Mac Teams Client - Main Teams window stops displaying after a few days

[RichBaldry]

I have been running Teams client on my Mac for over a year now, through various updates and versions both of the Teams client and of MacOS. I'm currently on MacOS 10.14.6 and Microsoft Teams Version 1.3.00.4460.

What I see regularly is that the main Teams window just stops being accessible. Usually I have it running all the time in the regular display mode - not full screen - and can alt-tab switch between Teams and other apps as normal. Then, after a while, I suddenly find that when I alt-tab to Teams, the app window no longer appears. The menubar shows the Teams menu, and I can go through the menu OK, but most options have no effect. 'About Microsoft Teams' does nothing. Window > Bring All to Front does nothing. Window > Minimize does nothing, etc. The Help options mostly work, but that's about all.

The only solution is to Quit Microsoft Teams and restart the app.

It's a real pain. I frequently end up missing messages because of this. 

Has anyone else encountered this issue?

[#2]

@Nick Milner Alt-Tab is not a standard predefined shortcut on macOS (at least, I can't use it/find it). You can command-tab to the Teams app and then do Control-Down Arrow to view all its windows and select one. However, I have tried that in the past, and there simply is not window to select (in those cases where the Teams app decided to lose contact with the world).

[#3]

I didn't say ALT-Tab, I said Command-Tab, and the suggestion was to Command-Tab to the Teams app and (while continuing to hold Command-Tab) press the up arrow to select a window. You might see "No available windows" but that just means none available on that display. Press up arrow again and you should highlight either a lost window on another display or an empty frame around nothing - selecting that usually brings Teams back to life. That's been my experience anyway. YMMV.

[#4]

Well, then maybe you can edit that response, because it literally says, and I quote, "instead of simply command-tabbing to the Teams icon and letting go of the keys, alt-tab to the icon". I can only read "alt-tab" there as your suggested alternative.

[#5]

@Nick Milner Thanks for the hint. I'll try it next time. I wasn't aware of the cursor-keys-during-cmd-tab functionality. It may save me the hassle of restarting Teams, although I don't consider it a solution.

The 'Frame round empty space' seems to me to be a pretty key thing here. It seems to always be there when cmd-tab-cursoring to Teams - clearly there's something the Teams app is doing to bring that into existence - I don't see it when cmd-tab-cursoring around other apps. Is this where it's getting stuck?

[#6]

Could be. It looks like Teams is doing something weird that macOS doesn't expect and this is a side-effect. I was hoping that this would go away with the native Apple Silicon client.

[#7]

@RichBaldry 2 years later and this remains an issue - its very annoying. I also notice, that when you restart it often takes a while to get Teams running up to the point where you can actually join a meeting. I wonder if bluetooth headsets might be a contributing factor (do they cause the disappearing window - haven't been in a position to run without a headset for a few days to try) - as when I restart Teams, trying to connect audio is then an issue and often I will get an extended "joining" message as I desperately try to get into the meeting I am now late for as the window was gone.

[#8]

I found a great workaround to this issue. Install app on mac "alttab" alt-tab — Homebrew Formulae and then use Option+Tab on mac to display all windows (yes, even minimized windows on app) and it brings the hidden main window to the screen, YAY!! let me know if this solves

@RichBaldry