Teams Status Stuck on Away or Showing Wrong? Fix Your Presence

Q: It's stuck on "Out of Office."

That comes from your Outlook calendar, not Teams. Find the OOF event or automatic reply on your calendar and remove it, then Reset status.

Updated Sources linked 3 min read October 3, 2026 · by Ryan Bennett

Your Teams status shows Away when you’re actually back at your desk, or it’s stuck on the wrong state and won’t update.

Why: Teams sets your presence automatically from your activity, your computer’s state, and your Outlook calendar. It switches you to Away when your desktop is inactive for more than five minutes — and if your desktop was locked, idle, or you were on the Teams mobile app, it can fail to flip back to Available when you return.

Fix 1: Reset your status manually

The quickest fix is to set it yourself:

Select your profile picture at the top right of Teams.
Select your current status to open the list.
Choose Reset status to clear a manual or stuck state and let Teams recalculate, or pick a status directly such as Available.

The status types are Available, Busy, Do not disturb, Be right back, Appear away, and Appear offline. You can also type the slash command /available or /away in the search box to switch quickly.

Fix 2: Set a status with a duration

Use a duration for a supported status, such as Do not disturb during focus time. Available cannot have a duration. A more available status also cannot override a less available automatic state just because its duration is set.

Select your profile picture → current status → Duration.
Under Status, choose the status you want to show.
Under Reset status after, pick how long it should last (or Custom for a specific date and time).
Select Done. Teams reverts to automatic presence when the time is up.

Fix 3: Understand what drives your presence

Teams marks your desktop as inactive — and shows Away — when:

You lock your computer.
The computer enters idle or sleep mode.
You’re actively using the Teams mobile app instead of the desktop app.

Your calendar also overrides presence: accepting an Outlook event set to Out of Office can flip you to that status even if you’re online. Check your Outlook calendar and decline or change any stray all-day or OOO events that are holding your status.

Fix 4: Run the presence connectivity test

If presence is consistently wrong and the steps above don’t stick, the link between Teams and your Outlook calendar may be failing. Run the official Teams Presence Based on Calendar Events test in the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer:

Sign in with the affected account.
Enter the verification code shown and select Verify.
Accept the terms and select Perform Test.

The results show which calendar-presence checks passed or failed, with links to fix each. (This test isn’t available in GCC / Government environments — there, ask your admin to run the Teams Presence diagnostic.)

FAQ

My status keeps snapping back to Away while I’m working. Check whether your desktop is locked, idle or sleeping, then use Reset status and check your calendar. You cannot pin Available with a duration. If presence still disagrees with activity, use the supported diagnostic in Fix 4.

It’s stuck on “Out of Office.” That comes from your Outlook calendar, not Teams. Find the OOF event or automatic reply on your calendar and remove it, then Reset status.

Closing and reopening Teams didn’t help. Presence depends on the Teams-to-Exchange connection, so a restart alone may not fix it — run the connectivity test in Fix 4 to find the underlying cause.

Sources: Microsoft Support — Change your status in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Learn — The correct presence status isn’t reflected in Teams