How to get Teams to monitor your computer activity and not your phone activity

Hello, this is Emily.

May I ask if there's a specific place you saw or noticed that made you believe that your hardwork/activities on the computer is not being noticed?

I am an IT admin myself managing an organization. As an admin, I can run "Analytics & reports" in the backend down to each user, and this data is NOT limited by device. It is by the account - doesn't matter what platform you use it on. Hence I am curious to know what you might have noticed that indicates to you that your activities are not being captured. Let me know and hopefully I can help clarify or explain further.

Hi - Teams activity operates off of my mobile and not my laptop. So when I am working on my laptop, the activity shows that I am 'away' when I am actually working hard on my laptop. Also when I make a call from Teams on my computer and not my phone, it shows I am away. Can you please assist me in how to ensure that my desktop activity is being reflected and not my phone activity as I work on my laptop? Does this make sense?

Are you saying you are more concerned about the "status" not synced among your devices?

First of all, it doesn't matter where you make the call or make the chat, these activities are captured in the user activity report in the admin backend. So, are you worried about your employer doesn't see you working, or are you worried about peer colleagues don't see you working? If you worry about employer, you have no reason to worry about it as the backend user reports can show all of your activities, as I explained to you, it is driven by your actual account, not by device.

But if you need your peer colleagues to see that you are working and your status is not reflecting that on one or some devices, then that's more of a glitch.

Can you please confirm this - if you change your status to busy on your laptop, does it change to busy as well on your phone? Also can you confirm if you can manually change the phone status to available. I just want to make sure it is not stuck. If not, can you tell me what kind of phone you are using?

Can you please confirm this - if you change your status to busy on your laptop, does it change to busy as well on your phone? Also can you confirm if you can manually change the phone status to available. I just want to make sure it is not stuck. If not, can you tell me what kind of phone you are using.

No it does not change the status when I update it on my desktop. It only changes the status through my phone. I have a iPhone X

Look, when you use words such as "activities" and "monitor", to me it is more about the activities reports an IT admin see. But it looks like you are basically saying the status doesn't change from one device to another. I am sorry if I annoy you for asking these probing questions, but I don't like to rush to solutions before a problem is correctly scoped and defined, otherwise I could point you to a completely wrong path and waste your time and mine.

So, thanks for confirming that it is about the status change not synced on the iphone X. Can you go to your iphone's settings > general > about, and what's the iOS version number? Thanks!

My apology, as I understand you are only trying to help. It is a iPhone 13 Pro Max - Thank you so much again for your support with this.

Thank you for your understanding.

Ok, iPhone 13 is the model number, I do want to make sure your iOS (operation system) is at least version15 or above. You can find that at your iPhone's settings > General > About. That's the mininum requirement for Teams app to work properly on iPhone.

If it is 15 or above, next, I will recommend that you clear cache. You can use this article to guide you. You just need to follow the parts about iphone/ipad. https://www.igeeksblog.com/clear-microsoft-team...

After you clear cache, see if the status change will be reflected on your iphone once you change it on the laptop. If not, uninstall the Teams app, and reinstall it and see if it helps.

Keep me posted.


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Hi Emily, I really appreciate your help. Unfortunately, those options did not yield a solution. I have the correct iOS software update. I cleared the cache and re-downloaded the app to my phone and it still will not recognize my computer as a device where I can change the activity. It is really frustrating that I am working hard from my desktop but it appears to my employer that I am 'Away" when I am not because it only recognizes my phone.

You are welcome.

Just to make sure, did you go through all three options of clearing cache in that article?

This is definitely normal as I could get it work on my end, so it is not a bug issue as bug is affecting all users.

On your iPhone, go to Teams. Click on the profile icon. Under Accounts and orgs, any chance you have multiple accounts listed there, including personal Microsoft account?

Also, click on your status, and then click on reset status.

Then back to Teams Settings > About, turn on developer preview, and see if upgrading to the preview version might help.

Hiii - I did follow all the steps suggested. I cleared the cache, I reinstalled and downloaded the app and still always shows that I am away even if I am working on my a desktop. The time and energy in troubleshooting this over a message board is just exhausting. It appears this is MS issue that they are not willing to fix as many users have this issue. Any other suggestions are welcome.