How to Change Teams Away Time: What You Can and Cannot Set

You cannot change the time before Microsoft Teams shows you as Away. Teams switches you to Away after 5 minutes with no keyboard or mouse input anywhere on your computer. That number, 300,000 milliseconds, is written into the Teams client itself (we read it from Microsoft's code on 7 October 2026, below), and neither Teams settings nor the Teams admin center has a field for it. What you can change are the things that set Away sooner: your screen lock delay, your sleep delay, how long a status you set lasts, and one setting in Teams on the web. Microsoft's own support page gives the same advice: "Change your device's sleep or idle settings to require more time before your status switches from Available to Away."

Slack uses a different rule, covered in how does Slack decide when you're away.

When Teams sets you Away

Teams reads your computer's idle state, not only the Teams window. Typing in Word or scrolling in a browser counts as activity. Microsoft's support page lists the triggers: Teams sets you from Available to Away "when you lock your computer or when it enters idle or sleep mode", and on mobile "when the Teams app is in the background".

So when people search "Teams away after 5 minutes", the 5 minutes is the idle part. If you go yellow after 2 minutes, a screen lock is almost always the cause, and that part you can change. The timings in detail are in how long before Teams shows Away.

The 5-minute timer in the Teams 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.

What you can change, and who controls it

Setting	Where	Who controls it	Effect on Away
Teams idle timeout	Nowhere	Nobody, not even admins	Fixed at 5 minutes (300,000 ms in the client)
Screen lock delay	Windows: Sign-in options. Mac: Lock Screen	You, unless IT sets a policy	Later lock, later Away
Sleep delay	Windows: Power & battery. Mac: Lock Screen	You, unless IT sets a policy	Later sleep, later Offline
Status duration	Teams: profile, status, Duration	You	Holds a manual status, not Available
Keep my current status when active outside Teams	Teams on the web: Settings, Notifications and activity, Presence	You	Other tabs and apps count as activity
Dynamic lock, presence sensing	Windows: Sign-in options, Privacy & security	You, unless IT sets a policy	Locks early when you step away

Change the lock and sleep time on Windows

This is the change that matters most, because a lock sets Away at once.

• Open Settings, then Accounts, then Sign-in options. Under "If you've been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again?", pick a longer time or Never.
• On the same page, turn off Dynamic lock if it is on. It locks the PC when your paired phone leaves Bluetooth range.
• Open Settings, then System, then Power & battery (Power & sleep on Windows 10). Set longer times for turning off the screen and for sleep.
• If your laptop has a presence sensor, turn off the option that locks the screen when you leave, under Privacy & security, Presence sensing.
• Test it. Leave the computer for 10 minutes and check your status from the Teams phone app.

The sleep and screen times can also be set from a terminal:

# screen off after 30 minutes, sleep after 60, while plugged in
powercfg /change monitor-timeout-ac 30
powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 60

If the lock still comes after 2 or 3 minutes, your IT team set it by policy. Check with these two read-only commands:

# a lock timeout set by IT, in seconds (an error means there is no policy)
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v InactivityTimeoutSecs

# your screen saver timeout, in seconds
reg query "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v ScreenSaveTimeOut

A value under InactivityTimeoutSecs comes from the "Interactive logon: Machine inactivity limit" policy. You cannot raise it yourself, and Teams will go Away when it runs out. More on locks you can and cannot change is in keep your computer awake without admin rights.

Change the lock and sleep time on a Mac

• Open System Settings, then Lock Screen.
• Raise Start Screen Saver when inactive and Turn display off when inactive.
• Set Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off to a longer time.
• On a MacBook, open Battery, then Options, and turn on Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off.

A work Mac with a device management profile may lock these fields. The Mac details are in keep Slack active on Mac, which covers the same settings.

Set a status duration in Teams

A duration keeps a status you choose for a set time, then Teams goes back to automatic status.

• Select your profile picture, then your current status, then Duration.
• Under Status, pick the status to show.
• Under Reset status after, pick a time, or Custom for a date and time.
• Select Done.

Two limits come from Microsoft's own page. You can set a duration for any status except Available. And "a more available status (like Busy) will not override a less available status (like Away) even if its duration is set." So a duration cannot hold you green. It is the right tool for Be right back over lunch or Do not disturb for an hour of focus.

You can also change your status from the Teams search box with these commands:

/available   /busy   /dnd   /brb   /away   /offline

Teams on the web: keep your status when you work in other tabs

Teams in a browser cannot see what you do in other tabs unless you allow it. In Teams for the web, open Settings, then Notifications and activity, then Presence, and turn on Keep my current status when I'm active outside of Teams on the web. The browser then asks for permission to detect your activity. Select Allow. If you select Block, Teams on the web sets you Away while you work elsewhere.

Why no one can change the 5 minutes

The Teams admin center has policies for chat, meetings and calling, but no presence timeout. Microsoft's user documentation points to the device instead: change the sleep or idle settings of the computer. Teams status stuck on Away covers the cases where you are active and still yellow.

If the goal is to stay Available through breaks longer than 5 minutes, the only thing that works is input on the computer. A mouse jiggler or a script that presses a key does that, and both can be seen by monitoring tools. The options and the trade-offs are in how to keep Teams status available, the script is in keep your computer awake with PowerShell, and what your employer can see is in does Teams track your activity.

If you use Teams and Slack side by side, keep Teams and Slack active covers both.