How to Remove an Account from Teams (Windows, Phone, Web)

Applies to: the new Microsoft Teams on Windows 11 and Windows 10 (work, school and personal), Teams on the web, and the Teams app for Android, iPhone and Mac.

Which kind of removal do you need?

“Removing an account” from Teams can mean three different things, and each one is done in a different place:

What you want	What to do	Section
Stop using an account in Teams on this device	Sign out of it in Teams	Sign out
Stop an old account appearing on the sign-in screen	Remove it from Windows, then clear Teams	Remove from Windows
Stop seeing another company or a guest organization	Leave that organization	Leave an organization

None of these deletes the account itself. A work or school account belongs to your organization, so only its IT admin can delete it. A personal Microsoft account can only be deleted by closing it at Microsoft, which also removes Outlook.com, OneDrive and everything else tied to it.

Sign out of an account in the Teams app

Signing out removes that account’s chats, files and settings from the Teams app on this device until you sign in again. It doesn’t sign you out on your other devices.

1. Open Teams.
2. Select your profile picture at the top right.
3. If you’ve added more than one account, make sure the one you want to remove is the one in use (pick it from the same menu first).
4. Select Sign out.

On Teams on the web, it works the same way: select your profile picture at the top right and choose Sign out. If more than one account is signed in, Teams asks which one to sign out.

If Teams keeps asking for an old password and you’re not sure it’s yours to remove, check with your IT team first. Repeated sign-in attempts with a wrong password can lock the account, which shows up in Windows as “The referenced account is currently locked out”.

Remove the account from Windows

Teams signs in with the accounts Windows already knows about, which is why an old account can keep coming back on the sign-in screen after you sign out. Removing it from Windows fixes that.

Personal Microsoft account

1. Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Email & accounts.
2. Select the account you want to remove.
3. Next to Remove account, select Remove and confirm.

Work or school account

1. Select Start > Settings > Accounts > Access work or school.
2. Select the account to expand it.
3. Select Disconnect if it’s offered and confirm. On some versions, select Manage instead, which opens your account page, and choose Sign out everywhere there.

Careful: if the entry says the PC is connected to your organization’s Microsoft Entra ID (or Azure AD), the computer itself belongs to that organization. Disconnecting it can lock you out of the PC, so leave it alone and ask your IT team. You can’t use these steps to remove the Microsoft account you sign in to Windows with.

Clear Teams if the old account still shows

Teams keeps its own cache of account details. If the removed account still appears after a restart, reset the new Teams app:

1. Right-click the Teams icon on the taskbar and select Quit.
2. Open Settings > Apps > Installed apps and search for Microsoft Teams.
3. Select More options (the three dots) next to Microsoft Teams, then Advanced options.
4. Under Reset, select Reset, then open Teams again.

Resetting signs you out of every account in Teams, so you’ll sign back in to the ones you want to keep. You can also delete the cache by hand: quit Teams, press Win + R, paste this path and delete everything in the folder:

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

For classic Teams the folder is %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams. If Teams won’t open at all after this and shows error 0xc0000005 or similar, reinstall it from the Microsoft Store or your organization’s download page.

Leave an organization you joined as a guest

If someone invited you to their company’s Teams as a guest, that organization shows up in your account list. You can leave it yourself:

1. In Teams, select Settings and more (the three dots) > Settings > Accounts and orgs (in Teams Free, select the gear icon instead).
2. Next to the organization, select Leave. If there’s no Leave button there, go to myaccount.microsoft.com and sign in.
3. On your account page, select Organizations on the left.
4. Under Other organizations you collaborate with, select Leave next to the organization and confirm.

You can’t leave your home organization (the one that gave you your work or school account). If you see a message that you need permission, the organization hasn’t allowed guests to leave on their own, so contact its admin. It can take a few hours for the organization to disappear from Teams; sign out and back in if it’s still there later.

Remove an account on Android or iPhone

1. Open the Teams app and tap your profile picture.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Scroll down and tap Sign out, then confirm.

With several accounts added, switch to the one you want to remove from the profile-picture menu first. If the account signs straight back in, it’s probably shared through another Microsoft app on the phone, such as Microsoft Authenticator, Outlook or Company Portal. Remove it there as well, or uninstall and reinstall Teams to start clean.

Remove a saved account on a Mac

On a Mac, sign out of Teams first, then quit it. Open Keychain Access, search for Teams, and delete the saved items that belong to the old account. Open Teams again and sign in with the account you want.

If you notice an account in Teams that you don’t recognise at all, don’t just remove it. Change your password, check your account’s recent sign-ins, and scan your PC for malware.

Related guides

• How to add a shared mailbox in Outlook
• “The referenced account is currently locked out”
• How to scan your PC for malware
• Error 0xc0000005: application unable to start
• “Device management could not be enabled” (0x80192EE7)

Official sources: for more detail, see Microsoft’s own documentation:

• Microsoft Support: Sign out or remove an account from Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Learn: Clear the Teams client cache
• Microsoft Learn: Leave an organization as an external user

Frequently asked questions

Does removing an account from Teams delete it?

No. Signing out and removing it from Windows only takes it off this device. The account, its chats and its files still exist and you can sign in again at any time.

Why does my old work account keep appearing in Teams?

Windows still has it saved. Remove it under Access work or school or Email & accounts, then reset Teams to clear its cache.

Can I remove my school account from Teams after leaving?

You can sign out and remove it from your devices. To have the account itself deleted, ask the school or company’s IT admin, because only they can do that.

Will I lose my chats if I leave a guest organization?

Yes, you lose access to that organization’s teams, chats and files. The organization keeps its copy, and you’d need a new invitation to get back in.