Does Teams Stay Green When Your Computer Is Asleep? No, It Goes Offline

No. Microsoft Teams does not stay green when your computer is asleep. Microsoft's presence documentation says that on a computer your status "becomes Away automatically if they're inactive for a few minutes or if the computer is locked; and it becomes Offline when the computer enters sleep mode." So the dot goes yellow first, and then grey with an x once the laptop sleeps. How long Teams stays green before that is 5 minutes without input: the Teams client's own code sets a 300,000 ms idle threshold and checks the computer every 20 seconds (we printed both from Microsoft's code on 7 October 2026, below). Closing the lid puts most laptops to sleep, so a closed laptop usually shows you Offline within minutes.

The one exception is a second device. If Teams is open on your phone's screen, Teams can show you Available from the phone while the laptop sleeps.

What Teams shows in each computer state

Next to Away and Offline, coworkers also see a "Last seen" time on your profile card, taken from your last activity. How that time is set is in what does Last seen mean on Teams.

Why sleep shows Offline and a lock shows Away

The Teams desktop app reads input across the whole computer. A lock screen stops that input, but the app is still running and connected, so Teams reports Away. Sleep stops the app itself. Its connection to Microsoft drops, and after a few minutes with no connected client Teams reports Offline.

Minimizing Teams does not count as idle; the app still sees your input in other apps, as covered in does Teams show Away when minimized. When the computer wakes, Teams reconnects and sets you Available after your first keypress or mouse move. If the dot stays yellow after that, work through Teams status stuck on Away.

How long Teams stays green: the timer in its code

We downloaded the Teams web client from teams.microsoft.com on 7 October 2026 (it loads without signing in) and printed its idle settings with this script:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# Download the Teams web client (no sign-in needed) and print its idle settings.
import re, urllib.request
UA = {"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh) Chrome/140.0"}
def get(u): return urllib.request.urlopen(urllib.request.Request(u, headers=UA), timeout=60).read().decode()
def setting(js, key):  # the [...] list after "key:", brackets balanced
    i = js.index(key + ":[") + len(key) + 1; depth = 0
    for j in range(i, len(js)):
        depth += {"[": 1, "]": -1}.get(js[j], 0)
        if depth == 0: return js[i:j + 1]
html = get("https://teams.microsoft.com/v2/")
urls = {u for u in re.findall(r"https://[^\"'\s]+?/hashed-assets/[^\"'\s]+?\.js", html) if "onecdn" in u}
config = get(next(u for u in urls if "/config-prod-" in u))
entry = get(next(u for u in urls if "/async-entry-" in u))
loader = get(next(u for u in urls if "/loader-" in u))
print("platform ids:", ", ".join(f"{n}={v}" for n, v in re.findall(r"\[\w\.(Web|MaglevT21|MaglevMacT21)=(\d+)\]", loader)[:3]))
for key in ["appIdleTimeoutInMs", "machineIdlePollingIntervalMs", "disableSystemIdlePolling", "enableWebMachineIdle"]:
    print(key, "=", setting(config, key))
print("default machine idle threshold ms:", re.search(r"_machineIdleThresholdMs=(\d+e\d+)", entry).group(1))
print("web fallback:", re.search(r'"(IdleDetector API is not supported[^"]*)"', entry).group(1))

Output:

platform ids: Web=1415, MaglevT21=49, MaglevMacT21=50
appIdleTimeoutInMs = [{value:3e5}]
machineIdlePollingIntervalMs = [{value:2e4}]
disableSystemIdlePolling = [{platform:[50,51,49],value:!1},{value:!0}]
enableWebMachineIdle = [{platform:[1454,1415],value:!0}]
default machine idle threshold ms: 3e5
web fallback: IdleDetector API is not supported in this browser. Falling back to client state

What those values mean:

• • The five minutes is in the code. The default idle threshold is 3e5 milliseconds, 300,000 ms, which is 5 minutes. The same number ships as appIdleTimeoutInMs in the settings Microsoft sends to every Teams client. It is not a field in Teams settings or in the admin center.
• • The desktop app reads the whole computer. On the Windows (49) and Mac (50) apps, disableSystemIdlePolling is false, so Teams asks the system for its idle time every 20,000 ms. Input in any app resets it, and Away can show up to 20 seconds after the five minutes pass.
• • Teams on the web needs a browser permission for that. enableWebMachineIdle is on for the web client (1415). In Chrome and Edge it uses the browser's Idle Detection permission to read the computer's idle time. Without it, the code says it is "Falling back to client state", which means only what happens in the Teams tab.

Teams status when the laptop lid is closed

Closing the lid does what your power settings say:

• • Windows default: sleep. Teams goes Offline.
• • Windows set to Do nothing (Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what closing the lid does). The laptop stays awake, but nobody is typing, so Teams goes Away after about 5 minutes, and Windows may still lock the screen.
• • Mac: sleep, unless the Mac is in clamshell mode with power, an external display and a keyboard connected.

To change the Windows lid action for when the laptop is plugged in, from a Command Prompt:

:: lid closed while plugged in: do nothing (0), sleep is 1
powercfg /setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BUTTONS LIDACTION 0
powercfg /setactive SCHEME_CURRENT

The full settings for both systems, including the Mac clamshell setup, are in how to keep a laptop awake with the lid closed. A laptop that stays awake with the lid closed still shows Away in Teams, because there is no input.

How to keep Teams Available when the computer would sleep

There is no Teams setting for this. Microsoft's moderators say there is no option to set Teams to always Available. Three things change the result:

• Keep the computer awake and unlocked. Set the sleep timeout to Never while plugged in, or use PowerToys Awake on Windows or caffeinate -di on a Mac. This stops Offline, but not Away.
• Give Teams input. Teams goes Away after about 5 minutes with no keyboard or mouse input anywhere. A mouse jiggler or a key-press script counts as input; see does a mouse jiggler work for Teams.
• Use your phone. Teams uses the device you used most recently. Open Teams on the phone and keep it on screen, and you show Available. As soon as the app goes to the background, the phone shows Away; details in does Teams stay green on mobile.

# Mac: block display and idle sleep until you press Ctrl+C
caffeinate -di

Company laptops often lock after a set time by policy, and no app changes that. Everything else that decides the green dot is in how to keep your Teams status Available.

What happens to messages while you show Offline

Messages and calls sent while your computer sleeps still reach you. Chats wait in Teams for when you wake the computer. If Teams is signed in on your phone, you get phone notifications there. Teams can also email you a summary of missed activity, set under Settings > Notifications and activity > Email > Missed activity emails.

FAQ

Does Teams stay green if I turn off the display but not sleep? The display turning off does not change your status by itself. Teams still goes Away after 5 minutes with no input.