Cant share/attach files in MS Teams chat

Copper Contributor

Hi All,

 

I am hoping someone will be help me 

I cant attach files to teams chat

12 Replies

Hi @Louisani84,

Here are some things you can try if you can't attach files to Teams chat:

  1. Check your internet connection. Make sure you have a strong and stable internet connection.
  2. Restart the Teams app. This can sometimes fix minor glitches.
  3. Clear the Teams cache. To do this on a Windows computer, open File Explorer and navigate to %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams. Delete all of the files and folders in this folder. Then, restart the Teams app.
    Clear Teams cache - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
  4. Update the Teams app. Make sure you are using the latest version of the Teams app.
    Update Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support
  5. Check the file size
  6. Check your permissions. If you are unable to attach files to a specific chat or channel, it is possible that you do not have the necessary permissions. Contact your Teams administrator to check your permissions.


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Kindest regards,


Leon Pavesic
(LinkedIn)

@Louisani84 one more thing too look at - if you’re chatting with an external person, you can’t share files. This is by design to keep your data safe. 

if you still need to share the file, you may be able to share a link instead, depending on your company’s policies.

@HelloBenTeoh and @LeonPavesic 

 

found the issue, as weird as it sounds user shares the same email address as an employee who left about a month ago, so he doesnt have access to his onedrive which is where teams files are stored 

 

Striking this issue myself. Not sure if exactly the same issue but I work with a large number of external parties (not on my business domain) through teams channels and not sure why sharing files with trusted external parties need to be blocked but for some reason it is....

It would be good if there was a setting to control messaging policies for chats with external parties, but there are no options in the Teams Admin center for this (at least as far as I can see). I use 3rd party document management software so the ability to share actual files and not links is critical otherwise I may as well revert to email messages.

Sorry I can't help but perhaps someone else has a workaround or idea for this.

@NickPuzzle The other options are to use Teams and Channels. You would need to bring the external parties in as Guests (which have higher permissions than External users) or set up shared channels with their tenant.

 

@HelloBenTeoh so actually generating teams channels for external parties vs group chats only. Not a bad idea thanks. Would that mean the external party has to switch Teams tenants? I don't think the external chat messages require tenant switching. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

@NickPuzzle if they're added as a Guest, they'll need to switch tenants (but they won't need to sign out of Teams). 

 

If you go down the path of Shared Channels, it's a bit more effort as your Teams Admins will need to coordinate and set up B2B direct connct (B2B direct connect Microsoft Entra overview | Microsoft Learn) but it means they won't need to do any switching and your channels will appear in their regular teams/channels area. 

 

Here's some more info on Shared Channels: Shared channels in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

Great info. Thank you again!

@HelloBenTeoh   We don't want Microsoft deciding to protect us from our own workflow. 

Until the Teams group gets its act together, we will just keep easily sharing files with our counterparts in organizations through Zoom's chat functions.

The problem is that file sharing always works in Zoom chat, its always extremely easy because it uses operating system drag-and-drop, and the files can be quite large, in the range of gigabytes. Microsoft has had YEARS to match that ease-of-use for us with Teams, but keeps failing miserably to do so. As for internet connections, it's multi-gigiabit and so is the network. The only dysfunctional piece is Teams and Teams chat.

@Mark Buse :thumbs_up:

Having to coordinate with tech people and IT admins just to share work files with colleagues in other organizations is utter nonsense, which is why we still cannot used Teams and its institutionalized chat environment for our work.