afterwards. The built-in backgrounds come back on their own.
- A signed-in session — sometimes. Have your password or phone nearby for the sign-in prompt.
Still broken? Repair, then Reset
If Teams misbehaves even with a fresh cache, Windows 11 has two bigger hammers built in. Go to Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find Microsoft Teams, click the ⋯ menu → Advanced options, and scroll to the Reset section:
- Repair — reinstalls app files without touching data. Try this first; it's harmless.
- Reset — puts the app back to a just-installed state. This is the nuclear cache clear: settings gone, sign-in required, but it resolves the stubborn cases.
Beyond that you're into reinstalling Teams or checking for a half-installed Windows update — I've covered the update side in the 0x800f0922 update-failure guide.
While you're at it: the other app caches
Teams is rarely the only offender. Discord, Slack, Spotify, and VS Code hoard cache the same way — collectively they can sit on 5–15 GB. I wrote a separate guide covering where each app's cache lives and what's safe to delete, and my free RBS PC Cleaner can clear the classic Electron app caches (Discord, Slack, VS Code and friends) in one click. For the new Teams specifically, use the manual steps above — the packaged-app location is one I'd rather you clear deliberately than automatically.
Bottom line
New Teams, new folder: …\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams. Quit Teams from the tray, delete the folder's contents, restart. Sixty seconds, no risk to your messages, and it clears up the "Teams is lying to me" class of problems more often than anything else you can try.
I build free Windows tools and write these guides from the support questions they generate. RBS PC Cleaner for app caches and junk, RBS Optimizer Pro for startup and performance, RBS PDF Editor for documents — all free, all offline. Made by Rai, solo dev, Singapore.