Microsoft Teams setup policies so that a custom app and a set of pinned apps are deployed consistently for all users

Hi Louis Betts

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum

The root cause of this behavior is when app setup policy changes in Microsoft Teams often take anywhere from minutes to 48+ hours to propagate, due to the way Teams clients (desktop, web, and mobile) handle updates. Each client uses its own polling interval and relies heavily on local caching to retrieve the latest policy.

When a client caches an older version of the policy, it will continue using that until the cache expires or is manually cleared. This results in inconsistent experiences, where some users see changes immediately (e.g., after a new sign-in or on a fresh device), while others may not see the updates right away, even though the policy is correctly applied at the service level.

Therefore, you can follow the below methods to mitigate this behavior:

1/ Force policy refresh via cache clear

You can follow the instructions here: Clear the Teams client cache

2/ Optional improvement for slightly better propagation

Instead of editing the Global (Org-wide default) policy, create a dedicated custom app setup policy with your desired pinned apps and assign it to a dynamic group that includes all users ("All users" dynamic group works well). Many administrators report marginally faster and more consistent rollout with group-based custom policies than with Global policy edits.

Additionally, in order to minimize future issues with Teams app setup policies:

• Pin multiple apps: Always pin at least 3-4 apps in your setup policy, as mobile clients may ignore policies with too few pinned apps.
• Ensure custom app availability: Make sure custom apps are uploaded to the org-wide app catalog and included in the appropriate app permission policy.
• Use the web client for testing: For testing or urgent updates, the Teams web client (teams.microsoft.com) often reflects changes immediately due to minimal caching.

Hope my answer will help you, for any further concern, kindly let me know in the comment section.

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