If your Microsoft Teams desktop app isn’t showing Files stored in a Team’s SharePoint site, but those files are visible in the Teams web app or SharePoint online, you’re not alone. This is a known issue affecting organisations across Oxford, Buckingham, and beyond, and our IT support team in Oxfordshire has been resolving it for clients regularly.
What Does the Problem Look Like?
- The Files tab in the Teams desktop app shows nothing, loads indefinitely, or displays an error
- The same files are visible when using Teams in a web browser
- Files are also accessible directly via the SharePoint site in a browser
- The problem affects only some users, not everyone in the team
- It affects only some Teams sites, not all of them
- It sometimes resolves itself after a period of time
- It can reappear after Teams updates
This pattern (random users, random sites, and spontaneous recovery) is the signature of a client-side cache corruption problem rather than a permissions or configuration issue.
Why Does This Happen?
Microsoft’s new Teams app (Teams 2.0, introduced as the default from late 2023 onwards) renders the Files tab using an embedded browser component called WebView2. Essentially, the Files tab is a mini browser window loading your SharePoint site inside Teams.
This WebView2 component maintains its own local cache — including authentication tokens, session data, and page resources — stored in a folder on the user’s machine. When this cache becomes stale or corrupted, the embedded browser silently fails to load the SharePoint content, showing nothing instead of an error message.
The Fix: Clear the New Teams Cache
The reliable fix is to clear the Teams 2.0 local cache. Note: the cache location changed with the new Teams app — the old %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams path no longer applies.
Manual Steps
- Fully quit Microsoft Teams (check the system tray and close it from there)
- Press Win + R to open the Run dialog
- Paste the following path and press Enter:
%localappdata%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache - Delete the entire LocalCache folder
- Relaunch Microsoft Teams and sign back in
Teams will rebuild the cache folder on startup. You will need to sign back in, but all your Teams, chats, and files remain intact. Nothing is stored locally that isn’t also on Microsoft’s servers.
PowerShell Script (For IT Teams)
If you manage multiple users or want to deploy this as a remediation script via Intune or remote tools, the following PowerShell will stop Teams, clear the cache, and relaunch:
Stop-Process -Name "ms-teams" -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Start-Sleep -Seconds 2
Remove-Item "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Start-Process "ms-teams"This can be run remotely and can be packaged as an Intune remediation script for self-service or automated deployment across your organisation.
Need Help? AGGIA IT Provides IT Support Across Oxford, Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire
This kind of issue – intermittent, affecting only some users, difficult to reproduce on demand is exactly the sort of problem that consumes hours of internal time without a clear resolution. Our IT support team is based in Oxfordshire and works with businesses across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, providing responsive, expert support for Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, and the wider modern workplace stack.
Whether you need help resolving a specific issue like this, ongoing managed IT services, or strategic advice on your Microsoft 365 environment, get in touch with the AGGIA team.