Forum Discussion
Teams is KILLING my Mac Every Day
I have a hard time believing I'm the first person to post this after not finding anything in the forum. I wouldn't doubt if Microsoft is deleting them because they can't figure out how to fix this issue. I can Google this issue and come up with numerous results but NOTHING has been able to fix this issue except for completely removing Teams all together, which unfortunately is not an option for me.
Teams is murdering my MacBook Pro 16" i9 with 16GB RAM every day. This was supposed to be the most kick-a$$ laptop at the time but Microsoft is slowly killing it with Teams. It causes serious lags and randomly decides when it wants to share the screen successfully. Other times, it just shows screen but no audio or vice versa. It's infuriating and I've lost my patience!
For context, I just re-installed my entire OS thinking it was an OS issue. I erased the entire drive and started from scratch. I did not do any kind of restore from backup. Everything was a fresh install yesterday.
I joined a teams meeting today in front of 100 people and Teams seemed to be running fine until I went to share screen and then everything choked. Those who were showing video on the call started flickering rapidly, which could have caused an epileptic seizure - it's that bad and I'm not joking, this isn't funny. IT'S VERY IRRITATING! My entire system. Mail, Calendar, Finder, and Preview (all Apple Apps, which should run super fast) started running like garbage with lags between 5 and 10 seconds - that's no joke. Upon reboot, it was normal again until I ran Teams for another meeting... reboot.
I firmly believe Teams is a virus and the developers should be fired for ignoring this issue. I've been dealing with this issue for nearly a year. Teams always causes some kind of lag issue whenever I run it. I have to reboot my machine to get my computer to work somewhat normal again. This is ridiculous!
I found an MS article mentioning how Teams uses memory because of this Chromium feature due to easier development. I don't care about the ease of development. I CARE about it working and NOT DELAYING MY PRODUCTIVITY. Forget Chromium!
Earlier this year, MS announced they were going to have a new and improved version in April 2021. I think two version have been released since then - None of them have solved this issue.
Is anyone at Microsoft Listening?!?!?!
Hi everyone, we're pleased to announce Microsoft Teams for Apple Silicon, which on the M1/M2 ARM builds, will have significantly faster performance than what's seen during the Rosetta emulation today! Here's our official roadmap ID for this release; Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365. More on this can be found here; Announcing Microsoft Teams optimized for Apple silicon - Microsoft Tech Community.
Users should see a significant performance boost with this release. And for the Intel Macs out there, we're still thinking about you! We have some large performance fixes coming that will help improve overall performance for the Intel version as well.
Thanks,
Sam Cosby, Teams Engineering PM
242 Replies
- I have the same issue. I cannot use the Microsoft Teams Desktop App for work because it drains my battery by 70% in under an hour on video conf calls. I've resorted to Teams on the web (Chrome) for now which is super sad. I haven't been on video calls but web Teams is open and still draining the battery by 20% in 40 mins, still better than 70% in less than an hour but not an apples to apples comparison. Absolutely horrible. I've done the uninstall and reinstall Teams and it doesn't help.
- Same here. Teams runs like a pain when people use video or share a screen. The fans spool up soo loud it's impossible to stay in the meeting. It's been a year since people have been highlighting this, when are Microsoft going to fix it?
I have the following spec:
2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB Microsoft Teams has been horrible for me for the past year. High CPU usage, fans blazing, computer battery drops by 10% every 10 mins. Someone suggested to do a "complete" uninstall instead of only moving Teams to the trash.
To uninstall Teams, quit Teams by right-clicking the Teams app in the dock, then holding down Option and clicking Force Quit. Open the Application Folder, select Microsoft Teams, and move it to the Trash.
Then:
1) Click Go > Go To Folder
2) Then navigate to following folder and delete them (if any)
~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams
~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams.shipit
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/Application Cache/Cache
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/blob_storage
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/Cache
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/databases
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/GPUCache
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/IndexedDB
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/Local Storage
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/tmp
Don't forget to empty your trash to completely remove everything.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software and re-download Microsoft Teams if you need to. The platform is also available in the Apple app store, but that app is only compatible with iPhone and iPad and not for MacOS.
I've been running my mac for 2 hours and it's only gone down 8%. I tested the video while presenting and it was at 10-12% cpu usage vs 35%+ before. Hope this helps others!
- Update: the complete uninstall and reinstall only worked until the app restarted. Then somehow teams looks like it went back to an old version and my battery drops 70% in less than an hour. This is horrible.
UPDATE: Teams still sucks.
I have been using the web app in Chrome and it is workable. I tried the app again today and it is the same—unusable when in video chat. Why Microsoft?
I am using a Macbook air M1 2020 8GB.
In the last weeks it slowed dramatically, before it was the fastest computer I ever had.
I could not work with it any longer because of really cumbersome delays and freezing.
I stopped using the desktop version of Teams and use the teams via web.
Now I am back to old performance!
Why is Teams slowing down a M1 mac so much that I cannot work anymore?
coffeeTheCupI am experiencing the same. MS Teams is extremely slow when in a video call.
I have noticed this during the last week, before that it was working properly.
I am in version "1.5.00.4683. It was last updated on 2/20/22."
It is almost unusable.
same problem, teams is killing my mac every time you log in 15 minutes before it connects to meetings, all normal, freezing up so you have to reboot the mac, all has happened with regularity, reinstalling teams helps for a little while, before it clogs the the mac again... ironically same as skype, which doesn't event work on an android properly... teams is extremely good on the android, same login. rgds
My Macbook Air also has problems with Teams Meeting.
1) It takes very long to start up the Teams app for Mac
2) It takes very long for the Teams app to log into a meeting
3) Macbook becomes extremely slow and freezes when sharing a screen
I am now forced to invite my customers to Zoom, but I would prefer to work with Teams Meetings.
Pernille-Eskebo Teams Developers: please let me know when you tackled this problem. I am running the latest version of MacOS Monterey Version 12.2.1
Thanks!
Matt
- My work Mac has been doing the same thing. Extremely frustrating! I’m on the lates OS too. I first thought it was an issue with my Bluetooth causing the lag, so I ordered a wired headset. Still the same issue was happening. When I’m on teams doesn’t matter audio or video same problem occurs. My kernel_task will go from using 2-5% CPU to over 800 CPU!! In a matter or minutes. Once this happens I’m lagging for about 3-5 seconds behind. I can longer do anything on my machine. If I even try it will end up shutting down. I have to wait until my meeting is over to either restart my computer to bring it back to normal or wait about 20-25 minutes for it to start slowing down.
- Same here.
My Mac is not perse very powerfull (but Intel Core i5 and 16GB of memory should be enough?!), but after we switched from calling/meeting using SfB (in island mode with Teams) to only Teams it seems every meeting with a shared screen (either mine or someone else's) my sound keeps breaking up (while sounds from other apps keep being okay). Also the presented screen starts flickering.
After starting Teams, I see like 9 different processes popping up of which 8 are called Microsoft Teams Helper and 5 of which have (helper) behind them).
What is causing Teams to take up resources? Amount of channels, Apps used in different channels etc?
Any useful pointers on settings I can adjust in MacOS 12.1 or MS Teams for Mac version 1.5.00.1912-E? - I have just started an online remote cyber security course and just faced this issue myself on the first day of live training with 70 people. Only 10 had video on, myself included. It was doing my head in as I couldn’t contribute to the chat. Teams desktop was completely unresponsive a lot of the time. It has all the markers of a very poorly designed piece of software and I compare it now to ransomware in that it is hogging all my systems’ resources so I can barely take live notes. As an MSP owner using Teams for Direct Routing just for calls I am disgusted with what Microsoft have engineered here. I have a MacBook Pro 13” i5 8GB 1TB SSD machine and find it runs great for most things expect intensive creative software where I need more RAM. I appreciate technology advances and resource demands increase, however this software audience requires that it works on a range of hardware. In the past I have used Zoom or Hangouts instead as Teams is soo unreliable. Coming from an Apple background with the best reliability it is disappointing Microsoft’s software products don’t meet the grade.
I will be trying the web app next and report back my experience. And maybe use my iPad Pro to mirror it across my monitors.
Has anyone got any other solutions?- Hello there. I saw that the are mayor performance hits when the machine has a secondary display.
I have two alternatives, when having a call try to disconnect the secondary screen or the other one that i've just tested is to have the video call on a web browser and everything else on the app.
I know that this """""workarround"""" is sub optimal but at least my machine doesn’t hang anymore with two screens and a teams call.- I will be trying this tomorrow in my next meeting!
- i7, 16gb MBP touchbar 2017 and on any video call performance DROPS like crazy. Video starts to tear, impossible and it makes the machine unusable.
- Over the past couple of weeks, I've now started seeing laggy performance using Teams on my Mac mini (M1, 2020) 16GB macOS Monterey Version 12.0.1
Microsoft Teams Version 1.4.00.34557
(It's always been slow on my Intel Macs)
Video calls in particular are laggy. Even the local image from my camera looks laggy.
I don't see any issues like this with any other video tools, such as Quicktime, FaceTime, Zoom, mmhmm, Google meetings, Amazon Chime etc...
According to "System information" MS Teams is still an Intel app, so any performance issues are likely to be present on both architectures. It's just that maybe the M1 machines are so much faster it wasn't noticeable until now. Something has definitely changed to make it more of an issue on the M1 Macs too though.- Update on this. After the Monterey 12.1 update, things have sped up somewhat.
Now the only thing that is laggy is Teams video calls specifically.
All other video apps continue to work like a dream. A quick data point on my virtualization experiment.
Today I tried to start my first call off the morning, using teams on Windows inside a Parallels virtual machine on my mac, and teams told me it (approximate quotation) "couldn't start the camera, because my computer was too busy, close some applications and try again."
The mac mini is a 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5, with 32 mb of RAM. The Virtual machine is given 4 processors and 16 mb of RAM.
So this is pretty pathetic, as I wasn't running an especially odd collection of apps in the VM -- teams, outlook, chrome, excel..., outside the VM on the mac I had some music composition stuff running, but that *shouldn't* affect what's dedicated to the VM I would think.Anyway, a data point.
I've had the same issue for last few weeks and only just cottoned on to the fact that the issue was happening after using Teams.
I'm running a Macbook Pro 16inch with 32GB of memory, it was top of the line two years ago.
But I've come across this thread because I just had my computer slow down while screen sharing with my manager via Slack.
Got me wondering if the issue is related to an underlying kernal_task, that many video sharing applications might be using that is common to the MAC platform.
