I'm in new teams and can't switch to open files in the app rather than browser

Anonymous
2023-10-24T14:47:38+00:00

Hi there,

I have had issues with old Teams when trying to open a file in the app, it always defaults to open in the browser which makes it hard to edit, then various error messages pop up when trying to open in the default app. From reading help in the community forums, it suggested to uninstall and reinstall. I can now only install the new app which won't even give me the option to try and change my default for opening files and says to use the previous version which I can't find to download.

Please help. I really struggle to properly edit ppt and docs through the browser as some of the functionalities are very limited.

Thanks

AC

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for business | Files | Other

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Mr. Trust_A 4,820 Reputation points
2024-10-22T14:38:21+00:00

Hello AC_89,

Microsoft is aware of the issue where the option to open files in the desktop app is missing in the new Teams. This could be due to not meeting one of the three prerequisites:

  1. You must be using the Teams desktop app for Windows or Mac.
  2. You need to have the corresponding Office desktop apps (Microsoft Office 2016 or later) installed from the Microsoft 365 portal.
  3. You must have an Office 365 E3 or E5 license.

For more details, please refer to the support article: Desktop app option is missing when editing Office files in Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

Hope this helps!

Regards,

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-02-27T17:25:57+00:00

    Our company just updated to the "New" Teams and files no longer open in the Desktop app. I changed the settings and selected "Desktop App". I quit and restarted. I deleted the cache. Files randomly open in either the Browser or Teams. Very annoying.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-02-01T16:08:52+00:00

    It is, unfortunately, most likely because they are moving towards removing desktop apps entirely and moving to a web only model. They are already forecasting this with the most recent Outlook preview which is just a portal to an OWA instance. The UI and capability in the new Outlook preview is identical to webmail.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-02-01T16:00:07+00:00

    This is all a disgusting behaviour by design from MS.

    They want to reserve Teams Open Office Docs in App for Enterprise 365 customers (you know, the big companies with permanent IT staff).

    If you are a basic home user or small business 365 plan user, they want to make it as hard as possible to to use Teams easily in conjunction with desktop Office365.

    I have no idea why. There are literal idiots making these business decisions to limit functionality.

    I have have to sync Teams to OneDrive folders for small business customer so it can be usable, otherwise they would be changing back to Google Docs.

    But guess what - this doesn't work on Mac.

    ALL MS HAVE TO DO IS ENABLE TEAMS OPEN DOCS IN DESKTOP APP FOR ALL USERS PAYING FOR THE MS365 OFFICE DESKTOP LICENSING, BUT THEY WONT!!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-02-01T08:24:34+00:00

    Well that's possibly ruined that theory. I didn't have a great sample size, but did have 100% success.

    The only other thing that I was looking at was if it's to do with older versions of Office as seems to be implied on a few other forums. I discounted this as I've seen it working on version 2302, 2308 and 2312 as well as various build numbers, but could be something in it for yourself.

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