Breakout Rooms in Teams seems not available for me...

Question

I have Microsoft 365 (Paid version) and wanted to test the Breakout feature for an upcoming training I am doing...but it isn’t there and I can’t figure out why. I have a Macbook Air. There is nothing in the Settings or in my Account to enable it...so it isn’t there...but it should be. At least I think so. It doesn’t say it is ONLY for business licenses...so it should work. How do I fix it? Training is coming soon.

Answer 1

Hello,

Breakout rooms are indeed a feature exclusive to the business version of Teams. I wish Microsoft made this more explicitly clear in their support documentation.

In the document below, it only subtly implies this limitation by using terms specific to the business environment, like "Admin Center," "policy settings," and other enterprise-related terminology.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/breakout-rooms-troubleshooting-guide-in-microsoft-teams-02eefaa2-f5ad-4075-9de1-79747c1cb463?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Answer 2

Hi Dr SamanthaM

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum support and apologize for the inconvenience.

Based on your description, I understand that you are facing the issue Breakout Rooms feature in Teams is not available on your Teams on MacBook and Teams features are available on both macOS and Windows, so using a MacBook shouldn't be the issue.

So, I think the following information may help you.

If you're not the meeting organizer, there are a few common reasons why you might not see the Breakout Room option:

• The meeting was canceled.
• The thread where the channel meeting was organized was deleted.
• The meeting was organized in a private or a shared channel.
• You joined from an unsupported client.
• You are not from the same organization as the meeting organizer.
• Breakout rooms are disabled by a policy through your admin portal.

Link References: LINK

In case you are the meeting organizer, it's quite unusual that you're unable to find the Breakout Room option. I've conducted some research, and currently, Microsoft hasn't released any official documentation addressing this issue. However, from my perspective, there are a few steps you can try to see if the problem persists.

1. Clear Teams Cache/Reinstall Team

You can follow the instruction in this link to Clear the cache in Teams for macOS, you must do it on both Classic and New Teams

Link Instruction: LINK

2. Using Teams Desktop version

Ensure you're using the desktop client of Microsoft Teams, as break out rooms are not available on the web version. Also, make sure your Teams application is up to date by checking as below

3. Reinstall Teams

You may consider reinstalling Teams and logging back into your old account to see if the issue be resolved.

In case the issue still persists after trying all the above methods, kindly let us know in the Comment section

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