Microsoft Teams Annotate Issues Across Desktop, Web, and Mobile Participants

The mobile coordinate drift, moving or resizing ink, and persistent cursors should be escalated as reproducible Teams defects, while browser participants should be tested against Teams’ client and meeting-policy requirements because complete inability to view an annotation session is not the documented browser limitation.

What is expected and what is not

• Windows desktop: This is the full annotation experience and matches your working scenario.
• Mobile: Android and iOS participants can annotate when the presenter shares from the desktop. Microsoft does not document displaced annotations, cursor-following ink, unexpected zooming, or cursors remaining after the toggle is disabled as expected behavior.^1^
• Web: Browser annotation support is more limited: web participants can participate in an annotation session but cannot start one while sharing their own screen.^2^ Therefore, web users being unable to see or participate in a desktop-started session needs further investigation rather than being attributed solely to the start-session limitation.
• Collaborative cursors: They are enabled by default, but anyone should be able to disable them through Whiteboard toolset → Settings → Collaborative cursors. The setting should apply to that participant’s view.^1^

There is no published Microsoft notice or fix date in the available product documentation for the mobile misalignment, moving/zooming ink, or cursor-toggle behavior. The roadmap item targeting broader participant initiation of annotations does not state that it fixes these rendering defects.^3^

Workarounds for teaching sessions

Until Microsoft Support identifies the defect:

1. Use the Teams desktop client for participants who must place or interpret annotations precisely. Mobile annotation should not be relied on for word-level marking while the coordinate issue is reproducible.
2. Use a shared Microsoft Whiteboard instead of annotating over screen sharing when browser or mobile participation is essential. Whiteboard is simultaneously available through Windows, iOS, and the web app.^4^
3. For reference material, use Save a snapshot from the annotation toolbar. Teams stores the shared image and annotations as a Whiteboard file under Teams → View more apps → Whiteboard → Annotations.^1^

There is no documented client-side setting that corrects mobile annotation coordinates.

Check the web users’ assigned policy

This is relevant only if the affected browser users have organization-managed Teams accounts. An administrator should open:

Teams admin center → Meetings → Meeting policies → affected policy → Content sharing

Confirm that both Whiteboard and Collaborative annotations are enabled. These are per-user policy settings; disabling either removes annotation access.^4^

An administrator can also inspect and update the assigned policy through Teams PowerShell:

Connect-MicrosoftTeams

Get-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "<policy-name>" |
    Select-Object Identity, AllowWhiteboard, AllowCollaborativeAnnotations

Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "<policy-name>" `
    -AllowCollaborativeAnnotations $true

Do not change the policy if the browser users already have both settings enabled; proceed directly to escalation.

Open a support case with reproducible evidence

Since the previously suggested troubleshooting did not resolve the problem, avoid repeating cache resets or reinstalls. Reproduce each client-specific symptom and collect logs immediately afterward:

1. Record the Teams versions, operating systems, mobile models, browser names and versions, and whether participants are internal, guest, external, or anonymous.
2. Use a fixed test page and capture video from both desktop and mobile showing the same annotation at different coordinates.
3. Record the meeting ID and the exact reproduction time, including the time zone.
4. On Windows, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+1 immediately after reproducing the meeting issue. Teams creates diagnostic files in Downloads. Logs should be collected promptly, and Microsoft Support may request them; log timestamps use UTC.^5^
5. File separate cases for:
   • Web participants unable to view or join desktop-started annotations.
   • Mobile coordinate drift and moving/resizing annotations.
   • Collaborative cursors remaining visible after being disabled.

A Microsoft 365 administrator can open Microsoft 365 admin center → Help & support → Contact Support. If the subscription was purchased through a partner, the partner must initiate support.^6^

Only Microsoft Support can confirm whether these reproductions match an internal known issue and provide any tenant-specific status or engineering fix schedule.

References

1. Use annotation while sharing your screen in Microsoft Teams
2. Microsoft Teams Public Preview & Targeted Release
3. Microsoft 365 Roadmap - Microsoft Teams: Ability for all participants ...
4. Manage meeting policies for content sharing
5. Collect Teams client diagnostic logs for Microsoft support
6. Get support for Microsoft 365 for business