Teams cannot open Excel desktop app for new document

Question

Teams cannot open Excel desktop app for new document

Eggen, Anders 26

Hi,

We began recently to use the "open in desktop app" setting for files in Teams at work. And everytime we create a new document through the files tab in any channel it works, for anything but Excel spreadsheets. For some odd reason that still opens up a browser window.

Is there some kind of bug in the current Teams build that prevents the Excel desktop app from opening even though the settings in Teams says otherwise?
Or is this something that can be fixed, so that it works?

Answer accepted by question author

1 additional answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Kai Yao 37,776 Moderator

Hi @EggenAnders-82

Did you mean if you create a new excel workbook in Channel>Files, it would open in browser instead of in desktop app?

I tested in my lab and it was the same behavior.
To my knowledge currently there are some issues with Excel Api in Teams, thus this behavior is by-design.

Please kindly wait for further update on this.
Thanks for your understanding and sorry for the inconvenience caused.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Eggen, Anders 26 Reputation points

2022-10-18T06:41:12.313+00:00

Yes, that's correct. It opens in browser instead of desktop app when I create a new excel workbook in Channel>Files.

If it's some issues with the Excel API in Teams at the moment I guess we'll just have to wait.
Thank's for the help so far.

Answer 2

Eggen, Anders 26

I have a follow-up question related to my original issue.

When I search for documents or excel workbooks in Teams and try to open them, they won't open in either desktop apps or in directly in Teams, they open in browser instead.
Even though my organization has set all files in Teams to open with desktop apps.

Is this another issue in the latest Teams build as well?

Kai Yao 37,776 Reputation points Moderator

2022-10-19T02:53:30.55+00:00

Thanks for the update!

Did you mean search the file then click "Open file" would open it in browser?
Example:

If yes, this behavior is by-design and is not only limited to excel files.
Eggen, Anders 26 Reputation points

2022-10-19T06:34:17.527+00:00

Yes, that's correct.
Kai Yao 37,776 Reputation points Moderator

2022-10-19T07:51:00.347+00:00

If this is the case, this behavior is by-design.

Is there any other question on this topic I can help you with?
Eggen, Anders 26 Reputation points

2022-10-19T08:06:05.663+00:00

Is it really by-design? Seems a bit odd, but ok.

Any way of forcing the searched files to open in desktop app?
Kai Yao 37,776 Reputation points Moderator

2022-10-19T08:53:40.243+00:00

Sorry I suppose currently it is not possible to force it to open in desktop applications.
A workaround I could think of is to locate the file (in channel or chat) with search and you would have the option to select desktop applications to open it.

If you have feedback on this feature, please consider creating a post in the Teams feedback forum to submit your feedback to Microsoft.
Thanks for your understanding.
Kai Yao 37,776 Reputation points Moderator

2022-10-26T08:03:44.93+00:00

Hi @Eggen, Anders

I am writing here to confirm with you how thing going now?
Please let us know if you would like further assistance.
Eggen, Anders 26 Reputation points

2022-10-26T08:11:48.327+00:00

It's going well all things considered.
Since one of the issues won't be fixed until Microsoft updates the Excel API in Teams, and the other issue is so by-design there's not much else we can do about it.

Thank you for the help and answers.

Share via

Teams cannot open Excel desktop app for new document

1 additional answer

Your answer