Receiving the error message in a group chat: "We’re having trouble loading your messages. Try refreshing." but the chat will not refresh

Hi @Nicholas Valin,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

The error message “We’re having trouble loading your messages. Try refreshing.” in Microsoft Teams typically indicates a temporary issue with message synchronization in a group chat.

Here're suggestions you can try to fix it:

1. Clear Teams cache (for New Teams)

• Fully close Teams: right-click the Teams icon in the system tray and choose Quit.
• For Windows:
  • Press Win + R and enter:

        %userprofile%\appdata\local\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams
    

  • Delete all files and folders in that folder.
• For MacOS:
  • In the Finder, open the /Applications/Utilities folder, and then double-click Terminal.
  • Enter the following commands, and press Return after each command:

rm -rf ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.com.microsoft.teamsrm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.teams2

• Restart Teams.
• For more details, you can take a look at: Clear the Teams client cache.

2. Check your network connection

• Make sure you're connected to the internet without restrictions.
• Try using a different network or mobile hotspot if available.
• VPNs, proxies, or firewalls may also interfere with Teams messages loading.

3. Try Web version

• Open https://teams.microsoft.com in a browser and log in.
• If the messages load in the web version, the issue is likely with your desktop app.

4. Try another device

• If possible, log into Teams from another device to see if the issue persists.

5. Check for updates

• In Teams desktop app: Click three dots next to your profile picture > Settings > About Teams > Check for updates.

If the issue still persists, please try:

• Uninstall and reinstall Teams completely.
• Or contact your IT admin, they may have policies affecting Teams.

Note: Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I'm looking forward to your reply.

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Hi @Nicholas Valin,

Thank you for your response.

Based on your comment, this might be not a global Teams outage and not a local cache issue (especially since other chats work). This could be:

• Corrupted message/thread history
• Permissions issue
• Backend sync problem (e.g. in Microsoft Graph services)
• A stuck message or file in that chat (often from bots, integrations, or outdated files)

Option 1: You can try to check Developer tools via web version:

• For Windows: Ctrl + Shift + I
• For Mac: Cmd + Option + I
• Go to the “Console” Tab
  • At the top of the Dev Tools panel, click on the Console tab. This is where errors and warnings will show as you interact with the app.

• In the Teams web app, click on the group chat that isn’t loading and watch the console log as it populates with messages.

Reach out to your IT team for help:

1. Take a screenshot of the error messages shown in the Console tab.
2. Make sure to blur or hide any sensitive information like chat IDs or user IDs.
3. Share the screenshot with your IT department.
4. Also ask your IT to check the backend logs or run a diagnostic on the affected group chat by using the Microsoft Teams admin center.

Option 2: Create support ticket via Microsoft Admin center

You can ask your IT administrator to submit a support ticket through the Microsoft 365 admin center  

• Please follow this article: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn.  
• On right bottom corner click on "Help & support"     

• After that choose the "Contact support".    

• Fill out the required information in the form, including a description of the issue you are experiencing.  
• Click on the "Create" button to submit your request. Which will give you a ticket number.  
• Once your request is submitted, a support engineer will be assigned to your case and will contact you to provide assistance.  

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I'm looking forward to your reply.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment”.      

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Hi @Nicholas Valin,

Thank you for your quick response.

From your DevTools Console, the key error message is: "Failed to fetch messages for conversationId..."

and "code": "FailedToFetchMessages", "message": "Could not resolve participant_unknown error".

These messages point to a server-side or identity resolution issue in Microsoft Teams.

Here're suggestions you can try to fix this issue:

1. Check if all participants are still active

If this is a group chat, and one or more participants:

• left the organization
• were guest users who were removed
• had their accounts deleted

Teams may fail to resolve the conversation and load its content.

Please ask your IT admin to confirm all participants in the group chat are still active in Azure AD.

2. Try removing and re-adding participants (if possible)

If you're the organizer or have admin support, you could:

• Try creating a new group chat with the same people
• Optionally exclude the suspected removed/deleted account to isolate the problem.

3. Create support ticket

If you tried these above steps but the issue still persists, I highly recommend you ask your IT department to create a support ticket through Microsoft 365 admin center.

This will ensure a deeper, more targeted investigation that goes beyond what we can access through the Q&A forum.

Note: We appreciate your understanding regarding the scope of support available through this forum. As moderators, our role is to provide general guidance and assist with common troubleshooting steps. While we do not have access to internal systems or administrative tools required to resolve account-specific or backend-related issues but we’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.  

I hope the information provided proves useful. Please proceed with the outlined steps and let me know whether they resolve the issue. If not, I’ll be glad to continue working with you to find a solution.

Thank you for your patience and understanding throughout this process. Should you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out at any time.

I look forward to hearing from you.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment”.      

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Hi @Nicholas Valin,

I hope you are having a great day.

I'm reaching out again to follow up on your issue and check if everything has been resolved. My goal is to ensure your experience remains smooth and hassle-free. If you're still encountering any problems or have run into new challenges, please let me know which steps you're currently stuck on and happy to provide further help whenever you need it. 

If you have any further questions, feel free to tag me in your reply so I can assist you directly.

Looking forward to your update.