How to Resolve GIFs Not Showing Issue in Microsoft Teams?

If you’re having trouble seeing GIFs on Microsoft Teams, it’s often due to misconfigured settings. This is a common issue where GIFs may disappear within the application. Other potential causes include enabled hardware acceleration or corruption in the Microsoft Teams cache and files, which may result in this problem.

To fix this issue, you can try several methods. Having discussed the possible causes, let’s jump into the solutions.

1. Disable Hardware Acceleration

Hardware Acceleration is intended to offload specific tasks to specialized hardware components, like the GPU, allowing the task to run more efficiently than it would using other components, typically the CPU. Despite being a useful feature, it can sometimes cause problems with applications.

By default, hardware acceleration is enabled in Microsoft Teams. If you encounter issues, it’s recommended that you start by disabling this feature.

1. Open Microsoft Teams and navigate to Settings.
   
2. In the General tab, select Disable GPU Hardware Acceleration (Requires Restarting Teams).
   
3. After making this change, restart Teams and check if the issue has been resolved.

2. Configure Microsoft Teams Settings Correctly

Incorrectly configured Microsoft Teams settings could also cause GIFs to vanish. Make sure that specific options allowing GIFs to be displayed in Microsoft Teams are enabled.

1. Click on the three dots at the top-right corner and select Settings.
   
2. From the left pane, select Privacy and scroll down to the end of the list.
3. Enable the Optional Connected Experiences setting, which will improve your Teams experience by offering cloud-based services, including the display of GIFs.
   
4. Next, if you have an Admin Microsoft Teams account, click on the three dots next to the class name and select Manage Team.
5. Navigate to Settings using the top navbar.
6. Expand the Fun Stuff section and turn on the Giphy feature.
   
7. After these adjustments, you should be able to send, receive, and view GIFs in Microsoft Teams.

3. Clear Microsoft Team Cache

When you launch an application for the first time, it stores relevant information in cache files so that it can reuse the data rather than retrieving it from the server again.

However, if cache files become corrupted, this can prevent GIFs from appearing in Microsoft Teams. Clearing the cache can resolve the issue by allowing Microsoft Teams to recreate the cache data.

3.1 Windows

1. Press the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog.
2. Type in %AppData% and click OK to open the folder.
   
3. Navigate to Microsoft > Teams within the Roaming folder.
4. Delete the following folders:
   • Cache
   • blob_storage
   • Code Cache
   • GPUCache
   • Local Storage
   • IndexedDB
   • databases
   • tmp

   

5. After this, re-open Microsoft Teams to see if the issue is resolved.

3.2 Browser

1. Select the three dots at the browser’s top corner and choose Settings.
   
2. Choose Privacy and Security from the left, and then click on Clear Browsing Data.
   
3. Select “All time” as the Time Range and click Clear Data.
   
4. Check to see if the issue has been fixed.

4. Reinstall Microsoft Teams

If the above steps fail to resolve the issue, reinstalling Microsoft Teams may help. Reinstallation can fix problems caused by corrupted files that are preventing the use of GIFs.

1. Access your Windows Settings by pressing Win + I.
2. Navigate to Apps > Installed Apps.
   
3. Search for and locate Microsoft Teams among the installed apps.
4. Click the three dots and choose Uninstall.
5. Confirm by clicking Uninstall again to remove the application.
6. Once removed, reinstall Microsoft Teams from the Microsoft Store and verify if the issue persists.

It’s possible that your admin has disabled GIFs for your group. If you are unable to view or send GIFs after following the steps above, you may want to discuss this issue with your administrator to ensure it’s not a policy setting that’s blocking GIFs.