Phantom Teams Notification Icon & Bad Org Invites

Question

Phantom Teams Notification Icon & Bad Org Invites

Tony Pitman 116

I am using Teams on my iPhone. I am logged into a business account and a personal account.

When the app is not open I see a notification. When I open the app if I have the business account is active, I see a notification icon. It is on the personal account. When I switch to the personal account the notification icon goes away.

I have tried all the different processes to clear it without success.

I don't know if this is related, but there are 2 org invites in my account that I don't know where they came from. I also can't find the original emails that started them.

I don't see a way to get rid of them. Maybe they are the source of the phantom notifications.

Here is what they look like:

User's image

2 answers

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Answer 1

Dear Tony Pitman,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A.

Thank you for sharing the details and screenshot. Based on your description, the phantom notification badge appears when your business account is active, but the unread indicator seems tied to your personal account. You also mentioned seeing two unfamiliar organizations under your personal account, which could be related.

To better understand and resolve this, could you clarify a few points:

What Teams app version are you currently using?

Does the badge always show the same number, or does it change?

What steps have you already taken to resolve this issue?

In the meantime, here are some steps you can ty:

In Teams Desktop app or web, please refer on this article Leave a work or school organization in-microsoft teams free

Check Chat and Meeting Chats for unread items and use Mark all as read.

If the badge persists, clear app data or reinstall Teams to refresh cached notifications.

About the guest organizations

Those invites mean you were added as a guest in other Microsoft 365 tenants. If you no longer need access, you can leave them:

Go to My Account > Organizations > select the org and click Leave.

User's image

For personal Microsoft accounts, you may need to use a tenant-specific link:

https://myaccount.microsoft.com?tenantId=<tenant>.onmicrosoft.com

If you cannot leave because of MFA or the guest account is disabled, contact the admin of that organization to remove you.

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

I hope this information helps point you in the right direction. If you run into any issues while trying the steps, or if something still doesn’t feel quite right, please don’t hesitate to reach out again. I’ll do my best to support you however I can.

Looking forward to hearing back from you with any updates or additional details.

Warm regards,

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

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Tony Pitman 116 Reputation points

2025-12-10T14:26:14.9566667+00:00

I have tried so many things I don't remember them all.

If you look at the image I posted you can see the 2 organizations that are not recognized and you can see that the slider switch is turned on for both of them, but it is disabled.
Those 2 orgs do NOT show up in the other page you mentioned under organizations in my account, so I can't leave them.

How do I get rid of those 2 orgs in my teams area from the image I posted?

I do have one extra org in my accounts, but I think that is an org that I want to be a part of. It doesn't give any details about who it is, though, so how do I get more information about it before I leave it?
Liora D 8,005 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-12-11T14:20:02.2033333+00:00

Hi Tony,

Thank you for sharing these details. Just to confirm, is this issue only appears on your iPhone? If so, it’s likely related to cached data or a mobile-specific sync problem.

Please try these steps:

Sign in on another device and check if the phantom notification and the two unknown organizations still appear. This will help us determine if the issue is account-related or specific to the iOS app.

Uninstall and reinstall the Teams app on your iPhone. This refreshes cached notifications and often removes ghost organizations that no longer exist.

After trying these steps, please let me know:

Does the phantom badge disappear after reinstalling?

Do the two unknown organizations still show up on other devices?

Also, could you provide an updated screenshot of what you see in your Teams app and in your Microsoft Account (My Account Organizations)? This will help me better understand the current state and guide you further.

Looking forward to your update!

Warm regards

Answer 2

I have logged in and out on my Mac in both the mac app and the website several times as part of my previous diagnostics and following other suggestions I read. None of that works.

The 2 phantom accounts that I can't "leave" or get rid of show up on the web interface for teams. That screenshot in my original post is from the website, so removing the app from my phone won't help with that, right?

I removed the app from my iPhone anyway and reinstalled and logged in again to both accounts and still see the issue.

Here is a video showing how when I am in the account with the issue, it doesn't show any badges, but when I am in the other account it shows 1 badge on the account with the issue. I switch back to that account and don't see any badges.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K1cZ2IDGzxawYtKL4bhgWZ8c1_4ApsSU/view?usp=sharing

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Phantom Teams Notification Icon & Bad Org Invites

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