Breakout Room not working in Teams meeting

If you want to divide participants into smaller groups during meetings then you need to use the Breakout rooms feature of Microsoft teams. This feature is useful for organizing people into smaller groups for a particular project or a class into smaller groups. However, some users reported that the Breakout Ioom is not working in Teams meetings and they want a quick remedy. In this article, we are going to learn how to resolve this issue.

Before going to the troubleshooting guide it is important to know a few things. You won’t be able to see or configure Breakout rooms if you are not a meeting organizer or breakout room manager. In case, the meeting is canceled or the thread where the channel is configured is deleted, you won’t be able to start the Breakout room. Last, Breakout rooms won’t work for Private or shared channels, unsupported clients, and on systems with policies configured to forbid the usage of Breakout rooms.

If the Breakout room is not working in Teams meetings then it is possible that you may have configured some of the settings that can interfere with breakout room settings. However, it is not the only reason, there are various causes, hence, various solutions. Therefore, we have mentioned below some of the potential causes and its solution.

Fix Breakout Room not working in Teams meeting

1. Update the Microsoft Teams app
2. Check the Internet connection
3. Clear MS Teams cache
4. Change MS Teams settings to public.
5. Reinstall the app

Let’s get started with our first solution.

1] Update the Microsoft Teams app

If users want to join the breakout room and are unable to join then make sure that you are using the updated Teams app. It has been seen that an outdated version of the app may cause this issue as there is a high chance that the person on the other end has an updated version, and this can trigger compatibility issues. To update the app, follow the prescribed steps.

• Open Microsoft Teams.
• Click on your Profile Picture.
• Click on Settings.
• Now, click on About Teams.
• It will check for updates and prompt you to update it.

Hopefully, after updating the Microsoft Teams app issue will be resolved.

2] Check the Internet connection

Breakout rooms require more bandwidth than regular chat rooms. If you are encountering the said error while using this app then to resolve this issue make sure that you have a good internet speed and stable Internet connection. Therefore it’s necessary to check the bandwidth and to do the same, you can use any of the free online Internet Speed testers. If it is slow, you have to restart your router, and see if the issue is resolved or not, however, if it persists, contact your ISP.

3] Clear MS Teams cache

The error in question can be due to the app’s corrupted cache, in this scenario, then we recommend you clear your team’s cache. Problems with Teams’ Breakout room feature and glitches will be fixed by deleting the Microsoft Teams cache. Follow the prescribed steps to do the same.

1. Quit Microsoft Teams altogether. To do the same, open Task Manager, right-click on Microsoft Teams, and select End Task
2. Double-click on This PC and go to %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams.
3. Now, delete all the files inside the following folders but make sure to not delete the folders:
   • %appdata%\Microsoft \teams\application cache\cache
   • %appdata%\Microsoft \teams\blob_storage
   • %appdata%\Microsoft \teams\Cache
   • appdata%\Microsoft \teams\databases
   • appdata%\Microsoft \teams\GPUcache
   • appdata%\Microsoft \teams\IndexedDB
   • appdata%\Microsoft \teams\Local Storage
   • appdata%\Microsoft \teams\tmp
4. Restart Teams and check if the issue is resolved.

Now, open MS Teams after deleting the Microsoft teams cache and check if your issue persists or not.

4] Change MS Teams settings to Public

You may encounter the said error if MS Teams is configured to Private, as that only allows users who are part of your organization to join the meeting. However, since, we are creating Breakout rooms, it is mandatory to start meeting in Public Mode. That is why, if you are launching a meeting and want to create Breakout rooms, make sure to start it in Public Mode.

5] Reinstall the app

If none of the above-mentioned solutions worked for you,  uninstalling the app and then installing it again is the last solution. Follow the prescribed steps to reinstall the app

• Press Windows + I key to open Settings.
• Click on Apps then click on Installed apps.
• Locate the Microsoft Teams app and click on the three-dot line.
• Select Uninstall.
• You will be prompted to confirm your actions, click on Uninstall again.
• Go to teams.microsoft.com and download the app.
• Run the download package and install the app.

Now, launch Teams and hopefully this will do the job.

You should also know that if you scheduled recurring meetings and want the breakout rooms to work, make sure to apply the settings to all meetings in recurrence. It is not possible to configure a single meeting in the recurrent.

Hopefully, we have cleared all your doubts regarding Breakout rooms in MS Teams.

Also Read: Microsoft Teams cannot change Team picture.