Cross Connect Teams sometimes doesn't show shared channels and Files Tab in channel

Question

We have 2 companies (tenants) and users need to see some channels from the other company. We are experiencing several weird behaviors that happen randomly.

One particularly interesting one has to do with disappearing channels and tabs.

In the example below,

1. when the user opens an external channel, the Files tab doesn't appear. This happens to some users but not others. The tab will appear one day and not be there the next.
2. Another weird thing is...sometimes, the entire group of External channels will be there one day, and disappear the next.

rebooting doesn't seem to help. I've deleted and readded the users to the channels and it doesn't seem to help.

Any clues will be super helpful.

Thanks.

Answer 1

It sounds like you're encountering some perplexing issues with channel visibility and tab inconsistencies in your collaboration platform. Here are a few troubleshooting steps you might consider:

1. Permissions Check: Ensure that the affected users have appropriate permissions to access the channels and tabs. Sometimes, permission settings can cause unexpected behaviors.
2. Platform Updates: Make sure your collaboration platform is up to date with the latest version. Sometimes, bugs related to channel and tab visibility are resolved in newer updates.
3. Cache Clearing: Encourage users to clear their cache and cookies or try accessing the platform from a different browser or device to see if the issue persists. Sometimes, cached data can cause unexpected behavior.
4. Platform Support: Reach out to the support team of your collaboration platform. They might have insights into known issues or provide specific troubleshooting steps tailored to your platform.
5. Monitoring and Logging: Consider implementing monitoring and logging mechanisms to track when channels and tabs disappear or reappear. This data can help identify patterns or triggers that may be causing the issue.
6. Cross-Check Configurations: Double-check the configurations for external channels and tabs to ensure they are set up correctly and consistently for all users.
7. Integration and Compatibility: If you have any integrations or third-party apps connected to your collaboration platform, verify their compatibility and settings to ensure they are not causing conflicts.

By systematically investigating these potential causes, you may be able to identify the root cause of the disappearing channels and tabs issue and implement a solution to resolve it.

Answer 2

Hi @Matt Suderman Have you tried using the Teams web version to check if the issue still exists? According to our research, there are a few possible solutions that you can try:

• Sign out of Teams and sign back in again.
• Update MS Teams to the latest version.
• Uninstall Teams from your device, then reinstall it.
• Clear the Teams cache from your device.
• If you’re using the Teams desktop or mobile app, try using the web version: https://teams.microsoft.com/.

Otherwise, New Teams currently has a few features that aren't perfect, and as an alternative solution you can switch back to old Teams if you need to. Hope the above information is helpful for you! Hope the above information is helpful for you!

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Answer 3

Hi Matt, I had a similar issue with our shared channels and it turned out that the two tenants were in different hosting locations. So when you first set it up it works but as the tenants are in different hosting locations there was a bug where the child tenant would look for the shared channel in its own hosting location... this ended up creating a ghost team and shared channels in that tenant... then, when the user on the child tenant tries to access the shared channel, the backend looks at the ghost team in the wrong hosting location, it cant find the info in the channels so it shows that the channel has no info in it and all the messages disappear... later the system syncs up and the reappear. It took over a year working with Microsoft to get that one fixed so maybe raise this with them to see if you have the update to fix this issue.

The issue I had before this was with the channels themselves disappearing... this again was due to a bug on the backend. What was happening is the authentication has a always no until yes so if a user in the child tenant failed to authenticate, teams would try remove them from the shared channel but as the channels were shared to teams and not users, teams would remove that entire team from the channel... A few days later it would resync and the channels would reappear for a bit... this was fixed after several months by adding in a retry on the authentication.

I hope these help you out bud!

Answer 4

I ended up going back and forth with Microsoft for about 2 months. They would try something, tell me to do this or that, send them this log file or that.

Then, one day it worked. They never gave me an explanation as to why it was broken or how they fixed it. They just closed the ticket as solved when I told them it was miraculously working.

It's still working 3 weeks later so....no one learns anything. Sorry.