Forum Discussion
Force Teams desktop client update
- Feb 06, 2021
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.
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.
- IanMurphy48Feb 19, 2021Brass Contributor
>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.
- StevenC365Feb 21, 2021MVP
By any chance is it a Lenovo L13 Laptop like mentioned over here
My Laptop shuts down during TEAMS calls - Microsoft Tech Community
- StevenC365Feb 21, 2021MVP
IanMurphy48 wrote:
It is *extremely* likely that a specific build would cause the issues I describe. Its called a bug.
However this forum isn't full of people reporting the exact same issue, and from your description no one is going to live with Teams crashing constantly. Microsoft also wouldn't leave people on a version with such an issue when they have newer versions either would they?
- IanMurphy48May 31, 2021Brass Contributor
StevenC365 Given the long history of MS doing precisely that, my answer is a resounding yes. MS fixes bugs which affect a lot of people or which create a lot of noise. I changed nothing, but the Teams issue disappeared a few weeks later, without so much as a reboot (I rarely reboot)... so, yes, it was a teams bug fixed by a Teams update.... why couldn't I just have installed the latest version? Ah, yes, because the latest version is never available for download.
I currently have an issue at a client who is running office 2010 (still). All of a sudden some users have the Teams Icon in outlook, despite that not being supported in 2010. Some users, but not all, and I can't download the same version for everyone, so some people have the icon, some don't. Those that don't have it of course want to know why their neighbour is able to organise meetings from Outlook and they can't. All online help still says that this functionality does't exist.
Isn't this release policy just great...