Fix Teams Notifications Do Not Appear after Moving to New Teams

After you switch from classic Teams to the new Teams app, notifications may stop appearing for chats, mentions, and channel posts. This usually happens because the new app resets notification settings, Windows focus assist blocks alerts, or the app runs without the required background permission. The new Teams client is a progressive web app that uses different system hooks than the classic desktop app. This article explains why notifications fail and shows you how to restore them on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

You will learn the exact settings to check inside Teams, in the Windows notification center, and in the Teams admin center. The fixes below cover the most common causes and work for both personal and work or school accounts. Follow the steps in order to avoid missing a setting that silently disables alerts.

Why New Teams Stops Showing Notifications

The new Teams app is built on the WebView2 runtime, which is different from the native Windows desktop framework used by classic Teams. Because of this change, the app must re-register itself with the Windows notification system. When you upgrade, Windows may treat the new app as a separate application, so the old notification permissions do not carry over. The result is that Teams appears in the notification settings list, but the toggle for notifications is turned off.

Another cause is the new app’s default notification behavior. The new Teams client starts with most banners and sounds disabled to reduce distraction during the first launch. Users who relied on the classic client’s defaults often miss this reset. Additionally, Windows Focus assist can suppress Teams notifications when you are in a meeting or when you duplicate your display. Focus assist is a system-level feature, and it overrides any per-app notification setting.

What Changed in the Notification Pipeline

In classic Teams, notifications were delivered through the Windows push notification service. The new Teams app uses the same service but requires an explicit registration step. If the registration fails, Windows does not deliver any toast notification. This failure can happen if the app was closed during the upgrade or if the WebView2 cache is corrupted. The fix is to force the app to re-register by signing out and signing back in, or by clearing the app cache.

Another difference is that new Teams runs as a background process even when you close the main window. This background process is what receives incoming messages and raises notifications. If Windows has disabled background app activity for Teams, the process stops and notifications never appear. You must verify the background apps permission in Windows Settings.

Steps to Diagnose Teams Notification Settings, Windows Permissions, and Policy Assignments

1. Open Teams notification settings
   Launch the new Teams app. Click your profile picture in the top right corner. Select Settings, then select Notifications. Review the toggles for Calls, Messages, and Channel mentions. Turn on Banner and sound for each category you want to receive. Click Save at the bottom of the window. This step resets the default values that the new client applied during migration.
2. Check Windows notification access for Teams
   Press Windows key + I to open Settings. Go to System > Notifications. Scroll down to the Notifications from apps and other senders list. Find Microsoft Teams. Make sure the toggle is set to On. Click the entry to expand it. Confirm that Show notification banners and Show notifications in notification center are both enabled. If they are off, turn them on and test again.
3. Disable Focus assist temporarily
   Open Windows Settings again. Go to System > Focus assist. Set the mode to Off for a test. If notifications start appearing, the issue is Focus assist. You can configure exceptions later to allow Teams alerts during presentations or meetings. On Windows 11, the same setting is under System > Notifications > Focus assist.
4. Allow Teams to run in the background
   In Windows Settings, go to Privacy > Background apps. In the list, find Microsoft Teams and set the toggle to On. On Windows 11, this option is under Settings > Apps > Installed apps > Microsoft Teams > Advanced options > Background app permissions. Select Always. This permission lets the app receive messages even when you close the main window.
5. Sign out and sign back into Teams
   Click your profile picture in Teams. Select Sign out. Close the app completely by right-clicking the Teams icon in the system tray and choosing Quit. Relaunch Teams and sign in again. This forces the app to re-register with the Windows notification service. Test a message from a second account or a colleague.
6. Clear the Teams app cache
   Close Teams completely. Press Windows key + R, type %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams, and press Enter. Delete the contents of that folder, but keep the folder itself. Do not delete the Teams folder in %localappdata% unless you are willing to lose cached files. Relaunch Teams. The app will rebuild its cache and re-register notifications. You will need to sign in again.
7. Verify Teams admin policy assignments
   Open the Teams admin center at admin.teams.microsoft.com. Go to Users > Manage users. Select the affected user. Look at the Teams policies section. Click Edit next to Messaging policy. Confirm that the assigned policy has Chat and Channel mentions set to On. If the policy blocks these features, notifications will never fire. Apply the change and wait up to 24 hours for propagation.

If Teams Still Has Issues After the Main Fix

Teams Notifications Only Work When the App Is Open

When you close the Teams window, the background process may stop if the app is not allowed to run in the background. Go back to Windows Settings > Privacy > Background apps and confirm the toggle for Teams is on. Also check the Battery saver settings. If battery saver is active, it can suspend background activity. Disable battery saver or add Teams to the allowed list under Settings > System > Power & battery > Battery saver.

Teams Shows a Toast but No Sound

The sound setting is separate from the banner setting. Open Teams > Settings > Notifications. For each category, select Banner and sound instead of just Banner. Also verify that the Windows volume mixer is not muting Teams. Right-click the speaker icon in the system tray and choose Open volume mixer. Ensure the Teams slider is not at zero.

Notifications Appear on the Wrong Device

Teams delivers notifications to all devices where you are signed in. If you see alerts on your phone but not on your PC, the PC may have a stale session. Sign out of Teams on the PC and sign back in. If the problem persists, check if the PC is set to Do not disturb in Teams. Click your profile picture and look at the presence status. If it shows Do not disturb, change it to Available.

New Teams Desktop vs Classic Teams Desktop: Notification Differences

Item	New Teams Desktop	Classic Teams Desktop
Notification engine	WebView2 runtime with re-registration requirement	Native Windows push notification service
Background app permission	Must be manually set to Always in Windows Settings	Works with default permissions
Default banner and sound	Disabled after upgrade	Enabled by default
Focus assist interaction	Fully suppressed by Focus assist	Fully suppressed by Focus assist
Cache reset method	Delete %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams contents	Delete %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams contents

The table shows that the main differences are the notification engine and the background permission. The new client requires more manual configuration after the upgrade. The cache reset method is identical for both, which simplifies troubleshooting.

Conclusion

You can now restore Teams notifications after moving to the new client by checking the in-app settings, Windows permissions, and admin policies. Start with the Teams notification settings and then verify the Windows notification access for Teams. If alerts still fail, disable Focus assist and allow Teams to run in the background. For persistent issues, clear the app cache or re-register the app by signing out and back in. As an advanced step, use the Teams admin center to audit the messaging policy for the affected user. This ensures that no policy-level block is preventing chat or channel notifications from reaching the client.