Microsoft Teams question

wegs

wegs

Matter and Pixie Dust
Valued Senior Member
So, there are times when I’m in Outlook and my “availability” icon (under status) in MS Teams turns to “away.” But, I’m not away. If I go back into Teams, the green availability light will turn back.

I’ve read that you can put a timer on your “status” and I’ve tried that, same thing happens after two minutes or so. My firm’s IT Manager made that suggestion as well.

Does anyone know how to set my status on permanently available when I’m not in a meeting or on a call via Teams. When I actually do step away for lunch or whatever (I’m working from home), I’ll manually set my status to away. But, I’d like it to remain as available when I’m working.

Any helpful advice is appreciated!
 
DaveC426913 said:
Don't use Teams?
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It’s a company-wide mandate to use Teams as the method to communicate during the day and it’s mainly how we conduct internal meetings. So, our status updates are helpful to let coworkers know that they can contact you.

Actually I’ve been liking Teams, except for this status issue.
 
We use Teams also, but only for virtual meetings, which are thankfully rather rare. I just logged in to Teams to see if I could replicate your issue, and strangely enough my status displayed as "In a meeting, free at 3:00". I don't know where that came from, but I assume it could be left over from the last virtual meeting we had, I don't really know. I just set it manually to available now. We'll see what happens.
 
Neddy Bate said:
We use Teams also, but only for virtual meetings, which are thankfully rather rare. I just logged in to Teams to see if I could replicate your issue, and strangely enough my status displayed as "In a meeting, free at 3:00". I don't know where that came from, but I assume it could be left over from the last virtual meeting we had, I don't really know. I just set it manually to available now. We'll see what happens.
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Do you manually post status messages for when you’re in a meeting? It will automatically turn to “in a meeting” if you’re in one, but you’d have to post a specific message for it to show something beyond that.

I’ll be interested to know if while you have Teams open, if it moves your status to “away.”
 
wegs said:
Do you manually post status messages for when you’re in a meeting? It will automatically turn to “in a meeting” if you’re in one, but you’d have to post a specific message for it to show something beyond that.

I’ll be interested to know if while you have Teams open, if it moves your status to “away.”
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In that case, I must have set it that way manually. I don't recall doing that, but I could have. It was a red dot so I guess I selected "in a meeting" and added the rest.

I have a green check mark now, but I also have teams open on my taskbar. I don't think it will change me to "away" in that case, but I'm not sure how else to do it.
 
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Neddy Bate said:
In that case, I must have set it that way manually. I don't recall doing that, but I could have. It was a red dot so I guess I selected "in a meeting" and added the rest.

I have a green check mark now, but I also have teams open on my taskbar. I don't think it will change me to "away" in that case, but I'm not sure how else to do it.
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Okay, so if you leave Teams open on your toolbar and go into Outlook for a few minutes, will Teams then show you as away? (You’ll see the icon in the toolbar turn yellow.)

A few of my coworkers have commented that it has happened to them but they haven’t figured out how to correct it. IT made the suggestion to manually add a message and click “never” under the timer but it doesn’t work.
 
wegs said:
Okay, so if you leave Teams open on your toolbar and go into Outlook for a few minutes, will Teams then show you as away? (You’ll see the icon in the toolbar turn yellow.)

A few of my coworkers have commented that it has happened to them but they haven’t figured out how to correct it. IT made the suggestion to manually add a message and click “never” under the timer but it doesn’t work.
Click to expand...

Well, I have both Teams and Outlook open on the toolbar, but I'm not currently looking at my Outlook screen. I'll go there for a few minutes and see what happens.
 
Yes, it changed to yellow for me as well. I just clicked it to see what it said, and it instantly changed it back to green. Strange.
 
I guess it is "helping" by telling everyone that we are not looking at our Teams screen, because we are busy in Outlook!
 
Neddy Bate said:
Yes, it changed to yellow for me as well. I just clicked it to see what it said, and it instantly changed it back to green. Strange.
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So strange and you weren’t “away.” It’s not the end of the world, but it can be a problem if a coworker is trying to reach you, and you appear “away.” My status has remained “available” now for the past hour or so. Very odd.

Thank you for testing it!
 
Neddy Bate said:
I guess it is "helping" by telling everyone that we are not looking at our Teams screen, because we are busy in Outlook!
Click to expand...
Granted, I am on Sci-Forums so…I’m very busy right now! lol

Seriously though, you may be right. It might just track when you’re not actually on the Teams screen after a few minutes.
 
wegs said:
So strange and you weren’t “away.” It’s not the end of the world, but it can be a problem if a coworker is trying to reach you, and you appear “away.” My status has remained “available” now for the past hour or so. Very odd.

Thank you for testing it!
Click to expand...

You're welcome!

How have you been able to keep it on "available"? Did you change something, or just avoid spending too much time in Outlook?

Because it seems like the only way I was able to replicate the issue was by staying in Outlook for awhile. I didn't notice it going to yellow due to spending time in this browser window, for example.
 
Neddy Bate said:
You're welcome!

How have you been able to keep it on "available"? Did you change something, or just avoid spending too much time in Outlook?

Because it seems like the only way I was able to replicate the issue was by staying in Outlook for awhile. I didn't notice it going to yellow due to spending time in this browser window, for example.
Click to expand...

I’ve noticed today that if I’m in Outlook, it intermittently goes to “away” and I have to keep changing it back to available. But, after a few times of that before posting this thread, it has remained green.

It may be that when you’re in Outlook it’s tracking you as away because Teams and Outlook are part of Office 365, but if you are using chrome to Google something, it may not pick you up as away. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
 
wegs said:
Granted, I am on Sci-Forums so…I’m very busy right now! lol

Seriously though, you may be right. It might just track when you’re not actually on the Teams screen after a few minutes.
Click to expand...

Actually, I think it is tracking the time spent in Outlook, since Outlook and Teams work together. Other aps don't seem to be reporting my screen time to Teams.
 
wegs said:
It may be that when you’re in Outlook it’s tracking you as away because Teams and Outlook are part of Office 365, but if you are using chrome to Google something, it may not pick you up as away.
Click to expand...

Yes, this. That's what I was just posting above.
 
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