Microsoft Teams 2.0: Standard backgrounds not usable?

Teams[German]I'm posting a topic here on the blog that a reader brought to my attention by email recently. Another reader has confirmed that behavior. The reader is an administrator in a corporate environment and is currently testing the new Microsoft Teams 2.0 client with around 20 users. He has noticed that the standard Microsoft backgrounds cannot be used in Teams 2.0. Custom backgrounds, on the other hand, can be used. Has anyone else noticed this?


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Patrick is an administrator in a company with a total of 6500 employees, and their IT is currently in the process of intensively testing the Microsoft Teams 2.0 client. As a regular blog reader, he welcomes the exchange between readers via the comments on the respective articles. It helps to exchange ideas and to see that you are not alone with your problems, he says.

MS Teams 2.0: Hintergründe kaputt

That's why he sent me his observations from the test. He writes that the test is currently limited to around 20 users. The phenomenon occurs that the Teams backgrounds and videos cannot be used for all test users. The message "Error loading" is then displayed (see image above). On the other hand, uploaded images can be used as backgrounds. This then appears as follows:

  • If you look at the corresponding path in the user profile (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams\Backgrounds\), you can see that Microsoft's own backgrounds and videos are downloaded on-demand,
  • and secondly, you can see that these files are probably corrupt as they cannot be opened.

MS Teams 2.0: Kaputte Bilddateien
MS Teams 2.0: Broken image files

The folder is empty during a new installation and the files appear when you click on the respective image or video. In the Uploads folder you can see the images you have uploaded yourself, which work. The files then also have a size of 0 KB (see following image).


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MS Teams 2.0: Leere Bilddateien
MS Teams 2.0: Empty image files

In the meantime, their IT department has opened a support ticket with Microsoft and received the response that the case is still being investigated. A video recording and logs were requested from Microsoft support.

At the same time, the IT staff responsible for the tests are also talking to their internal security colleagues to clarify whether a security instance may be blocking the download of the media files.

Problem depends on the environment

I have had this issue for a few days and the reader asked if I had already seen similar behavior or if I had any other reports? I had to say no to both. The only feedback I currently have from the reader himself is that the Microsoft ticket is being pursued further, but so far without any new findings. Tests in the company have shown that this problem is not reproducible in certain network constellations (e.g. in the home office). There, the standard images and videos from Microsoft are downloaded correctly and can then be used.

One assumption is that the Microsoft Teams 2.0 client does not respect the proxy settings configured on the client with regard to the reloading of images and videos. This "path to the Internet" is handled differently for offices at the reader's company location than for users in the home office.

Another German blog reader has confirmed this behavior within this comment.  I am therefore posting the issue here in the blog, perhaps there are still hints from the readership that will help to isolate or solve the problem.

Similar articles:
New Microsoft Teams 2.0 Client released for macOS and Windows
New Microsoft Teams 2.0 client mandatory from April 1, 2024
Android: Microsoft Teams accounts may not be usable
No Teams chat on Android since September 2023


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4 Responses to Microsoft Teams 2.0: Standard backgrounds not usable?

  1. HanselSP says:

    We have the same problem, I can confirm that it happens behind a proxy server, I also tried via squid proxy with same result.

    Direct internet always works.

    The 0kb file is created bc it does not download its content but instead of throwing the file away it stays there resulting in a grey background and "error loading".

    With a newer version the grey background is gone it simply shows nothing.

    Log entry shows the error as:

    2023-11-22T11:26:12.477094+01:00 0x00003f8c native_modules::CustomVideoBackgroundModule: download failed with reason: curl_easy_perform failed: Failed to connect to statics.teams.cdn.office.net port 443 after 5584 ms: Couldn't connect to server

    I also posted it here:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msteams/forum/all/issues-with-the-new-teams-client/33391440-8868-45a1-b40a-41bf4afb28e7

    Another person has this problem but caused by a problem with certification revocation.

    For my understanding they probably forgot to implement proxy usage for that function.

    But that is a show stopper….

    • guenni says:

      Have to sort new information a bit out – I plan an update soon. In brief: MS plans to fix it 2024.

  2. AJP says:

    We are experiencing this issue as well so have paused piloting for now.

  3. HanselSP says:

    With version: 23320.3021.2567.4799 the download of backgrounds is possibe over proxy again.

    This problem is fixed for us.

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