how to remove inactive account from MS Teams?

Vince Laurent 0 Reputation points
2026-06-18T18:56:42.7+00:00

I have an OLD work account showing up when i start Teams. I have uninstalled, reinstalled, cleared caches, removed registry settings - all with MS Support help but the account still shows. Where is it storing it so I can remove it?

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for business | Settings | Other

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  1. AI answer

    2026-06-18T18:57:01.3066667+00:00

    The old work account can be coming from three different places, and each must be cleaned separately depending on the scenario:

    1. Teams Free organizations list (leaving an old org)
      If the old work org is tied to a Microsoft account used with Teams Free:
    2. Open Microsoft Teams Free (desktop or web).
    3. Go to Settings → Accounts and orgs.
    4. Under Accounts and orgs, select Leave next to the old work organization. This opens Teams on the web.
    5. Under Organizations in the browser, find that organization and select Leave, then confirm.
    6. Wait a few hours for the change to propagate, then sign out of Teams and sign back in. If it still appears, sign out and back in again after a couple of hours.

    This removes the old organization from the Teams Free org picker.

    1. Windows / Office cached accounts and credentials
      If the old work account was ever used with Office or joined to Windows, it can be cached and keep reappearing in sign-in pickers, including Teams. In that case, remove it from Windows and Office:
    2. Sign out of Office apps and remove the account
      • Open any Office app (Word, Excel, etc.).
      • Go to File → Account → Sign out. Close and reopen the app.
      • Again go to File → Account → under your name choose Switch Account, then Sign out for the old work account.
    3. Remove connected services in Office
      • In the same File → Account page, under Connected Services, remove all services tied to the old work account.
    4. Clear cached credentials
      • Open Control Panel → Credential Manager → Windows Credentials.
      • Remove any entries that reference the old work account or organization.
      • If also troubleshooting Office activation, remove all Office-related credentials as described in the activation reset guidance.
    5. Clear additional Office/identity caches (managed devices)
      If the device is Microsoft Entra joined or hybrid joined, cached accounts may be stored via Web Account Management (WAM). In that case, use the provided script to clear WAM accounts associated with Office as documented in the activation reset article.

    After these steps, sign back into Teams only with the desired account.

    1. Two Microsoft accounts with the same email address
      If the old work account and a personal Microsoft account share the same email address, the “Which account do you want to use?” prompt can keep appearing. To stop that prompt:
    2. Go to the Manage how you sign in section of the personal Microsoft account.
    3. Add a new alias (email address) or choose an existing alias and select Make primary.
    4. Use that primary alias to sign in going forward.

    This does not delete the work account but prevents the overlapping sign-in prompt.

    If the old work account is actually a Teams Free account tied to a Microsoft account that is no longer needed at all, closing that Microsoft account (after exporting any needed data) will also remove access to Teams Free and stop it from appearing, but this also removes access to all other consumer services tied to that Microsoft account.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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  2. Anonymous
    2026-06-18T20:13:36.68+00:00

    Hi Vince,

    Good day and thank you for providing a clear description of the issue you are experiencing.

    I understand that you have already worked through several troubleshooting steps, including with assistance from Microsoft Support, and I truly appreciate the time and effort you have put into trying to resolve this.

    To help me better understand your situation, may I kindly ask whether the support you previously contacted was through the Microsoft 365 Business support team? If so, may I kindly check whether you are still working with them on this matter?

    If that is the case, you are welcome to share the support ticket ID with me via private message (you may select the “View message” option at the top of the thread). I would be happy to follow along and share any relevant updates or additional information that may be helpful.

    User's image

    In the meantime, I can see that you have already attempted several steps, such as reinstalling the application, clearing cache, and removing related entries. With that in mind, I would like to suggest an additional approach that focuses on ensuring no account traces remain at the Windows sign-in level, which you may try to see if it helps in this case:

    1/ Completely close Microsoft Teams

    You may do this by right‑clicking the Teams icon in the taskbar and selecting Quit or Close Window.

    2/ Disconnect the Work or School account from Windows

    After that, please check whether the old account is still connected to your device by:

    • Go to Settings > Accounts > Access work or school
    • If the account appears there, select it and choose Disconnect

    User's image

    3/ Clear saved credentials (Credential Manager)

    Open Control Panel > User Accounts > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials, and remove any entries that appear to be related to the old account, Microsoft Teams, or your organization sign-in.

    User's image

    4/ Clear authentication cache folders

    Next, press Win + R, and one at a time paste the following paths, deleting all contents inside each folder

    • %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneAuth
    • %localappdata%\Microsoft\IdentityCache
    • %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy
    • %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\TokenBroker

    5/ Clear Microsoft Teams client cache again

    After completing the above, please proceed to clear the Teams client cache again, following the standard Microsoft guidance: Clear the Teams client cache - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn.

    Once everything has been cleaned up, kindly restart your computer and then launch Teams again to verify whether the old account has been removed.

    Please give these steps a try and let me know how it goes. I’m genuinely looking forward to hearing back from you so we can sort this out together.

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer".

    Note: Please follow the steps in this documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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  3. ChidambaraNathan EkambaraNathan 0 Reputation points
    2026-10-25T15:24:04.24+00:00

    Reset Team Application

    I was able to successfully remove old and unused email accounts from the Microsoft Teams account selection menu by resetting the New Microsoft Teams application through Windows Settings.

    Note: It did not removed my active accounts.

    Type settings in the search box, and then select the Settings app from the results.

    1. Select Apps > Installed apps, and then type Microsoft Teams in the search box.
    2. Locate the New Microsoft Teams app from the results, select the More options button (...) on the right, and then select Advanced options.
    3. In the Reset section, select Reset.
    4. Restart Teams.

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