Forum Discussion
Force Teams desktop client update
I would suggest you check out the recently shared blog that explains a little about the update process at Why do I not see a feature but my colleague does? - Release Processes Microsoft Teams.
As explained it's entirely normal to have different versions while deployments are happening slowly, things are a little complex at the moment due to some delays, an apparent rollback and new versions through TAP and Public Preview. So if your users are guests in other tenants that may be in TAP you could be getting versions from there, I'm a guest in the microsoft tenant so my versions vary wildly.
As PDSDavid correctly explained the Machine Wide installer is more like a stub to create the installation for each user. Also the regular msi will be a little behind the newest version you may see, it trails rollout and doesn't lead.
It is quite unlikely that any specific build would cause the issues you describe, and that would seem to be largely verified by it remaining after a reinstall. I would be looking into driver versions perhaps.
Teams update process is unorthodox in enterprise, more like a consumer app, but this is deliberate from Microsoft to manage the far faster pace of change in what is really a web application in a wrapper. In my experience across Teams at many organisation it is very robust, the only issues I've seen are in locations where network restrictions are preventing access to the download service. Microsoft were planning to provide some more admin control, allowing you to control the day of the week and so on, but I think this has been pushed down the list due to priority works to support Teams being used by schools during the pandemic.
ChristianBergstrom I don't think this is a very good idea, it's quite possible you could get a version that isn't going to be deployed to your deployment ring and therefore wouldn't be supported.
It's pretty unlikely that anyone is stuck, I've only seen it where there are firewall blocks preventing download. I would suggest the following to check if updates are fine
1. Click on the Me menu and Check for Updates
2. Go to the Teams icon in the status area, right click and choose Get Logs
3. Look for a message that says "App up to Date"
As long as that's there then there are no updates being offered to your client at the moment, so you are fine as you are. Teams versions are an increasing number, but only certain version make it to the widespread deployment ring which is supported. For example if you opt in to Public Preview or TAP programmes then you get more frequent and less tested client versions.
There has been a long gap in updates, it's entirely correct, don't mess with it. There would be an article on Docs if this was a supported proceedure.
StevenC365 Your faith in MS to just get everyone onto the best version for them is .. interesting. Given MSs history of just abandoning clients with major issues due to bugs, it seems unlikely that they are going to do any differently with Teams.
Indeed, I manage around 450 desktops and I see a wide range of versions installed going from 1.2 through to 1.4. I reinstalled my own desktop yesterday with the latest version on the MS page and I've ended up with 1.4.0.2879, while I have desktops which are running 1.4.0.3484 - which I can't find anywhere. My machine also says I have the latest version, which is obviously wrong as I had a more recent version before the wipe and reinstall.
I was forced to wipe Teams from my own machine because it was crashing every few hours. Nothing was displayed when it crashed. The window just closed. Wipe and reinstall has made no difference. It still crashes. So do colleagues.
I would like to get everyone up to the same version and to not use the profile installed version... but no, this is almost impossible. In theory when you install the machine-wide version then the profile version should be removed. Never happens. Updating the machine wide will sometimes result in the profile version also updating, sometimes not.
The idea that MS will just manage from the cloud this is laughable.
What was wrong with just having an MSI installable product, like every other product?
I would suggest you check out the recently shared blog that explains a little about the update process at Why do I not see a feature but my colleague does? - Release Processes Microsoft Teams.
As explained it's entirely normal to have different versions while deployments are happening slowly, things are a little complex at the moment due to some delays, an apparent rollback and new versions through TAP and Public Preview. So if your users are guests in other tenants that may be in TAP you could be getting versions from there, I'm a guest in the microsoft tenant so my versions vary wildly.
As PDSDavid correctly explained the Machine Wide installer is more like a stub to create the installation for each user. Also the regular msi will be a little behind the newest version you may see, it trails rollout and doesn't lead.
It is quite unlikely that any specific build would cause the issues you describe, and that would seem to be largely verified by it remaining after a reinstall. I would be looking into driver versions perhaps.
Teams update process is unorthodox in enterprise, more like a consumer app, but this is deliberate from Microsoft to manage the far faster pace of change in what is really a web application in a wrapper. In my experience across Teams at many organisation it is very robust, the only issues I've seen are in locations where network restrictions are preventing access to the download service. Microsoft were planning to provide some more admin control, allowing you to control the day of the week and so on, but I think this has been pushed down the list due to priority works to support Teams being used by schools during the pandemic.
>It is quite unlikely that any specific build would cause the issues you describe,
>and that would seem to be largely verified by it remaining after a reinstall.
>I would be looking into driver versions perhaps.
It is *extremely* likely that a specific build would cause the issues I describe. Its called a bug. Thats why we update software. Its the principal reason for updating software.
Drivers being out of date is just being ridiculous. You can always say that about anything. Why would only Teams, not much more than an advanced chat app, be affected by this magic driver issue when all the other stuff, using more advanced system features, is stable. Also, in my own case I know my driver set is up to date as I do update whenever something is available. On a client machine it would be less often, but in my case its all up to date and Teams still crashes constantly with no log.
I'm basing this on supporting hundreds of desktops. If applications like Solidworks, office or the myriad of programming tools people use crashed, the users would be on the phone. They're not, but a lot of people do report that they missed teams chat messages because it was closed. Just Teams, which makes it pretty unlikely that all those desktops (with different models, different makes and different drivers) have issues which just happen to affect Teams and only Teams.
By any chance is it a Lenovo L13 Laptop like mentioned over here
My Laptop shuts down during TEAMS calls - Microsoft Tech Community
IanMurphy48 Hi, thanks for your input. Bear in mind that it isn't necessary to all be on the same version though as it's the availability of features that really matters. But I do understand your frustration.
There's an option for MSI installation just to put it out there Install Teams using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs
My personal opinion is that C2R and the update channels is a massive improvement compared to MSI installations. Unfortunately Teams has it's own update flow which is kind of out of control, even though you can choose to deploy it with M365 apps for ex. you can't be granular.
ChristianBergstrom I have no problem with having the users running 1.3.0.3xx or 1.3.0.2xx versions, but what I see happening is the same as is happening with Win10. Most installations just update, but you end up with a significant number which are just orphaned and never update. With win10 you download an iso and update from that and... no problem, so why didn't they auto update?
I'm seeing the same with Teams. Hundreds are running a more or less recent version, but then maybe a couple of dozen machines are seemingly 'stuck'.
The msi installer simply does nothing to either the machine wide or profile installed versions when executed on these machines. Frustrating.
IanMurphy48 the MSI "machine wide" installer (included with o365) just creates a run once scheduled task in all local profiles including the default to triggers the profile install on login.
there is no such thing as a machine level install of teams.
This is why a login script is required to do any maintenance. Unsupported or not, the OP is quite useful info. although I recommend instead of looking for the latest version from that linked site. I would use the version from a healthy version in your environment.
