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Fix: Microsoft Teams Login Loop When Picking an Account

Microsoft Teams logo

A customer reported they were completely locked out of Microsoft Teams. Every time they opened the app and selected their account, the screen would flash and return to the same login screen in an endless loop. They had already tried clearing caches and reinstalling the app with no luck, and the same thing happened in the browser too. That last detail was the key, because it told us the problem was on the account side rather than the device. Here is how we tracked it down and fixed it.

Symptoms

When opening Microsoft Teams, users are presented with the “Welcome to Teams” screen showing a list of accounts. After clicking on an account to sign in:

  • The screen blinks or flashes briefly
  • Teams returns to the same “Pick an account to continue” screen
  • The login loop repeats indefinitely, regardless of which account is selected
  • The same issue occurs on both the desktop app and the web portal

Users may have already tried clearing caches and reinstalling the Teams app without success.

Microsoft Teams Welcome screen showing Pick an account to continue login loop

Affected Software

  • Application: Microsoft Teams (desktop app and web client)
  • Platform: Windows 10/11
  • Related Services: Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), Conditional Access, Web Account Manager (WAM)

Cause

When the login loop affects both the desktop app and web portal, the cause is almost always server-side or account-level rather than a local client issue. The most common causes are:

  • A Conditional Access policy blocking the sign-in (for example, requiring a compliant device or Hybrid Azure AD Join)
  • Stale device registrations in Microsoft Entra ID exceeding the per-user limit
  • A licensing issue where the Teams licence has been removed or is not assigned correctly
  • Corrupt WAM (Web Account Manager) token cache combined with browser cookie issues

Resolution

Step 1: Check Entra ID sign-in logs (admin side)

Since both desktop and web are affected, start with the admin side before touching the user’s machine:

  1. Open the Microsoft Entra admin centre (entra.microsoft.com)
  2. Go to Identity > Monitoring & health > Sign-in logs
  3. Filter by the affected user’s email address
  4. Look at recent failed sign-in attempts, checking the Error code, Failure reason, and Conditional Access tab
  5. Common error codes:
    • 53003 - Conditional Access is blocking access
    • AADSTS50076 - MFA required but not completing
    • AADSTS700016 - Application not found in the tenant

Step 2: Review Conditional Access policies

If sign-in logs show a Conditional Access failure:

  1. In the Entra admin centre, go to Protection > Conditional Access > Policies
  2. Check policies that target the user, specifically:
    • Require compliant device - blocks sign-in if the device is not enrolled or compliant in Intune
    • Require Hybrid Azure AD Join - blocks access if the device is not domain-joined
    • Require approved client app - can cause loops if the Teams version is not recognised
  3. Temporarily exclude the affected user from suspect policies to identify which one is causing the loop

Step 3: Check device registration

  1. In the Entra admin centre, go to Identity > Devices > All devices
  2. Search for devices registered to the affected user
  3. Delete any old or unused device objects. Azure AD has a per-user device registration limit, and exceeding it can cause silent sign-in failures
  4. Verify the user’s current device is listed and its status is Enabled

Step 4: Verify Teams licensing

  1. In the Microsoft 365 admin centre, go to Users > Active users and select the affected user
  2. Click Licenses and apps
  3. Confirm that Microsoft Teams is toggled on within their licence plan
  4. If the licence was recently changed, wait 15-30 minutes for propagation

Step 5: Fix the web login loop (browser side)

  1. If third-party cookies are blocked in the browser, add these domains to the Allow list:
    • [*.]microsoft.com
    • [*.]microsoftonline.com
    • [*.]teams.microsoft.com
  2. Clear browser cookies and cache specifically for microsoft.com and microsoftonline.com
  3. Test signing in via an InPrivate or Incognito window. If it works there, the issue is cached browser state

Step 6: Clean up Windows Credential Manager

  1. Close Teams completely (check Task Manager for any ms-teams.exe processes)
  2. Open Control Panel > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials
  3. Remove all entries containing: MicrosoftOffice, msteams, Teams, ADAL, or OneDrive
  4. Also check the Web Credentials tab and remove entries for teams or login.microsoftonline.com

Step 7: Clear WAM token cache

  1. Close all Microsoft 365 apps (Teams, Outlook, Word, OneDrive)
  2. Open Settings > Accounts > Access work or school
  3. If the organisation account is listed, select it and choose Disconnect
  4. Delete the contents of these folders:
    • %localappdata%MicrosoftTokenBrokerCache
    • %localappdata%MicrosoftOneAuth
    • %localappdata%MicrosoftIdentityCache
    • %localappdata%PackagesMSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbweLocalCache (new Teams)
  5. Restart the computer, then open Teams

Step 8: Run dsregcmd cleanup (if needed)

If the issue persists, open an elevated Command Prompt and run:

  1. dsregcmd /status to check the device’s Azure AD join state
  2. dsregcmd /cleanupaccounts to clear all cached WAM accounts
  3. Restart the computer and re-authenticate

Note: This signs the user out of all Microsoft 365 apps on the machine.

Important Notes

  • Both desktop and web affected? Start with the admin-side checks (Steps 1-4). A purely client-side issue would not affect the web portal.
  • Check the system clock. Azure AD token authentication is sensitive to time drift. If the device clock is off by more than 5 minutes, sign-ins can fail silently. Go to Settings > Time & Language > Date & time and click Sync now.
  • Multiple accounts. If the user has multiple Microsoft accounts (work, personal, shared), the login loop is more likely to occur due to conflicting cached tokens. Cleaning the Credential Manager and WAM cache (Steps 6-7) is especially important in these cases.
  • Microsoft SaRA tool. If manual steps do not resolve the issue, download the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant and select Teams > I’m having trouble signing in to Teams.

If you need help resolving Microsoft Teams login issues, get in touch with our team.

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About The Author

Elliot Munro building AI automation solutions at GCIT
Elliot Munro
Elliot Munro is GCIT's Chief Information Security Officer and leads GCIT's security and AI work. He holds Anthropic's Claude Certified Architect - Professional credential and is Microsoft Certified as a Cybersecurity Architect Expert, Microsoft 365 Administrator Expert, Identity and Access Administrator Associate and Security Operations Analyst Associate. Read Elliot's profile.
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