No sound in Microsoft Teams
Teams is silent while everything else plays? Teams picks its own output device, keeps its own volume, and Windows can mute Teams alone in the volume mixer. Confirm your speakers first, then fix Teams' device pick.
Step-by-step fix
- Confirm the speakers work: run the CheckMyMic speaker test and play the tones.
- In Teams, open Settings → Devices, set the Speaker under Audio devices, and click Make a test call — you should hear the echo bot speak back.
- Already in a meeting? Click More (…) → Settings → Device settings and re-pick the speaker there. Joining with a headset that later disconnects leaves Teams pointed at a dead device for the rest of the call.
- On Windows, open Settings → System → Sound → Volume mixer: Teams has its own slider and can be muted or near-zero independently of the system volume.
- Check the Secondary ringer setting in Teams' device settings — it only rings a second device for incoming calls; meeting audio still follows the main Speaker pick, which confuses people into "fixing" the wrong dropdown.
- Still silent? Quit Teams completely (system-tray icon → Quit), relaunch, and if the device list is stale, sign out/in or clear the Teams cache before reinstalling.
Frequently asked questions
The Teams test call works but I can't hear anyone in real meetings.
Your output device changed after you joined — docking, undocking or a Bluetooth reconnect does it. During the meeting, open More (…) → Settings → Device settings and re-select the speaker; Teams applies it immediately without rejoining.
Why does Teams ring on one device but play the meeting somewhere else?
That's the secondary ringer working as designed: it duplicates the ringtone to a second output so you don't miss calls with headphones off, but meeting audio always follows the main Speaker setting. Set the Speaker dropdown — not the ringer — to the device you actually wear.
Teams in the browser has no sound — is that different?
Yes: browser Teams follows the browser's audio routing. Check the tab isn't muted (right-click the tab → Unmute site in Chrome/Edge), then pick the speaker inside Teams' device settings — and confirm the device plays at all with the speaker test.
I tried everything and Teams is still silent — what now?
Prove the output once more with the CheckMyMic speaker test, then clear Teams' cache (classic Teams: the %appdata%/Microsoft/Teams folder; new Teams: repair via Windows' installed-apps list) or reinstall. If sound is missing system-wide rather than just in Teams, follow our no-sound guide for your operating system instead.