MS Teams (new) will not maintain "open in desktop" setting

Question

MS Teams (new) will not maintain "open in desktop" setting

Ruth-Ann 0

Despite numerous attempts to change the default from opening files in Teams to open them in Desktop, the setting doesn't hold. It reverts back to "Teams." The same thing happens if I try to change to open in browser. This is true for both Word and Excel files.

I seem to be using the new Teams, since I no longer see the option to switch from "classic Teams." This is frustrating and wastes quite a bit of time over the course of a day. Please help.

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Answer 1

Jess-Q 5,065 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Ruth-Ann

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Regarding your issue, I just want to reconfirm that support for classic Teams has officially ended.

Also, may I kindly ask a few questions so I can understand your issue better:

Is your account a personal account (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail) or a work/school account (typically associated with a domain name like your company or school)?
Which version of Office are you using? (e.g., Office 2016, Office 365 E3/E5)
Does this happen with all file types (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) or just specific ones?
What happens when you select the 'Desktop' option in the settings?
Have you tried clearing the Teams cache or reinstalling Office apps? For more details, please refer to: Clear the Teams client cache - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

In the meantime, you could try downloading the file into your local storage, while we work together on a fix.

Hope to hear back from you soon.

The initial response may not fully address your needs, but it will help me better understand your situation. Once I get the information, I will try my best to find the next steps.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Ruth-Ann 0 Reputation points

2025-09-12T20:38:29.8633333+00:00
Hi @Jess-Q , I've responded below:

Is your account a personal account (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail) or a work/school account (typically associated with a domain name like your company or school)? WORK

Which version of Office are you using? (e.g., Office 2016, Office 365 E3/E5) 365

Does this happen with all file types (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) or just specific ones? ALL

What happens when you select the 'Desktop' option in the settings? Once I click "save" it changes to Teams.

Have you tried clearing the Teams cache or reinstalling Office apps? For more details, please refer to: Clear the Teams client cache - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn YES
Jess-Q 5,065 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-16T15:20:52.03+00:00
Hi @Ruth-Ann,

Thank you for the detailed response.

I apologize for the late reply, may I kindly ask if other people in your organization also experience the same issue like this?

How long has this issue happened?

If you log into another device does the issue still persists?

Also have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling Teams to see if it helps with this issue Uninstall Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support

In the meantime, if the issue still persists, the best workaround right now I can suggest is clicking on the (…) and open on desktop app.

Please give it a try to see if it helps resolve your issue, if you need further assistance, feel free to leave a comment below.
Ruth-Ann 0 Reputation points

2025-09-17T13:39:25.22+00:00

I don't know about others. Our IT guy has tried numerous things as we are in a virtual machine environment. Yes, that is the work around I'm using in the meantime or syncing to OneDrive and opening via file exploer.
Jess-Q 5,065 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-19T14:14:44.4166667+00:00
Hi @Ruth-Ann,

Thank you for the response.

If doing all of above steps still could not fix your issue, you could ask you IT Admin (Global Admin) to submit a ticket to Microsoft's support via Microsoft 365 admin center to help troubleshoot it. A technical support engineer from Microsoft can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.

Here’s what your Office 365 Global Admin should do next:   

Submit a Service Request: The Global Admin should create a service request with Microsoft support to get advanced technical assistance and diagnostics. For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin.   

Also, you can report a problem directly in Teams via (…) > Feedback > Report a problem

The more people report this issue, the more Microsoft will recognize its importance and prioritize fixing it in a future update.

Once again, I apologize for not being able to help resolve this issue as quick as possible for you because it happened on your tenant and as the moderators in this community have limited resources to check the backend information. I hope that Microsoft's support team will be able to help solve it for you.
Jess-Q 5,065 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-04T08:49:30.08+00:00

Hi @Ruth-Ann,

This is my second follow-up to check whether your issue has been resolved. I truly want to ensure your experience is as smooth as possible. If your problem is still ongoing or if you have faced any new difficulties, please share more details about the current steps you are stuck on. I am here and happy to provide further help whenever you need it.

While waiting for your response, I will continue tracking other customer questions on the forum to ensure everyone receives timely support. If you have additional questions, please feel free to tag my name in your reply so I can assist you promptly and more personally.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

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MS Teams (new) will not maintain "open in desktop" setting

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