Fix Teams Meeting Lobby Never Admits a Guest in the New Teams Desktop App

When you host a Teams meeting and a guest from outside your organization waits in the lobby, the meeting never admits them. This happens even when you click the Admit button or set the lobby policy to allow everyone. The root cause is often a combination of the guest account type, the meeting policy for anonymous users, and a known issue in the New Teams desktop app that blocks the admit action. This article explains why the lobby blocks guests and shows you how to fix it in the New Teams desktop app.

You will learn the exact policy settings to change in the Teams admin center and the local app settings to verify. You will also see how to test the fix with a second account and what to do if the problem persists.

Why the Lobby Never Admits a Guest in New Teams

The lobby is a virtual waiting room that holds participants until the organizer admits them. In the New Teams desktop app, the lobby behavior is controlled by the meeting policy that applies to the organizer and the guest. If the policy says “People in my organization” for who can bypass the lobby, then external guests must wait. The organizer should see an Admit button, but in some builds of New Teams, that button does not work due to a synchronization issue with the meeting roster.

The technical root cause is that the New Teams app uses a new real-time roster service. When a guest joins, the service sends an update to the organizer’s client. If the client is not fully updated or the policy cache is stale, the Admit action fails silently. The guest remains in the lobby and the organizer sees no error message.

Guest Account Type and Policy Overlap

Guests are users who have a Microsoft Entra ID account in your tenant but are marked as external. They are not the same as anonymous users who join without signing in. The lobby policy has two separate settings: one for anonymous users and one for people in your organization. Guests count as people in your organization for policy purposes, but they are often lumped with anonymous users in the lobby UI. This confusion leads to wrong policy changes.

New Teams Desktop App Version and Known Lobby Bug

Microsoft has acknowledged a bug in certain New Teams desktop app versions where the Admit button does not respond. The bug is linked to the app’s cache of meeting participants. Restarting the app or switching to the web client often works around it, but the permanent fix is to update the app to the latest version.

Steps to Diagnose and Fix the Lobby Block for Guests

Follow these steps in order. They will identify the policy misconfiguration and the app-level issue.

1. Check the meeting policy for anonymous users
   Open the Teams admin center at admin.teams.microsoft.com. Go to Meetings > Meeting policies. Select the policy that applies to the organizer. Look for the setting “People who can bypass the lobby” under the Meeting join section. Set it to “Everyone” or “People in your organization and guests”. Save the policy. This allows guests to enter without waiting.
2. Verify the guest user’s assigned policy
   In the Teams admin center, go to Users > Manage users. Find the guest account. Click the user and select Policies. Confirm that the meeting policy assigned to the guest is not a restrictive one that forces the lobby. If the policy is set to “Everyone”, change it to a permissive policy or assign the Global policy.
3. Update the New Teams desktop app
   In the New Teams app, click the ellipsis icon next to your profile picture and select Settings > About. Note the version number. Compare it with the latest version listed on the Microsoft 365 roadmap. If your version is older, close Teams and reinstall the app from the Microsoft 365 admin center or the Teams download page. After reinstalling, sign in again.
4. Clear the Teams app cache
   Close Teams completely. Press Ctrl+Shift+Escape to open Task Manager. End all processes that have Teams in the name. Open File Explorer and type %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams in the address bar. Delete all files and folders in that directory. Restart Teams. This clears the stale roster cache that may block the Admit action.
5. Test with a second guest account
   Create a test guest account in Microsoft Entra ID or use a personal account from another tenant. Schedule a meeting with your main account. Invite the test guest and join as the guest. Check if the guest enters the lobby. If they do, click the Admit button in the meeting controls. If the button works, the issue is resolved.
6. Use the Teams web client as a temporary workaround
   If the Admit button still fails, open your meeting in the Teams web client at teams.microsoft.com. The web client does not have the same roster bug. Admit the guest from the web client, then continue the meeting on the desktop app if needed.

If Teams Still Has Issues After the Main Fix

Teams Shows “Admit” Button but Guest Never Enters

The button appears but nothing happens. This is the known roster bug. Clear the cache as described in step 4 or use the web client. Also, check if the guest’s account has a pending invitation. If the guest has not accepted the invitation, they cannot join the meeting at all.

Guest Gets a Message That They Are Waiting for the Organizer

This message is normal. The guest waits until the organizer admits them. If the organizer never sees the guest in the lobby, the guest may be joining as an anonymous user. Check the meeting invitation link. If it contains “?anon=true”, the guest is joining anonymously. Change the lobby policy for anonymous users to “Everyone” to let them in.

Policy Changes Do Not Take Effect Immediately

Policy changes can take up to an hour to propagate. Wait at least 30 minutes and then restart Teams. Also, verify that the organizer is using the correct policy. Use the Teams admin center > Users > Manage users > Policies to see the effective policy for the organizer.

New Teams Desktop vs Teams Web Client: Lobby Behavior Comparison

Item	New Teams Desktop App	Teams Web Client
Admit button reliability	May fail due to roster cache bug	Works reliably
Cache clearing	Required after policy changes	Not needed
Update frequency	Manual update needed	Always latest version
Lobby policy enforcement	Yes, same as web	Yes, same as desktop

After following these steps, you can admit guests without delays. Verify the policy settings first, then update the app and clear the cache. Use the web client as a fallback during critical meetings. For ongoing issues, check the Microsoft 365 admin center for service health advisories about the lobby feature. Test the fix with a second account before your next important meeting.