Fix Teams Admin Center Usage Report Shows Zero Activity in a New Tenant

You created a new Microsoft 365 tenant, assigned Teams licenses, and started using Teams, but the Teams admin center usage report shows zero activity. You check the report daily, yet it continues to display no calls, meetings, or messages. This happens because usage data takes time to appear and because the report depends on specific prerequisites that a new tenant often lacks. This article explains the root causes and walks you through the exact steps to confirm your setup and trigger data collection.

The zero-activity display is usually a data latency issue, not a sign that your users are inactive. Microsoft aggregates usage data from telemetry that must be enabled and processed. In a new tenant, the report can remain empty for up to 48 hours after the first user activity. Additionally, if you have not assigned the correct licenses or if the Teams service is not fully provisioned, the report will show nothing.

You will learn how to verify license assignments, enable telemetry, and confirm that data collection is working. You will also find steps to force a refresh and how to troubleshoot if the report still shows zero after the waiting period.

Why the Teams Usage Report Shows Zero Activity in a New Tenant

The Teams admin center usage report pulls data from telemetry that Teams clients send to Microsoft. This telemetry includes sign-in events, meeting starts, call durations, and message counts. In a new tenant, several factors can prevent this data from appearing:

First, data aggregation is not real-time. Microsoft processes telemetry in batches, and the report refreshes every 24 to 48 hours. If your users just started using Teams, the report will show zero until the next processing cycle completes. This is the most common cause in a new tenant.

Second, the report only includes users who have a Teams license assigned and who have actually used Teams at least once. If licenses are not assigned correctly, or if users have not signed in and performed an activity, the report will be empty. In a new tenant, you might have created users but forgotten to assign the Microsoft Teams service inside the license.

Third, tenant-level privacy settings can block telemetry. The Teams admin center has a setting that controls whether usage data is shared with Microsoft. If this setting is turned off, the report will never show activity. This setting is off by default in some regions or if you customized it during setup.

Finally, the report might be filtering by a date range that does not include the days when activity occurred. The default view is the last 7 days, but if you are looking at a custom range that starts after the activity, you will see zero.

How the Usage Report Collects Data

Teams clients send telemetry events to Microsoft servers whenever a user signs in, starts a chat, joins a meeting, or makes a call. These events are stored in a data lake and then aggregated into the usage report. The aggregation process runs on a schedule, so there is always a delay. The delay is longer in a new tenant because Microsoft must provision the reporting infrastructure for your tenant ID.

Steps to Diagnose and Fix the Zero-Activity Usage Report

Follow these steps in order. Each step verifies a prerequisite and, if needed, corrects it.

1. Check the report date range and refresh time
   Open the Teams admin center and go to Analytics & reports > Usage reports. Set the date range to the last 7 days. Look at the “Last updated” timestamp. If it is older than 24 hours, the report has not refreshed yet. Wait until the next refresh cycle and check again.
2. Verify user licenses and Teams service assignment
   Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center > Users > Active users. Select a user who should have activity and click Licenses and apps. Confirm that a Teams license is assigned and that the Microsoft Teams service is toggled on. If the service is off, turn it on and save. Repeat for all users. Then ask the user to sign out and back into Teams.
3. Confirm that users have actually used Teams
   In the Teams desktop or web client, have a user send a chat message and join a meeting. Wait 30 minutes. Then check the usage report again. The report only counts users who have performed at least one activity.
4. Check the telemetry and privacy settings in Teams admin center
   In the Teams admin center, go to Org-wide settings > Teams settings. Scroll to the section on usage data. Ensure that the option to share usage data with Microsoft is set to On. If it is off, turn it on and save. Note that this setting can take up to 24 hours to take effect.
5. Force a report refresh by changing the date range
   Sometimes the report UI does not update automatically. Change the date range to a custom range that includes yesterday and today. Apply the change. Then switch back to the last 7 days. This forces the report to re-query the data.
6. Verify that the Teams service is healthy in the Service Health dashboard
   Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center > Health > Service health. Look for Teams. If there is an advisory or incident, data collection might be delayed. Wait until the incident is resolved.

If the Report Still Shows Zero Activity After These Steps

If you have completed all steps and waited 48 hours, there are a few more things to check.

Users Are Not Signing In to Teams

If users have licenses but never open the Teams app, the report will show zero. Have users sign in to Teams on a desktop, web, or mobile client at least once. Even a single chat message counts as activity.

The Tenant Has a Custom Data Retention Policy

A data retention policy might delete telemetry before it is aggregated. Check the Microsoft Purview portal for any retention policies that apply to Teams. If a policy deletes data after a very short period, the usage report will be empty. Adjust the policy to retain data for at least 7 days.

The Usage Report Is Filtered by a Specific User or Activity Type

The usage report has filters for user, activity type, and date. If you have a filter applied that excludes the users who have activity, you will see zero. Clear all filters and set the date range to the last 7 days.

Teams Admin Center Usage Report vs Microsoft 365 Reports: Key Differences

Item	Teams admin center usage report	Microsoft 365 admin center reports
Data source	Teams-specific telemetry	All Microsoft 365 services
Refresh frequency	Every 24 to 48 hours	Every 24 hours
Activity types	Calls, meetings, messages, and app usage	Active users, sign-ins, and service-specific metrics
Licensing requirement	Teams license per user	Any Microsoft 365 license
Telemetry setting	Controlled in Teams admin center	Controlled in Microsoft 365 admin center

The Teams admin center report is more detailed for Teams-specific activities. The Microsoft 365 report gives a broader view but does not break down Teams calls or meetings. Both depend on the same telemetry pipeline.

Now you can verify each prerequisite for the usage report and correct any misconfiguration. Start by checking the date range and license assignments, then confirm telemetry is enabled. If the report still shows zero, wait 48 hours and recheck. For a quick test, have a single user send a chat message and then check the report the next day.