Automatic initials are taking my business
Hello everyone, I'm a software developer, mostly based in Germany. I have a M365 Business Account and am using Teams as part of it. Since automatic initials, instead of generic profile pictures, became a thing, I'm constantly in a hurry to change my profile picture as soon as possible. This is because my initials are SS, which in the German culture is the abbreviation of the company responsible for the death camps during Nazi Germany. People are so upset about it that I even had customers not do business with me. They saw the SS initials in calls and thought I was using this on purpose to make a political stand, i.e. being in favour of the industrial scale mass murder of several million people. I'm not. So here is where my frustration is with Teams, which I'm paying for, and which is taking my business away with its stupid initials: I cant change the initials without changing my name I cant populate my picture to outside orgs preventing the initials from being shown This leads me to the incredibly uncomfortable situation that every time I connect to a new client, I need to discuss my distancing of the genocide 80 years ago before actually being able to commence a meeting. Not a very happy topic and as mentioned before I have lost business because of it. Is there please, any solution to this, that doesn't involve having to change my name? Kind Regards Sebastian
Teams Desktop – Notification area becomes unresponsive after first notification
Summary After the first notification is displayed following Teams startup, the notification area becomes unresponsive to clicks. This persists even after the notification itself has been dismissed, and is only resolved by force-closing and restarting Teams. Environment OS: Windows 11 25H2 (Build 26200.8655) Microsoft Teams version: 26163.407.4851.7751 Steps to Reproduce Launch Microsoft Teams Wait for the first notification to appear Attempt to interact with the notification area (click to open/dismiss) Observe that the area is no longer responsive to clicks, even after the notification closes Expected behavior The notification area should remain interactive after each notification, allowing normal click interaction. Actual behavior The notification area stops responding to clicks after the first notification of the session. Interactivity is only restored after a full force-close and restart of Teams. Scope Issue is specific to Teams notifications; notifications from other applications on the same system behave normally. Issue has been reproduced on multiple PCs, suggesting it is not tied to a single machine configuration. Troubleshooting already attempted (no resolution) Clearing Teams cache Resetting the app Full uninstall/reinstall of Teams Has anyone else encountered this behavior, or is this a known issue with a fix/workaround in progress? Any guidance on additional logs or diagnostics I could provide would be appreciated.
Can the built-in "No account? Create one" link redirect to a custom sign-up page?
I'm using Microsoft Entra External ID with a built-in sign-in/sign-up user flow. On the Microsoft-hosted sign-in page, the "No account? Create one" link always redirects users to the default Entra sign-up page. I already have a custom registration page and would like this built-in link to redirect to my custom URL instead. Is there any supported way to customize the destination of this link in a built-in user flow? If not, could someone confirm whether this behavior is fixed by design? Thanks!Update: You can now control Teams Meeting Recording expiration notification emails
Hey Teams community, We've heard the feedback. For admins and users managing a high volume of meetings, TMR expiration emails can pile up fast. We've been working on giving you control, and that control is now here. What's new Tenant admins can now use a PowerShell cmdlet to suppress Teams Meeting Recording expiration and deletion notification emails across their organization. Notifications stay on by default (no change if you do nothing), but if you'd like to turn them off, here's how. Prerequisites Latest version of SharePoint Online Management Shell (download here). Note, it's Windows-only, so you'll need a Windows machine or Azure Virtual Desktop SharePoint Admin or Global Admin permissions Steps 1. Connect to your tenant powershell Connect-SPOService -Url https://<your-tenant>-admin.sharepoint.com 2. Check the current value powershell Get-SPOTenant | Format-List *Recording* False = notifications currently on (default). True = notifications suppressed. 3. Suppress notifications powershell Set-SPOTenant -DisableTeamsMeetingRecordingDeletedNotification $true You'll see a confirmation prompt — enter Y to proceed. 4. Verify powershell (Get-SPOTenant).DisableTeamsMeetingRecordingDeletedNotification True means you're all set. No more expiration emails for your tenant. Want to turn them back on later? Just run the same command with $false. What doesn't change Recordings still expire and delete on the same schedule No per-user settings, no UI changes. This is purely a tenant-level admin toggle We'll keep monitoring feedback, and as always, drop your questions below.
AADSTS50105 error message is unreadable for end users — UX improvement suggestion
1. What’s wrong with the current error message a. It’s written for administrators, not users The message exposes: Internal system names (AADSTS50105) GUIDs (aaaabbbb-cccc-dddd-eeee-ffff01234567) Identity provider jargon (“direct member of a group with access”) None of this helps the person who sees the error decide what to do next. b. The actual problem is buried in a wall of text The real issue is simply: You don’t have permission to access this app. Instead, the message forces users to: Read a long paragraph Decode domain-specific language Guess which part matters Cognitively, this is high effort for low payoff. c. “Contact your administrator” is vague and unhelpful Users ask: Which administrator? IT? Security? App owner? Their manager? What should they say? Without context, users either: Ignore the error Forward screenshots randomly Open the wrong support ticket d. Error codes without guidance increase support load AADSTS50105 may be meaningful internally, but: Users don’t know whether to Google it Support teams receive unclear tickets (“it doesn’t work”) This paradoxically raises support cost instead of lowering it. 2. What a better error message should do A good error message answers four questions in order: What happened? Why did it happen (in plain language)? What can the user do next? Who specifically can help? And it does so in under 30 seconds of reading time. 3. Example of a much better error message You don’t have access to [APPLICATION] Your account (email address removed for privacy reasons) isn’t currently authorized to use [APPLICATION]. This usually means: You haven’t been added to the required security group, or Access hasn’t been requested or approved yet. What to do next If you believe you should have access, contact IT Service Desk or your [APPLICATION] owner and request access. Helpful details to include in your request Application name: [APPLICATION] Your email: email address removed for privacy reasons Error reference: Access not assigned (Error ID: AADSTS50105 — for IT use) 4. Optional but high-impact improvement: Add a “Request Access” button or link One-click takes users to: ServiceNow / Jira / internal form Auto-populates app name and user email Administrators configure support link when configuring the application
The Misleading Teams Remove External Chat from User View API
The Graph removeAllAccessForUser API is supposed to remove external chat messages from the view of a tenant user when the chat contains some objectionable material. Unless the documentation is erroneous, the API doesn’t work as advertised and the results are disappointing. All of which means that blocking content for external chats isn’t really possible. If someone gets to start an external chat, they can pump some horrible stuff into your tenant. https://office365itpros.com/2026/07/02/external-chat-api/How to Record Snapshots for Teams Memberships
A lawyer asked if it is possible to take a snapshot of Teams memberships (people who were members at a certain point). This isn’t something that every Microsoft 365 tenant will want to do, but good reasons no doubt exist for the request. In any case, PowerShell makes it easy to find the team membership data and record it in a CSV file or XLS spreadsheet. https://office365itpros.com/2026/07/03/teams-membership-snapshot/
