Fix Teams Cannot Switch Work Accounts After Changing a Microsoft 365 Password

When you change your Microsoft 365 password, Teams may stop letting you switch between work accounts. The account picker shows an error, or the app refuses to sign in with the new credentials. This happens because Teams caches old authentication tokens tied to the previous password. This article explains why the cache causes the failure and gives you a step-by-step fix to clear it and restore account switching.

Why Changing a Microsoft 365 Password Breaks Account Switching in Teams

Teams uses OAuth tokens to keep you signed in across sessions. When you change your Microsoft 365 password, the old tokens become invalid. However, Teams does not always detect this immediately. The app may still send the old token to the sign-in service, which rejects it and leaves you stuck on the account picker screen.

The problem is amplified when you have multiple work accounts. Teams stores a separate token for each account in a local cache. If one account has a stale token, the entire account switching process can fail. The app may show a generic error like “We couldn’t sign you in” or simply not respond when you click the account switcher.

Windows also stores cached credentials in the Credential Manager. These credentials may hold the old password hash. Even after you clear the Teams cache, Windows can still send the old credential, causing a loop of sign-in failures. Fixing the issue requires clearing both the Teams cache and the Windows credential store.

What Happens When Tokens Are Not Refreshed

When you change your password, the Microsoft 365 identity service revokes all tokens issued before the change. Teams should request a new token on the next sign-in. But if the app is running in the background or the cache is corrupted, it may keep using the revoked token. This leads to repeated auth failures and prevents the account switcher from loading the account list.

Steps to Clear Cached Credentials and Restore Account Switching

Follow these steps in order. Complete each step before moving to the next.

1. Sign out of all accounts in Teams
   Open Teams and click your profile picture at the top right. Select “Sign out” from the menu. If the option is grayed out, close Teams completely and reopen it. Sign out removes the active token but not the cached ones.
2. Clear the Teams cache folder
   Close Teams completely. Press Ctrl+Shift+Escape to open Task Manager. Look for any Teams processes and end them. Open File Explorer and type %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams in the address bar. Delete all files and folders inside this directory. Do not delete the Teams folder itself, only its contents. This removes cached tokens and profile data.
3. Remove stored credentials from Windows Credential Manager
   Open the Start menu and type “credential manager”. Click the result to open the Control Panel app. Go to “Windows Credentials” and scroll down to the “Generic Credentials” section. Look for entries that start with “MicrosoftOffice16” or “Teams”. Click the arrow next to each entry and select “Remove”. Confirm the deletion. Repeat for all matching entries.
4. Restart Teams and sign in with the new password
   Open Teams from the Start menu. The app will ask you to sign in. Enter your work email and the new password. If you have multiple work accounts, sign in to the first one, then click your profile picture and select “Add account” to switch. The account switcher should now list all your accounts without errors.
5. Verify account switching works
   After signing in, click your profile picture and select “Switch account”. Confirm that all your work accounts appear and that you can move between them. If the list is empty, repeat steps 2 and 3, then restart your computer and try again.

If You Use Teams on a Shared or Managed Device

On a corporate device, group policy may prevent you from deleting credentials. In that case, contact your IT admin. They can clear the cached tokens from the server side using the Teams admin center or PowerShell. Provide them with your account name and the time of the password change.

If Teams Still Cannot Switch Accounts After Clearing the Cache

Teams Shows “We Couldn’t Sign You In” After Clearing Credentials

This error usually means the new password was not properly synced to Azure Active Directory. Wait 5 to 10 minutes for the password change to propagate. Then try signing in again. If the error persists, verify that your account is not blocked by a conditional access policy. Check with your IT admin for any sign-in logs.

The Account Switcher Is Missing Entirely

If the account switcher does not appear after you sign in, your Teams version may be outdated. Go to Teams > Settings > About and check the version. If it is older than the current release, update Teams by clicking your profile picture and selecting “Check for updates”. Restart Teams after the update.

Switching Accounts Works but the Wrong Account Is Selected

This happens when Teams remembers the last active account but the token is stale. Sign out of the account that is selected, then sign in again with the new password. If the issue continues, clear the Teams cache again and restart the app.

New Teams Desktop vs Teams on the Web: Account Switching Differences

Item	New Teams Desktop	Teams on the Web
Cache location	Local app data folder on your PC	Browser storage and cookies
How to clear cache	Delete %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams contents	Clear browser history and cookies
Credential handling	Uses Windows Credential Manager	Uses browser password manager
Account switcher behavior	Shows all signed-in accounts in a popup	Shows accounts in a dropdown menu

After clearing the Teams cache and Windows credentials, you can switch between work accounts without errors. The key is to remove all stale tokens from both locations. If you use Teams on the web, clear the browser cookies for the Microsoft 365 domain to achieve the same result. For persistent issues on a managed device, ask your IT admin to check the sign-in logs for blocked authentication attempts. Remember to always sign out of Teams before changing your Microsoft 365 password to avoid cache corruption in the future.