New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on October 12, 2021) follows:

Microsoft Teams is part of the Microsoft 365 suite launched to replace Microsoft Classroom and Skype for Business by offering users capabilities such as video conferencing, file storage, and integration of apps.

During the pandemic, Microsoft Teams has seen an increase in usage alongside other video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet.

This is because people have adapted to the new situations of working from home and rely on Microsoft Teams to accomplish their tasks remotely.

Microsoft-Teams-Play-Store

Today, more than 145 million users are on the platform. Meaning, when a bug arises, many are left affected and frustrated.

And according to recent reports, it seems some Microsoft Teams users are reporting that the arrow (left/right) keys are not working when using Excel. Oddly, the Up/Down keys are functioning normally.

Microsoft-Teams-arrow-keys-not-working
(Source)

While this problem appears to be a bug on the Teams platform, Microsoft is yet to address it in official capacity. But those affected seem to have found some basic troubleshooting options, which you can also try out.

For starters, some say simply restarting your computer should temporarily fix the problem. However, for some, this doesn’t work.

Therefore, your best bet is to try each troubleshooting solution provided below and see whether the issue with Microsoft Teams arrow keys not working goes away.

Solution 1: Force close Microsoft Teams app

According to one Microsoft employee from the official forum, closing the Microsoft Teams app and relaunching it later could fix this issue. But then again, this is on a temporary basis.

It happens a lot and it’s quite annoying. My solution is using the Task Manager to terminate Microsoft Teams and relaunch it. It’s much better than restart the whole computer. Hope it helps.

Still, some users asked the Microsoft employee to escalate their concerns to the appropriate department. After all, they would be more interested in having a permanent solution rather than a temporary one.

MS-Teams-left-and-right-keys
(Source)

Killing the app every time the keys start to misbehave doesn’t cut it for them.

Solution 2: Delete cache files from your computer

Another troubleshooting option suggested in the forum involves clearing all Microsoft Teams cache files. To do so, follow the steps below:

– Exit the Microsoft Teams App
– Go to the File Explorer and key in appdata\Microsoft\teams
– Then keep following the steps as shown in the image below.

Microsoft-Teams-arrow-left-and-right-keys
Click/tap to view (Source)

Any of these workarounds should work magic, but some Microsoft Teams users have found this to be a temporary solution since the arrow keys stop working again after some time.

Let’s hope Microsoft comes up with a permanent solution soon.

Update 1 (January 13)

05:54 pm (IST): One of the affected users suggested a workaround that will probably resolve this issue. It involves disabling GPU acceleration in the Teams settings.

Team-GPU-disabling-workaround
(Source)

Update 2 (January 17)

06:54 pm (IST): One of the affected users suggested a workaround that can resolve this issue. So those still having it can try and see if it helps.

The problem has been plaguing me for a while. I noticed the problem was occurring today. I originally thought it was my wireless keyboard with my KVM switch setup. I narrowed it down that Teams was only affected. I restarted Teams as a previous post suggested. That worked today for less than five minutes before the problem started again. I disabled the GPU hardware acceleration as someone else suggested. So far, so good. I did not clear the cache however. (Source)

Update 3 (March 29)

10:24 am (IST): Several users are reporting this issue even with the latest version of Teams app which means that this problem still persists.

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