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Teams Contact Status/Presence Showing as "Unknown"

Researcher 76 Reputation points
2026-05-12T12:06:42.93+00:00

Hello,

We are currently using the free version of Microsoft Teams Destop app and are experiencing an inconsistent presence sync issue.

The Issue: We have observed that some of our contacts' statuses are showing as "Unknown" when viewed from certain users' accounts. However, that same person's actual status will display correctly to other users.

Interestingly, if a user initiates a chat message with the person showing as "Unknown," the status immediately updates and reflects their actual presence.

Troubleshooting Performed: We have verified and completed all steps (1 through 4) outlined in this official Microsoft troubleshooting document to no avail: User contact presence status is unknown

Additionally, we have tried the following standard fixes with no success:

-Signing out and signing back in

-Updating to the latest version of Teams

-Clearing the Teams cache

-Resetting the status manually

-Logging in via the website and checking if status is shown there (It's not)

Please let us know what the permanent solution to this synchronization issue might be, or if there are specific logs we can check to diagnose why the presence isn't polling correctly.

Thank you!

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams Free | Settings | Online status
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  1. Ruwim.B 6,225 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2026-05-12T12:32:45.9633333+00:00

    I'm not sure, but this issue can be related to the ongoing issue with recently created Teams accounts where some users are shown as "Unknown user" to other accounts.

    https://status.cloud.microsoft/m365/

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  2. Q&A Assist
    2026-05-12T12:06:57.02+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    In Microsoft Teams, a contact’s presence showing as Status unknown while other users see it correctly is typically caused by one of these conditions:

    1. The contact is actually offline or has set Appear offline.
    2. There is a network communication issue with the unified presence service.
    3. The contact is using Skype for Business and the coexistence presence behavior makes this expected.

    Because the issue is intermittent and resolves as soon as a chat is started, this points to presence updates not flowing correctly between the observer and publisher until direct communication occurs.

    For Microsoft Teams (including free), the supported troubleshooting and escalation path is:

    1. As admin, verify the four prerequisites for the affected contact (publisher):
      • The contact is signed in to Teams.
      • The contact has not set Appear offline.
      • Network connectivity to all required Teams endpoints is healthy from both observer and publisher devices.
      • The contact is actually using Teams (not only Skype for Business) if in a coexistence scenario.
    2. If all of these are already confirmed and the issue persists, collect data and open a support ticket. The required information is:
      • Sign-in address of the user who sees Status unknown (observer).
      • Sign-in address of the contact whose presence shows as Status unknown (publisher).
      • Desktop and debug logs from both observer and publisher. For log collection steps, see Use log files in troubleshooting Microsoft Teams.
      • UTC time when the publisher changed presence and when the observer noticed it remained Status unknown, ensuring those times are visible in all logs.

    Presence issues of this type (where all client-side steps have been exhausted and the behavior is inconsistent across users) require backend investigation by Microsoft Support; there is no additional client-side “permanent fix” beyond the documented steps and ensuring network access to Teams services.

    References:

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