Microsoft Teams Kills all Network Connectivity During Calls

Anonymous
2019-10-28T14:37:04+00:00

Despite having a good WiFi or Ethernet connection, regardless of which network I'm on, if I join a Microsoft Teams call, all network connectivity stops working and teams simultaneously reports poor call quality and no network connectivity. All this while on an active call which I can see and hear. Here's a full description of symptoms.

Every time I connect to a Teams call:

  • Incoming call quality is ok. I can hear and see others.
  • Outgoing call quality is very poor. Others say my voice is breaking up.
  • If I unmute and speak for more than a few seconds, I am booted from the call.
  • If I stay muted I can stay on the call indefinitely.
  • I can share my screen just fine, I don't get kicked from the call.
  • Teams periodically puts up a warning symbol in the call controls reporting poor connectivity.
  • Teams puts up a blue banner stating that I have been disconnected from the internet.
  • (Intermittent) Teams puts up a big overlay on top of the whole app saying I have been disconnected
  • The call continues though all of this, including voice and video.
  • All other network connectivity is broken (e.g.: Browsers cannot load pages, network drives stop working)
  • Text chat features work fine (but not during calls, where they fail to work like all other network activity)

The instant the call ends, all the symptoms stop. I can access network resources again. My wifi connection is fine. I've tested using wired networking and encounter the exact same issue. I've also tried various audio devices and disconnecting all peripherals as longshot solutions. No dice. I don't have anything weird on my system as far as I am aware. Teams works fine on other machines but not on my primary laptop. 

This issue not only makes Microsoft Teams itself nearly unusable, it knocks my whole system offline for the duration of the call, which is incredibly frustrating.

I'm booting into Windows 10 on a 2015 MacBook Pro 13". I have all the latest patches for everything. I've seen two other people here who have what I think is the same issue as mine, but their question threads didn't have any solutions either, and now they're locked.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/microsoft-teams-always-appears-poor-network/1a9ef89c-e495-4e2c-b108-d5b8702a54a8

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/teams-kills-all-connections/6b9dd383-df31-4bec-957a-41ee478eab3e

Does anyone have any idea what could be going wrong? Any solutions? Any more info needed from me about my setup?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Subscription, account, billing | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-07-21T17:39:40+00:00

    @mhull . Same here; I've been through a few meetings myself with no disconnects, and I'm all but certain it would've disconnected on the old firmware by now, but, we'll see.. If it goes the week, then I'll consider it fixed for me at least.. Really hoping other manufacturers which use the same underlying tech post firmware updates for their docks, too.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-21T17:03:33+00:00

    Thanks for the heads up @mhull. Mine needed to be updated as well (screenshot showing the result of hitting the "Check" button, below). The update process took about 5 minutes and I've since moved my Ethernet cable from the laptop back to the dock, so we'll see.

    @ScottMetzel No prob! I have had 2 meetings now with no disconnect. Keeping fingers crossed!

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-20T19:09:11+00:00

    Thanks for the heads up @mhull. Mine needed to be updated as well (screenshot showing the result of hitting the "Check" button, below). The update process took about 5 minutes and I've since moved my Ethernet cable from the laptop back to the dock, so we'll see.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-20T18:13:03+00:00

    @matt hull, Great update. My fingers are crossed this is the solution.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-20T17:57:57+00:00

    Over the past month and a half I have continued to work with Microsoft by providing packet captures, Teams logs, screen recordings, etc... So far they have not been able to isolate the issue. However, Lenovo has just released a new firmware for the USB-C Gen 2 dock. This update has updated multiple components in the dock including the USB hubs. I installed the new firmware this morning and had a Teams meeting shortly afterwards. I did not experience the issue during our meeting. This doesn't necessarily mean it is fixed as I have had a couple of meetings prior that didn't have the issue. I will continue to evaluate each day and see how it goes. One key thing that I did notice is that prior to the update, my Ethernet network connection was always displaying the name of my Wireless SSID in the bottom taskbar as if I was connected to Wi-Fi. That was even with the Wi-Fi disabled.... It now says connected to "Network" as it should. I am hoping this may have been the issue and the update has corrected it. Those who are using the Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 docks, I would suggest checking to see if a hardware specific firmware update is available for your model. Below is a screenshot of what the firmware versions were and what they are now. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any release notes from Lenovo about the update.

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