Microsoft Teams Bot User Not Receiving Notifications

Question

Microsoft Teams Bot User Not Receiving Notifications

Kristy-1127 40

Hello,

I created a Microsoft Teams bot application and I've encountered a situation, where there is a user that has installed it but is not receiving any notifications. They've tried uninstalling the application and then reinstalling it multiple of times on different devices, but still cannot use the application. Other users don't seem to have any issues. Has anyone ever encountered this issue before? If so, how did you resolve it?

Thank you.

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Answer 1

Kai-L 18,970 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Dear Kristy,

Since the problem affects only one user across multiple devices, it is more likely related to that user's installation record, identity mapping, stored conversation reference, or an app policy applied to them, rather than the Teams client itself. Uninstalling and reinstalling on additional devices is unlikely to resolve a server-side mapping problem.

To help narrow this down, could you share a few more details?

Can the affected user open the app and send a message to the bot?
If so, does the bot respond?
Are the missing notifications proactive bot messages, activity feed notifications, or channel messages?
Does the affected user belong to the same Microsoft 365 tenant as the working users?
Is the app installed in the user's personal scope, or only in a team or channel?
What status code and response body does the bot receive when it attempts to send to this user?
How are you identifying the user, by Microsoft Entra object ID, Teams user ID, email address, or a stored conversation reference?

The most useful detail here would be the exact status code and response body logged when the bot tries to notify the affected user. That alone will usually point to whether this is a stale conversation reference, a permissions problem, or the user simply not being resolved correctly. It would also be worth checking whether any app permission or setup policy in the Teams admin center differs for this user, as that can silently prevent an app from functioning even after a successful install.

Looking forward to your reply, and I will do my best to help from there.

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Kristy-1127 40 Reputation points

2026-08-14T20:21:37.33+00:00
Hey Kai,

Thank you for your quick response! I appreciate it. To answer your questions:

Can the affected user open the app and send a message to the bot? Yes, the affected user can open the app and send a message to the bot.

If so, does the bot respond? The bot does respond back if they enter a specific command, which is the expected behavior.

Are the missing notifications proactive bot messages, activity feed notifications, or channel messages? The missing notifications are proactive bot messages. We're sending certain notifications to users if it matches a certain email address. I doubled checked their email address and it is correct.

Does the affected user belong to the same Microsoft 365 tenant as the working users? Yes, the user does belong to the same Microsoft 365 tenant as the other working users.

Is the app installed in the user's personal scope, or only in a team or channel? The app is installed in their personal scope.

What status code and response body does the bot receive when it attempts to send to this user? The bot doesn't attempt to send anything to the user. It almost seems as if the user can't be found, but I've checked the logs and I see that they have installed the application so the conversation reference should be stored in blob storage.

How are you identifying the user, by Microsoft Entra object ID, Teams user ID, email address, or a stored conversation reference? We're identifying the user through a stored conversation reference.
Kai-L 18,970 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-14T21:31:14.61+00:00
Dear Kristy,

Thank you for the thorough answers. If the bot never attempts to send anything, then the failure is occurring before the send call, on the lookup side rather than the delivery side. That effectively rules out permissions, policies, and Teams itself, since none of those would prevent your own code from making the attempt. Given you are matching on email address and then retrieving a stored conversation reference, the most likely candidates are:

The stored reference does not match the lookup key. The install was logged, but the reference may have been stored under a different key than the one your lookup is using, for example a differently cased email address, a UPN rather than a primary SMTP address, or an alias.

The reference exists but is malformed or incomplete, so it fails a validation check before the send is attempted.

The lookup silently returns null and the code path exits without logging an error.

To confirm which, it would be worth checking your blob storage directly for that user's reference. Specifically:

Does a reference actually exist for them, and under exactly what key?

Does that key match the format your notification code queries with, including casing?

Does the stored reference contain a valid conversation ID and service URL?

Does the user's email in your source system match the one used at install time?

If the reference is present and well-formed, then adding logging around the lookup itself would be the next step, as it should reveal whether the code is finding it at all.

To be honest, this is now firmly in bot development territory, which is beyond what I can reliably assist with. If the previous steps do not identify the cause, I would recommend asking a Global Administrator in your organization to open a service request with Microsoft Support. A support engineer can arrange a remote session to review the tenant-side data for the affected user, compare the configuration with working users, and escalate the case to the relevant product team if necessary. For detailed instructions on how to get support, please refer to Get support - Microsoft 365 admin.

I hope this at least helps narrow where to look. Please let me know how you get on. Wishing you all the best.
Kai-L 18,970 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-17T19:46:50.1833333+00:00

Dear Kristy,

It has been a while and I am writing to see how things are going with this issue. If there’s anything else I can assist you with or if you need further clarification, please don’t hesitate to let me know, I’m here to help. Looking forward to hearing from you. Wishing you a great day ahead!
Kristy-1127 40 Reputation points

2026-08-19T12:14:32.7633333+00:00

Hey Kai,

Sorry for some reason I wasn't notified that there were comments. I'll try to verify the things you mentioned above. Thank you for all your help!
Kai-L 18,970 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-19T21:46:12.4633333+00:00

Dear Kristy,

No problem at all, notifications can be easy to miss. Please take your time, and let me know how you get on once you have had a chance to check those. Looking forward to your update.