After you change your Microsoft 365 password, Teams may sign you out every time you restart the app. This happens because Teams stores a cached token that no longer matches your new credentials. The app tries to refresh that token, fails, and forces you to sign in again. This article explains why the token cache breaks and shows you how to clear it so Teams stays signed in.
Key Takeaways: Fix Repeated Teams Sign-Outs After a Password Change
- Teams app > Settings > Accounts: Remove your work account and sign in again to reset the cached token.
- Credential Manager > Windows Credentials: Delete the stored Teams and Microsoft Office credentials that reference the old password.
- Teams admin center > User sign-in settings: Check if sign-in frequency policies force frequent reauthentication after a password change.
Why Teams Keeps Signing You Out After a Password Change
When you change your Microsoft 365 password, Teams does not automatically invalidate the token it already holds. The app keeps using a cached token that was issued under the old password. Microsoft’s identity service detects the mismatch when Teams tries to refresh the token. The refresh fails, and Teams signs you out to force a fresh authentication.
The problem is worse if you use the Teams desktop app on Windows. The desktop app stores tokens in two places: the Windows Credential Manager and a local cache folder. If either location holds stale data, the sign-out loop continues. Clearing both locations is the most reliable fix.
Where Teams Stores Its Sign-In Tokens
Teams stores authentication tokens in the Windows Credential Manager under the Windows Credentials section. The entry is usually named MicrosoftOffice16_Data:SSO or Teams:SSO. Teams also keeps a local cache in the %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams folder. Both locations must be cleared to stop the sign-out loop.
Steps to Clear the Cached Token and Fix Teams Sign-Out Loop
Follow these steps in order. You need to sign out of Teams, clear the credential cache, and sign back in.
- Sign out of Teams completely
Open Teams, select your profile picture at the top right, and choose Sign out. Close the Teams window completely. Right-click the Teams icon in the system tray and select Exit to ensure no background process is running. - Open Windows Credential Manager
Press Windows + R, type control /name Microsoft.CredentialManager, and press Enter. This opens the Credential Manager window. - Delete the Teams and Office credentials
Select Windows Credentials. Look for entries containing MicrosoftOffice16, Teams, or SSO. Click each entry and choose Remove. Confirm when prompted. Do not delete other credentials unless you are sure they belong to Teams or Office. - Clear the Teams local cache folder
Press Windows + R, type %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams, and press Enter. Delete the contents of this folder, but keep the folder itself. You may need to close all Teams processes first. Press Ctrl + Shift + Escape to open Task Manager and end any process named Teams or ms-teams. - Restart Teams and sign in with your new password
Open Teams from the Start menu. When prompted, enter your Microsoft 365 email address and your new password. Teams will create a fresh token. Sign out and sign back in once more to confirm the loop is gone. - Check conditional access policies if the loop persists
If sign-outs continue, ask your admin to review the sign-in frequency policy in the Microsoft Entra admin center. Go to Protection > Conditional Access > Policies and look for a policy that forces reauthentication every few hours. A policy with a short sign-in frequency can cause repeated sign-outs after a password change.
If Teams Still Signs You Out After Clearing the Cache
Clearing the cache usually resolves the issue. But sometimes the problem comes from a different source. Here are the most common remaining causes and their fixes.
Teams Shows a Sign-In Prompt Every Time You Restart Windows
This happens when Windows Hello or single sign-on is disabled on the device. Open Teams, go to Settings > Accounts, and confirm that Sign in automatically is enabled. If not, enable it and restart Teams. You may also need to enable Windows Hello for Business if your organization requires it.
Teams Signs Out on One Device but Not Another
The device that signs out may have an outdated token cache that was not cleared. Repeat the cache-clearing steps on that device. If the problem continues, uninstall Teams completely, delete the %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams folder, and reinstall the app from the Microsoft 365 portal.
Teams Signs Out After You Change Your Password in the Microsoft 365 Portal
This is the most common trigger. The password change invalidates the old token, but Teams does not detect it until the token expires. Clearing the cache forces Teams to request a new token immediately. If you change your password again, repeat the cache-clearing steps.
| Item | Clearing Credential Manager Only | Clearing Credential Manager and Cache Folder |
|---|---|---|
| Effectiveness | Removes the stored password but leaves the local token cache intact | Removes both the stored password and the cached token, forcing a full reauthentication |
| Time to complete | About 2 minutes | About 5 minutes including the cache folder deletion |
| Risk | Low, but may not fix the sign-out loop if the cache remains | Low, but you must sign in again with your new password |
| Best for | Quick attempts when the sign-out is intermittent | Persistent sign-out loops after a password change |
After you clear both the Credential Manager entries and the local cache folder, Teams will request a fresh token the next time you sign in. The new token will use your new password, so the sign-out loop should stop. If you use Teams on multiple devices, repeat the steps on each device that shows the problem.
The final step is to verify that your organization’s conditional access policy does not force a short sign-in frequency. Ask your admin to review the policy in the Microsoft Entra admin center. A policy with a sign-in frequency of one hour or less can cause repeated sign-outs even after the cache is cleared. In that case, the admin must adjust the policy to a longer interval, such as 24 hours.
You can now keep Teams signed in after a password change by clearing the cached token and cache folder. The next time you change your Microsoft 365 password, repeat the steps immediately to avoid the sign-out loop. For advanced control, use the Teams admin center > User settings > Sign-in frequency policy to set a longer reauthentication interval for your organization.