Teams Shifts "Make Open Shift" grayed out

Question

When editing a shift there is a toggle that will allow me as the manager to make the shift an open shift instead of deleting this shift and then creating a new open shift. This toggle is grayed out despite Open Shifts being available and are being used in our Teams's Shifts. It is grayed out on mobile and desktop but I can right click a shift on desktop and select "Move to Open Shifts" and this does work but if I click "Edit Shift" the Open Shift toggle is grayed out.

Can anyone help me resolve this? I saw multiple people in the past as this question and the only response was to check the open shift settings and it is turned on.

Answer 1

Hello @Nathan Kline

Thank you for sharing the details regarding your concern with the “Open Shifts” option being greyed out in Microsoft Teams as the screenshot below: 

Based on your description, I understand that you are unable to enable the Open Shifts toggle for this particular shift. You also mentioned that the shift slot has already been used by another team member.

To clarify, this behavior is by design in Microsoft Teams:

• The “Open Shifts” toggle is only available before the shift is saved or assigned.
• Once a shift has been saved, assigned, taken by a team member, or worked, the Open Shifts toggle becomes locked and cannot be edited.
• As a result, a used or saved shift cannot be directly converted into an Open Shift, which is why the option appears greyed out.

If your goal is to make the shift available to other team members again, you have to use the “Move to open shifts” option. This is the correct method once a shift has already been created or used. The Open Shifts toggle itself is intended only for shifts that have not yet been submitted.

I hope this explanation helps clarify why you are seeing this behavior and how you can proceed. Please feel free to reach out if you need further assistance.

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Answer 2

The toggle in the “Edit shift” dialog is controlled by the Shifts schedule settings and by whether the team and schedule group are enabled for open shifts and (optionally) open shifts across locations.

To resolve the grayed-out “Make open shift” toggle, verify these items in Shifts on desktop or web as a frontline manager:

1. Open Shifts settings for the team
   1. Go to the team’s schedule in Shifts.
   2. Open the Settings tab for that schedule.
   3. Under Open shifts, make sure Open shifts is set to On. When this is On:
      • Managers can add and share open shifts with the team.
      • Managers can view and approve/reject open shift requests.
      • Workers can view and request open shifts shared with the team and track their requests.
   4. If the Open shifts setting is not available to change, it is controlled by the IT admin; contact the admin to enable it for that team.
2. Open shifts across locations (if applicable)
   1. In Shifts settings on desktop or web, ensure open shifts across locations is turned on if the schedule is using cross-location open shifts.
   2. When creating or editing an open shift in a schedule group, the Open shift across locations toggle must be available and turned on if the shift is intended to be shared across locations.
   3. If the Open shift across locations toggle itself is grayed out, the feature is not available for that team and must be enabled by the IT admin.
3. Use supported actions to convert shifts
   • If the toggle in the Edit dialog remains unavailable, use the supported desktop action already working in the environment:
     • Right-click the assigned shift and select Move to open shifts. This converts the shift to an open shift using the current schedule settings.

If, after confirming that Open shifts is On for the team and (if needed) open shifts across locations is enabled, the toggle in the Edit dialog is still grayed out while “Move to open shifts” works, this is a limitation of the current Shifts client behavior for that team configuration. In that case, continue using Move to open shifts from the right‑click menu as the supported method, and involve the IT admin to review tenant-level Shifts policies if a different behavior is required.

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References:

• Configure settings for your team's schedule in Shifts
• Make open shifts available across locations in Shifts
• Manage shift requests and time off in Shifts