If you find that you have a need to disable private chat in Microsoft Teams, be aware that you may run into some challenges while it is disabled and if you need to enable it again.

Scenario

• Private chat in Teams is enabled, and in use by users.
• Private chat is then disabled for a period of time in the admin portal.
• After a period of time, private chat is then enabled again.

Problem #1

Just before private chat was disabled, someone had sent me a private chat message in Teams.  My (iOS) mobile client synced up and notified me of a Teams message with the traditional “1” badge on the app.  Private chat was then disabled, which removes the ability to view chats in the client.  However, the badge on the iOS app does not clear causing a perpetual notification on the app.

Problem #2

After turning Teams back on, you may encounter a scenario where a message “Administrator has disabled chat for this user” is produced when trying to send a message to someone that you had chatted with prior to it being disabled.

Based on testing, this appears to be an issue with the applications cached database, and only appears in the desktop app.

Resolution

Resolving the mobile app problem, requires that you turn chat back on, read the message, then turn it back off.  This isn’t a good option for the average end user, and has been reported to Microsoft as a bug.

Resolving the “disabled chat” message is also fairly simple and has been reported to Microsoft as well.  If you find yourself in this scenario, you have two options:

1. Exit the Teams application and manually clear the cached database.  The database is located in C:\users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Teams\IndexedDB\.  There you will find a folder similar to: https_teams.microsoft.com_0.indexeddb.leveldb.  Deleting either the Manifest or CURRENT files will cause a refresh of the database cache.  You could also just jump straight to the source and delete the *.ldb files there as well.  As soon as you restart the application, these files will regenerate.
2. From the desktop application, simply click your account photo at the bottom left, and click “Logout”.  Clicking logout will refresh the cache and the issue goes away.  When exiting/opening, or even after a reboot of your computer, the app cache is not completely refreshed so you can’t just rely on those as options.