Teams chat not displaying images properly

Zhang Bufan 521

I just realized this problem seems to be happening to everyone. If you are in a chat group and someone shares an image, most times when you click on it to see the larger version it will not load, but show a blank screen instead. You have to leave the chat group and re-enter it multiple times in order to get the image to display properly. This did not used to be a problem. Maybe two months ago, this always seemed to work correctly - you click on an image and it shows the enlarged image. But now it typically just shows a blank screen.

Zhang Bufan 521 Reputation points

2021-12-10T08:05:32.743+00:00

Try to restart the computer after clearing the cache, but still unable to open some pictures.
Turn off hardware acceleration, restart the client, and turn on hardware acceleration here, and restart the client test here.
Try to add the local firewall whitelist, but it does not seem to be the cause of this problem.
Installing teams on a new computer also has this problem.

I tried to fix it, but the problem still exists
Xzsssss 8,861 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-12-13T06:39:30.323+00:00

Hi @Zhang Bufan ,

Is the photo size too large?
And have you tried using Teams on browsers for this?

What's more, please make sure the photo has been uploaded to the sender's OneDrive disk.

Best regards,
Lou
Zhang Bufan 521 Reputation points

2021-12-14T10:46:40.09+00:00

I'm sorry it didn't work for me, we are still troubled.
Xzsssss 8,861 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2021-12-23T05:28:18.08+00:00

H @Zhang Bufan ,

So sorry for the late, I've checked the issue again and no related or similar behaviors on my lab.

You may found help from the online support, they've got more resources to help you on these issues:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/get-help-support?view=o365-worldwide#online-support

Hope your issue could be resolved soon.

Best regards,
Lou
Mark Cornbill 161 Reputation points

2022-01-17T11:02:15.23+00:00

With covid and remote working being the norm in my company, we are using MS Teams extensively for communication and content sharing.

The fact that a multi-billion dollar corporation has left this unable to open image issue unfixed for what seems like a year is appalling. Leaving the chat channel and then coming back in 60% of the time you need to open an image to view it becomes tiring fast when you are having to do this dozens and dozens of times a day, every day, every week, for the last year.

Fix your product please!
ABY 46 Reputation points

2022-01-18T06:56:13.397+00:00

Is been more than two years since we are using teams actively. More than any other office tool.
But still cannot resolve the image preview and arrow keys issues.
Cleaning the deep cache does not resolve it permanently. Screenshot or any other image sharing is essentials of remote work. But teams cannot open previews properly. Without opening the preview, we cannot download the image as well. I spent sometimes minutes opening an image. It's very disappointing.
Sometimes cannot manage the curser with arrow keys, so you need to use the mouse instead.

Why someone from Microsoft takes the responsibility to resolve this issue. I am very annoyed.
Rob 21 Reputation points

2022-01-18T20:57:09.66+00:00

Any idea why this keeps happening? Had no issues with ZOOM, but absolutely hate using teams to share screenshots or open images as it just goes to a blank screen.

It is not feasible to completely shut down an application and open it again for basic functions.
Ricky 106 Reputation points

2022-01-20T22:33:28.19+00:00

This has been going on for at least 4 months. It's unbelievably frustrating and the entire company is complaining about the issue. I'm even seeing people ask if we can just move to using a product that actually works, and as a software engineer who received a lot of these complaints, being that we are an IT infrastructure-free company, I am starting to agree with them. Viewing images works about 20% of the time in a standard chat window, and 100% of the time when that chat window is popped out. Sometimes, navigating away from the chat to a different chat, then coming back, also works. However, the "clear your cache", and "log out and back in" suggestions are ridiculous low-level nonsense troubleshooting. Months ago this was NEVER a problem. I've been using Teams for years. Anyone who uses Teams on a regular basis and sends images, has this problem. Doesn't matter what company, what computer, what employee. EVERYONE has this issue, meaning Teams devs also have this issue.
Marc Wickens 1 Reputation point

2022-01-26T12:31:32.677+00:00

This is an extremely frustrating issue, especially since sharing PNG files has been a solved problem for decades now.
Lonny Bohonos 1 Reputation point

2022-02-02T10:29:16.767+00:00

When I have running the Problem Step Recorder in the background, I'm not able to reproduce the issue. As soon as I stop the PSR the issue appears again.
Lonny Bohonos 1 Reputation point

2022-02-02T10:31:28.52+00:00

When I have running the Problem Step Recorder in the background, I'm not able to reproduce the issue. As soon as I stop the PSR, the issue appears again...
Christo 1 Reputation point

2022-02-02T10:45:43.167+00:00

This is still an issue since we started using Teams in 2019. Logging out, clearing the files, all of that only works for a short time. This issue really interrupts communication in our teams and in our environment we have a lot of screen shots being sent. Microsoft really needs to fix this. Users should not need to apply work-arounds for an app to work like it should.
Guergachi, Sammy (INT) 1 Reputation point

2022-02-08T19:36:15.833+00:00

Can someone from Microsoft please confirm that this bug is being fixed?
Boeren, Dirk-Jan 1 Reputation point

2022-02-11T10:00:28.75+00:00

After months and months and countless people reporting it, this is STILL an issue. Terrible.
Cason Haughton 1 Reputation point

2022-02-28T23:57:51.06+00:00

This is such a frustrating issue. I'm thankful MS is allegedly working on a patch, but I hope it comes soon.

It doesn't matter how large or how small the image is, it doesn't matter the image extension, it doesn't matter who I'm messaging or who's messaging me, this issue happens daily. Almost, if not, with every single image shared. I work at a company of 1,000+ employees and it affects all of us. Teams is the designated chat client.
Cason Haughton 1 Reputation point

2022-03-01T00:01:30.523+00:00

The workaround provided by JamesHickey-1281 does work for some of our employees. One of our admins found this workaround too. But it doesn't work for everyone and it's unreasonable to expect us to do this every time, every day. Thanks.

40 answers

Jeremie Bedard 71 Reputation points

2021-12-10T17:33:46.837+00:00

Same issue here, on all PCs in the office.
Wiping the cache helps for couple seconds only. If we then open 3-4 images, issue repeats again.
Workaround is to click to see another conversation, then come back to the original conversation, and try to open the image again fullscreen.
We may have to repeat the workaround 4, 5, 6 times before we finally see the picture.

Disabling GPU hardware acceleration does not help.

Other workaround is to see images on our cellphones, as Android is not affected by this issue.

Issue has been persistent for over a year. Much frustrating for all users in office.
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14 people found this answer helpful.
Ken Samuel Kyllingmark 41 Reputation points

2021-12-30T19:04:25.52+00:00

Same here, it’s been a huge source of frustration. Something is wrong with the Windows client, because it works just ﬁne on Android.

AMAH 21 Reputation points

2021-12-30T19:59:53.477+00:00

same here, and same goes from all people on my office so it is not related to a specific computer or model and as mentioned works perfectly on Android.

Maxwell Dreytser 0 Reputation points

2023-09-20T16:56:37.8733333+00:00

Almost 2 years later this is still an issue, even on New Teams.

Microsoft, do better.
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PAI Kun 46 Reputation points

2022-01-12T15:56:52.747+00:00

View image in popup chat.
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9 people found this answer helpful.
Adam Oleksy 6 Reputation points

2022-01-19T07:23:40.23+00:00

Yes, I confirm that works. Viewing images in pop out chat window does not have this issue.

P Satish Patro 6 Reputation points

2022-01-24T13:00:25.933+00:00

when it's a team chat, the popup option will not be there. That time again stuck
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DA 26 Reputation points

2022-01-06T15:47:29.25+00:00

Problem still exists. Fails 2/3rds of the time to open an image, resulting in a blank screen. I must click on another conversation, then back, scroll, wait for it to update, scroll again and try to open the picture again. This is a complete waste of our time and makes teams unusable, requiring us to revert to email or look for another product to switch to that can perform the cutting edge technology of viewing an image, something that existed at the start of the WWW and HTML in the 90s -- yet Microsoft somehow lost the knowledge of this deep magic.
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5 people found this answer helpful.

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Richard Hay 1,231 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2022-02-14T20:16:41.277+00:00

Hey everyone.

I have an update from the product team that a fix for this is currently making its way through internal testing. While I can't give a specific timeline on when it will reach the public release channel, it looks like the resolution is on the horizon.

Thanks.

Rich
Community Manager
Microsoft Q&A
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5 people found this answer helpful.
Ricky 106 Reputation points

2022-02-22T20:31:48.35+00:00

Rich, thanks for the update. I don't know about anyone else's organization, but this issue has a TON of people in the company extremely frustrated and begging us to switch to something like Slack. There are some extremely pissed off people because of this issue, and they, including myself, feel like Microsoft does not care. Especially considering the answer below yours where the person opened up a case with premier support and were told they should go upvote somewhere and just hope it gets fixed. We have numerous issues with Teams that most employees experience (user status not correct until restart, arrow keys suddenly stop working in chat) that have been going on for months if not years. There has got to be a better way to get across to Microsoft that these issues are a big deal and they need to be addressed.

From a community standpoint, there seems to be no official way to report a bug related to Teams and see it through to the end. The feedback feature in Teams is worthless, these forums only get answers from people who are trying to help, and the feedback portal isn't a place that bugs should be reported. This issue has been going on since August, and it has taken until now (still not fixed) for anything to be addressed. Had it not been for your comment, which is the only Microsoft-official comment on this issue, we'd all still be pissed this isn't being addressed.

Overall, I expect better from Microsoft, and this kind of treatment of its customers is unacceptable, especially from a productivity tool. How do we all work to improve this?

Rajdeep Chakraborty 1 Reputation point

2022-02-24T15:05:36.947+00:00

This is good news. The workarounds are pain.

Vilhelm Yngvi Kristinsson 26 Reputation points

2022-02-24T22:59:44.263+00:00

Could not have said it better myself.
Microsoft has to put more efforts into fixing bugs or Teams will end like Skype for business.

Maxwell Dreytser 0 Reputation points

2023-09-20T16:51:21.8033333+00:00

Still doesn't work. Even in New Teams I regularly have this issue and have to click around to different conversations until maybe after a few tries the images finally load. Microsoft, please do better.
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James Hickey 21 Reputation points

2022-01-12T19:20:25.91+00:00

We have seen a very similar issue in our organization. One of our users realized that after opening the blank image, they could close it then right click the image in chat. This seems to load the image and then make it viewable. I don't know why this works, but it seems to work every time.

Not saying it will work for you, but it's worth a shot.

Cheers.
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4 people found this answer helpful.
Merlin Beedell 21 Reputation points

2022-01-14T17:10:48.957+00:00

Yes - this worked for me too. Right click, and the "Copy Image" option shows, ignore that and just left-click the image and it displays.

Seems to me this issue started about the time that the arrow keys would stop working in teams, when typing a message. Both very frustrating things.

Peter 26 Reputation points

2022-01-20T18:31:05.84+00:00

This worked for me! Thanks! It's not perfect but it's a heckuva lot easier than opening/closing the chat over and over.

David Trevor 291 Reputation points

2022-02-23T14:46:45.993+00:00

Good workaround!

Steven Mystery 0 Reputation points

2023-06-05T05:04:09.1466667+00:00

To save a file as an embedded image - I was able to copy the file from Mac Finder and simply paste it into the chat box. Don't try to import it - won't work.
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