If Microsoft Teams is changing your status to Away all the time, that’s really annoying. This prevents your colleagues from knowing for sure when you’re available and when you’re actually away from your computer.
Why Does Teams Automatically Change My Status?
Teams automatically changes your status to Away when your computer enters sleep or idle mode. The same thing happens when you lock your PC. The program takes these signals as proof of your unavailability and changes your status accordingly.
If Teams is running in the background and not actively using it, although you’re actively using other programs (so your computer is not idle), the status will still be changed to Away after five minutes.
On the mobile version of Teams, the status changes to Away when the app runs in the background.
Many users don’t quite agree with this approach and suggest that Teams should not set the status to Away as long as they’re actively using their devices.
Employees Get Reprimanded, but It’s Not Their Fault
Employees who are working remotely hate this feature even more. Many employers rely on their employees’ Teams’ status to check if people are actually working.
However, this inaccurate status could potentially get employees into trouble, especially if the employer does not quite understand how the automatic Away status works.
What to Do If Microsoft Teams Changes Status to Away
Update Teams
Make sure Teams is up to date to avoid any glitches related to outdated Teams versions. While the tool automatically searches for updates, you may want to manually check for updates from time to time.
Click on your profile picture and select Check for updates.
Install the latest Teams version if there’s one available. Restart your computer and check if the status problem is still there.
Set a Status Message
A handy workaround is to set a status message that your colleagues and managers will see when they message you or @mention you. Write something like ‘I’m available, feel free to contact me.’
- Click on your profile picture.
- Go to Set status message.
- Type your status.
- Check the Show when people message me option.
- You can also set the message to be cleared at the end of the day.
- Save the changes.
Use PowerShell Script
The following PowerShell script will make it seem like the Scroll Lock key is being pressed. This will cause Teams to instantly switch you from “Away”.
Paste this code into Notepad, then save as teamswake.ps1 to your Desktop:
Clear-Host
Echo "Toggling Teams"
$WShell = New-Object -com "Wscript.Shell"
while ($true) {
$WShell.sendkeys("{SCROLLLOCK}")
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 200
$WShell.sendkeys("{SCROLLLOCK}")
Start-Sleep -Seconds 300
}
Right click it and select “Run as Administrator” whenever you want to use it.
Use Third-Party Apps to Keep the System Available
Other users suggested that third-party apps such as MouseJiggler or Caffeine can prevent Teams from changing Away’s status. Basically, these tools automatically wiggle your mouse slightly or prevent the computer from going idle to keep the system available.
Use the MouseJiggler USB dongle
If you prefer to use a hardware solution, you can plug the MouseJiggler USB dongle into your USB port. The dongle will prevent your Status from changing to Away.
Don’t forget to unplug the dongle when your shifts end. Otherwise, you will continue to appear online and available.
Insert a Paperclip Beside the Insert Key
If you don’t want to install any third-party tools, or you can’t do that because your system is controlled by IT admins, you can simply grab a paperclip and insert it beside the Insert key on your keyboard.
In this manner, the key remains pressed down, and Teams will record constant keyboard activity. This should prevent your computer from timing out and Teams from changing your status to Away.
Upvote the Away Status Issue on Microsoft Teams UserVoice
Teams users have been complaining about this status problem for months. If you’re annoyed by the same problem, go ahead and upvote this Teams UserVoice post:
Let Microsoft know they need to add this status issue to their list of priorities.
John Birk says
No apps installation\computer modifications allowed. Remote Working, Tested all the possible ways including placing mouse on a CD/mirror.
Nonetheless, I have found a solution : extra basic wired optical mouse placed on its side connected to my iMac; a compact torch flashing SOS to the mouse sensor.
Available equipment: smart charger and AA\AAA rechargeable batteries. I replace batteries every 3-4 days (depends on a flashlight).
Jonathan says
@Carl
Yes, it does randomly show your status to away when using other applications. It does it fairly rarely for me, but when it does, I have to log out and back in to get it to stay as available for more than a few minutes. I was hoping to actually find an actual solution, but so far no luck. As a manager, it’s useful enough to check before going trying to find someone at their desk, but not useful enough to actually tell if someone has been slacking; unless they have a history of it.
Tom says
In my post below I said there didn’t seem to be any patterns to when Away status is set, but now I have noticed one. My setup is a laptop with one really big external monitor. I have all of the “comms” stuff like email, calendar, Teams, etc… on the laptop monitor and I do all of my actual work from the external monitor. I can reliably reproduce that when I’m AFK for five minutes or more, Teams status will stay green, but the second I touch the keyboard or mouse and the focus is on something on the external monitor, it immediately flips to yellow. Mousing over to Teams, chatting, getting on a Teams meeting, nothing flips it back to green until I manually change it. FWIW – it’s not my phone. I always force stop Teams on my phone when I’m at my desk to keep it from hijacking my incoming Teams calls.
Aido says
I unwittingly set my status on my work phone as a last item before i left for vacation. 2 days back in the office I was unable to change the desktop status to available – kept reverting to “away”.
After reading the comment below, I checked phone status, changed it and problem solved. Thanks Kevin B,
H8ff0000 says
Carl here in the comments is making the assumption that every Teams build / enterprise setup works the same. This is not the case.
Example:
– At my previous employer, if you were active on the computer in some way, your status would not automatically change to Away, no need to make Teams the active window or anything.
– At my current employer, even if you are busy mousing & typing away nonstop, if you are not actively using Teams or occasionally have it as the active window, you will automatically be changed to Away after a fairly short period of time. This is actually a fairly big problem. Managers aren’t always the most tech savvy and likely won’t know the difference, and may assume you’re slacking,
The mentality Carl has shown is toxic in all facets of life. Not everyone has had the same privileges, experiences, etc. It’s not just about being kind, understanding, empathetic, etc. It’s also having common sense and not assuming you know everything.
It also proves my earlier point: management may make positive or negative assumptions based on incorrect information. Imagine Carl was your manager *cringe* *shudder*
Kevin B says
I realized that I had used Teams on my phone and the window was open in the background of my phone so it made it appear I was away. I closed the window on my phone and my status instantly updated on my computer for both Teams and Outlook.
John says
@Carl
You know absolutely nothing, and frankly, you have a lot of nerve to accuse people of just trying to avoid work when you have absolutely no evidence to back that up. So for context, I love my job and I love being productive at work, and nobody in my company monitors anyone’s availability status, so it has no effect on me personally except for the fact that people might be inclined not to contact me about something while I’m fully available. This is because this feature seems to be completely FUBAR, and either doesn’t care or are deliberately choosing NOT to fix it (I really do question their motives, since there used to be a feature that allowed you to set your status to available all day, which they removed shortly after a massive portion of the world starting working from home… hmm). For your information, my status gets changed to “Away” at random times throughout the day, and it is often IMPOSSIBLE for me to get it to change back to “Available” without closing and reopening Teams… and occasionally, the only thing that will fix it is restarting my computer entirely. Perhaps you don’t know anything about software development or programming (my line of work), but bugs are an inherent part of any software and in even the best circumstances are often completely unavoidable. Every single time there’s an OS update, thousands of people’s software will start glitching due to completely unforeseen complications that are created from the changes and related interactions between programs (hence the reason why most software is being patched and updated on a near-constant basis). So before you start spouting off and accusing people of being liars who trying who are trying to steal time from their company by pretending to work while they’re actually dicking around at home, maybe you, yourself, should actually get a clue. Otherwise, with all due respect, I think everyone would greatly appreciate it you would — kindly — shut the hell up.
Prateek says
I crated this tool that solves this problem. You can get the exe from the github and double click to run it. https://github.com/dubeyprateek/KeepAlive/releases/tag/Release
Tom says
@Carl
Teams ABSOLUTELY shows away status when you are in other applications. In my case, It often keeps the status as away even when I’m using Teams. We have a running joke here about people who are “away” while they are actually attending a meeting via Teams. We can all see and talk to them but their status is yellow. I just recently held an entire chat with someone on teams and my status didn’t change from “away”. It’s broken. The only reliable way I can show “available” is to periodically go set the damn thing to “available” manually. I haven’t detected a specific timeout, it just seems to be yellow every now and then and no amount of moving around in or out of the Teams UI seems to toggle it. I have to do that manually. Also, the above workaround doesn’t reliably work for me. It will still go to “away” or “offline” even if I have a message. The converse is true as well – I’ve had people ask me why I was up all night because it never went to “away” status when I locked my PC. The feature just doesn’t work reliably.
trl821 says
I’ve been doing what HyperionArcher suggested for almost 2 years. It works and no ones knows and you can still receive other calls/meetings
NY says
Great tip HyperionArcher! It works but I’ve a few questions for anyone who knows.
Can other people see you’re in a call by yourself even if you change the status to available?
IT probably can…
If they ask, how will you explain to IT why you’ve been in a call with yourself for more than say 30 minutes?
In the meantime I’ll just keep the insert key pressed down in a word doc.
PeterX1230982332 says
I hate “intelligent” software. Why is there no time setting?
Anonymous says
Hey @hyperion Archer you are genius man..
Thanks for the lovely hack.
Mel B says
I noticed several of my coworkers never show away. I find this odd when mine shows away just when I am going to the bathroom. But since the last microsoft update, if I have Teams minimized, sometimes it will go to away while I’m working in another app. Conversely, there’s times when it hasn’t swapped to away when I actually am. It’s driving me nuts how inaccurate it is. I miss Skype.
Amin says
I was in a Teams meeting and my status changed to away. There were two of us, so yes I was fully participating. The issue is that teams changed status based on my phone being idle not my computer. I had teams open on my phone at the same time.
Carl says
MICROSOFT TEAMS DOES NOT ALL OF A SUDDEN SHOW YOU AWAY IF YOU ARE WORKING IN ANOTHER APPLICATION. This is a complete lie by people mad about having to work. If you leave you desk, come back, and then go to Outlook for example it may take a few minutes to not show away in Teams. You can quickly solve that by changing your status to green. STOP LYING EVERYONE.
Rafael A P Nascimento says
Teams is by far the worst team app I ever worked with
reagrds says
Search for auto mouse mover, it moves your mouse every few seconds for a few pixels.
WarHammer says
If using a Chrome based browser:
1) open new tab
2) Enter in URL:
chrome://dicards
3) Find item in table for Teams Tab (based on Tab Title)
4) Uncheck Auto Discardable
GogoSm says
Open Notepad, click cursor inside Notepad. Then put something heavy on your ESC key. Been doing this for 12 months. Enjoy!
Sasha says
Why would someone want to manually ensure your system always shows available? It seems deceitful, like they are hiding something from the boss. Everyone goes to the restroom, has lunch and coffee breaks. It would seem suspicious to me that person NEVER shows away. Especially if no other employees do this?
Would other people agree?
AQ says
Thanks @HyperionArcher for the tip. This is the only solid workaround without installing any 3rd party software.
Shawn Tripet says
Thanks HyperionArcher!!! This is a brilliant solution! I tested it and it works perfectly! Thanks for the Hot Tip! I am elated:)
Neveraway Teams says
https://sites.google.com/view/antiawayteams/lite-version
This little program will do the job for you, also you can schedule (Day(of week),Hours,Minutes) when teams/Skype turns ON/OFF.
Everyone will think you are always there, give it a try it’s free
Stephanie says
The MS timer suggestion didn’t work for me. While the timer was running my status changed to focused (Outlook calendar event) and even still my status changed to away.
WM says
@skeefs, worked perfect and took a few seconds!
Jonathan blippi says
Did you tried https://sites.google.com/view/antiawayteams ? you just need to turn ON the program and done, you will never go away, also you can set timers, so it will turn ON and Off your teams at precise hours. That’s the best workaround and its free
Eliza says
It’s so annoying! I’m literally sitting in a webinar rn but because the meeting isn’t in Teams it shows me as away! That’s such bs.
Dollars says
Thanks HyperionArcher! It works and my status is “available” but will the admins see you’re on a call for minutes on end? What would you say then?
Victoria says
I will definitely try some of these options as allowed by IT adm. I have tried the set duration for “available” “today” and my status continues to change.
Tina says
@HyperionArcher
When you click on Meet Now Button, I assume you have to Join the meeting too?
CinKris says
Thanks HyperionArcher!!! This worked nicely!
Allen says
you can also click where it says “Available” then click duration and set it to “available” and choose “Today” or whatever time frame you want it to stay available.
Rich Laudeman says
I have the “opposite” problem. Skype had a nice feature that could automatically reset your status to “Available” (or your choice) when you got back and moved your mouse or began typing. With Teams, I often forget to reset my status to “Available” when I return, blissfully working for hours while showing “Be right back” but actually very available.
Agreed – MS should fix this, preferably by giving the user status change options in Settings as Skype provided.
Melvin says
I make a daylong appointment on my Outlook calendar and set the appointment status to Free, instead of the default (Busy)
Skeefs says
What I did to work around this was opened “Alarms and Clock” win10 app, then set my timer for 60 min (although you can set for any time) so since it is running, my laptop and Teams think I am using it actively so it will not move to idle status….
1 says
This is a real BUG that MS does not want to fix.
xoxoBelle says
I have tried what HypreioArcher said, it works PERFECTLY!
Thanks for your contribution my friend.
Dan says
^^^This is perfect, thank you!!
HyperionArcher says
Here’s my work around:
Go to the calendar page and click the “meet now” button. My status is updated to “in a call.” Then I tab over to my profile and set status to “available.” As long as I am in my imaginary call my computer won’t idle and Teams won’t change my status.