Recurrent and residual/ghost message in a Teams chat

Question

Recurrent and residual/ghost message in a Teams chat

Ivan Zimerman 20

Hello,

I receive a residual message from one message in a chat on Teams. Always the same message from the same contact. The message doesn't even exists anymore, but I get a notification over and over, in many different computers, not only one.

I've already tried cache cleans, it doesn't help. Reinstalling Teams either.

Don't know what else I can do.

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Answer 1

Liora D 2,495 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Ivan Zimerman
Thank you for your detailed reply and for confirming that you're using Teams for work on macOS.

Here are a few steps I’d recommend trying:

Sign out of Teams on all devices

Please sign out of Teams on:

All desktop apps (Mac and Windows, if applicable)
All browsers (including incognito sessions)
Mobile app (even if it’s not showing the issue)

Then fully quit the Teams app on Mac (right-click the icon in Dock > Quit or cmd+Q) and check Activity Monitor to ensure no Teams processes are still running.

User's image

Clear Teams cache on macOS

You can refer to this article: Clear the Teams client cache - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

While testing

You can mute the chat (right-click on the chat > Mute) to avoid repeated banner notifications.
Try using Teams Web in an incognito browser to see if the notification appears there this helps isolate whether the issue is client-side.

If the issue continues, please share:

A screenshot of the banner notification you're seeing
Confirmation that you've signed out of all devices and cleared cache as described above
Any relevant links or documentation you’ve consulted

Thanks again for your patience.

Ivan Zimerman 20 Reputation points

2025-08-21T13:05:14.3366667+00:00

Already tried, all of that.
Liora D 2,495 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-08-21T13:57:10.21+00:00
Thanks for sharing the screenshot, that helps clarify the situation.

Just to confirm: the notification "Melissa Jorga is now available" is a status alert in Microsoft Teams. It simply means that Melissa has just come online or changed her presence to Available, and Teams is notifying you that she’s now reachable.

If you'd like to disable these "is now available" pop-ups, you can turn off for a specific user

Go to the Chat tab in Teams.

Find the 1:1 chat with the person you’re getting notifications about.

Hover over their name and click the three-dot menu (⋯).

Select “Turn off notifications”.

You can refer here: Get notified when someone's status changes in Microsoft Teams

Because this type of notification can be confusing, and many users may encounter similar issues, marking this answer as “Accept Answer” will help others in the community quickly find a verified explanation.
Have a great day!
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Answer 2

Hi @Ivan Zimerman

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Q&A Support.

To better understand and help troubleshoot the ghost message you're experiencing, could you please clarify the following points? 

Could you please confirm what type of Microsoft account you're currently using (e.g, xx.onmicrosoft.com, xx.comany.com or hotmail, gmail...)
About the notification: What exactly does the notification show? Is it the content of the old message, or just a generic “new message” alert?
could you please Share a screenshot of the notification you’re seeing?
Does the ghost message appear on:
- Desktop app (New Teams or Classic)?
- Web version (e.g., in a private/incognito browser)?
- Mobile app (iOS or Android)?
About the chat itself:

Is it a 1:1 chat or a group chat?
Is the other participant internal or external to your organization?

5. Do you see the “ghost” message anywhere in Teams? 

In Activity > Feed (e.g., reactions or @mentions)? 
Or only as a “new message” notification?

Also, have you tried using the “Mark all as read” option from the More options (⋯) menu?

Sometimes, residual unread flags can persist across devices if this option hasn’t been triggered manually, especially in chats with external participants or older message threads.

Thank you again for your patience and for choosing Microsoft Q&A forum.

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.

Ivan Zimerman 20 Reputation points

2025-08-21T10:40:05.2366667+00:00

Hello,

It's Teams for work.
Desktop app for Mac, in different computers not only one. No problem with the mobile app.
I see an specific message in a banner in the up right corner. I sse the message preview, always the same message.
1:1 chat, internal.
When I click in the notification, the message is not there. It doesn't exist.
Already had tried to mark everything as read. Didn't helped

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Recurrent and residual/ghost message in a Teams chat

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