PLEASE fix desktop app performance on macOS!! Constant high CPU usage and memory leaks!
I'm running Teams desktop app on macOS Catalina and the performance is TERRIBLE! If I get on a single 1-on-1 video call, the fan on my 2017 MacBook Pro starts spinning like crazy, CPU usage goes up to about 85%, and app begins to use over 1GB of RAM! To put it in perspective, I can get on a Zoom call with 10 other people, CPU usage is at less than 20%, and memory usage never passes 300MB
I've read on other forums to disable GPU acceleration in the settings, but that has only marginally helped.
Please fix your app!

Thank you for your reports. We released client and service updates this week, that address many MacOS-specific performance issues. We are also aware of recent performance issues with Microsoft Teams meetings, especially on laptops and when using external monitors.
The team is working to resolve these issues. In the meantime, please find troubleshooting information here: https://docs.microsoft.com/microsoftteams/troubleshoot/known-issues/teams-slow-video-meetings-laptops-4k.
186 comments
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Stefan Schaffner commented
It really has gotten worse (which I didn't think was possible). With the camera-enabled (external, Logitech), the CPU on my MacBook Air (2018, i5, 16GB, Dualcore) goes so high that after 10 minutes the Bluetooth stack is crashed and my headset, mouse and keyboard have lost connection.
PLEASE Microsoft. It must be possible for a global company to get collaboration software with video to be as stable as Zoom, for example, which I have no problem with at all on the same setup.
It is unfortunately at the moment the pure horror.
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Dr. Dirk Sunderer commented
Fan is running with high speed on my IMac (I7 Quad Core) and MacBook (I5 dual core). I'm using an external camera with Teams. To realize a pleasant atmosphere for having a video conference I've to turn off my camera. Then CPU-Usage reduces to a value between 20 and 30%.
Actually Teams on MacOS is causing horror!
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Anonymous commented
Still a big issue. Had no problem with ZOOM.
But our university made it mandatory to use TEAMS.
Please fix the issue. It's a nonsense.
We should be able to use video in an application made for videocall.
Using a 4K external screen should also not be a problem -
Anonymous commented
I hear fans of my i7 macbook pro from opposite side of my home during calls and system itself is useless during calls. Nothing helps, after each update this app is worse and worse!
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Daniel Morris commented
Today, I was in the middle of one of the most important presentations of my career through Teams, and my Mac went completely black. It eventually restarted, but Bluetooth and USB would not work. Obviously the machine was protecting itself from overheating. It is a maxed out 15" Mid 2015 MacBook Pro with Catalina 10.15.7. I'm running v1.3.00.33671 of Teams. Before this incident, the camera was flickering on and off in Teams, and it kept signing me out of Teams.
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Anonymous commented
Hard to find things that I haven't tried or symptoms not reported by others, but a possible triggers seems to be print screens of Teams Screen... sometimes I loose control of my 16" Mac for more than 10 seconds with a frozen screen, audio remains ok. External monitor makes it worse.
MBP16" 16GB I9 - 8 cores. and external 32" 4K (Thunderbold)
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SteveM commented
My experience is that any Teams video calls push the Intel CPUs of Mac's into Turbo Boost, hence the loud fan noise. It would be nice if a setting existed in Teams for a quite mode, where video quality might not be so good, but at least it shouldn't cause fans to spin to max just on a simple video call. I have also found that this problem is far worse with an external monitor, also the size of your video window impact this also.
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Anonymous commented
HI All,
I'd like to also comment that Teams performance appears to be getting worse. Today my machine flatlined so badly that the app became unresponsive to turning on an off the microphone and camera.
It appears that it's worse with Big Sur vs Catalina.Sadly, "other collab apps" do not behave like this and the worsening performance is making its usefulness to me increasingly marginal. I really shouldn't have to use my phone!
Machine Specs: MBP 15", Quad-core i7, 16GB RAM, Big Sur + 27" USB-C monitor.
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Tommiy commented
Well last reports of teams updates on windows is that they now appear to be having similar performance issues to mac. Over 17k comments. Maybe some one will fix this eventually but you would expect during a pandemic that it would be a priority....instead the lingering of this just opens the market for a competitor as now the entire user base is looking for alternatives. https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/17219609-teams-uses-600mb-and-is-super-slow
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CHRISTOPHER FINK commented
The app is getting worse, I have both machines, PC and MAC... Please remedy.
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AnderSon commented
Microsoft Teams is TERRIBLE in general, then to have it take up over 100% CPU when trying to video call is just miserable. Company-wide license forces us to use it. Otherwise, MS would never touch a machine I use.
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Werner commented
This problem is indeed annoying. With every update stuff seems to break regarding this issue. When using a webcam the cpu maxes out. Also virtual webcams do not work anymore. Using only incoming video works without problems.
Please give us a fix or at least an update on WHY this is happening. My guess is the problem is heavier on my retina macbook and may have something to do with the way macOS does scaling?
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anonyme commented
Please work on a fix for this !
It kills a fresh battery (150 cycles) on a MacBook Pro 15" 2015, 189$ to change it.
It drains the battery of a new MacBook Pro 16" 2020 ! High Fan and High Température.
Of course i disabled the checkbox of Use Discrete GPU nothing helped.Teams shouldn't use ELECTRON at all, it's a waste of RAM and ask too much power to work.
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Anonymous commented
MS Teams runs like an absolute dog on Mac OS!! Please fix it.
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Anonymous commented
Please fix this. "Partially done" is a massive overstatement, Teams consumes 30% of my CPU and over 1GB of RAM idling. When I get on a call my CPU hits 100% and stays there, fans spin up to max speed and the app regularly freezes and crashes.
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Anonymous commented
I did a fresh install of Big Sur on Monday and things were working ok for a few days. Now Teams meetings with multiple users and shared screens are killing my CPU (kernel task 550%, teams 250%) and GPU (RADEON PRO 555X at 100 processor usage) again. I only get the issue when I'm plugged into a 4K external monitor via my CalDigit TS3 Dock. It tends to improve for a period of time bit after I reboot.
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Lucas commented
It still brings my MacBook Pro with 16GB ram with an i7 to it's knees, be it during a call or out of one.. I don't know if you are aware of how damaging the abysmal performance of Teams on mac is productivity wise. I have to restart my computer constantly, can't share my screen properly during meetings in many, many cases, can't work on my designs while I'm in a call because nothing else works properly. The marginal fixes you seem to have made are not even noticeable. Not caring about these things will ultimately cost you clients.
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Anonymous commented
Is there a target date you are intending to fix this issue?
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Anonymous commented
Teams is absolutely killing my i7 Mac Mini as soon as I enter a video call. Zoom/FaceTime/etc. all work fine but Teams has a massive issue. The fan is almost never on, as soon as a Teams video call starts CPU goes crazy and the fan kicks in.
It genuinely might just be me, but it's getting worse.
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Anonymous commented
During video calls my quad core i7 MBP with 16gb RAM becomes virtually unusable. For a bug that's been open since April, this is very disappointing.
I don't understand how it's acceptable for a company to be able to get away with making customers pay for software that completely cripples your computer when you try to use it to do what it's designed for! Very, very poor indeed.