Loop workspace or component not showing in Teams: what to check

Short answer: Microsoft says Loop in Teams has two separate admin controls. Workspaces follow a Cloud Policy setting, and components in Teams chats and channels follow a SharePoint setting. If one is off, the matching part does not show. Check those two first, then the network rule, then whether the file was moved.

Know which thing is missing

Microsoft treats these as different parts:

Loop workspaces, including Teams channel workspaces.
Loop components, the live tables and task lists inside a Teams chat or channel message.

Each has its own control. Find which one you lost, then use the matching check.

Check 1. Is workspace creation turned off

Microsoft's admin page says the Cloud Policy setting Create Loop workspaces in Loop controls "Loop workspaces (including Teams channel workspaces)." When it is Disabled, "Creation of Loop workspaces isn't available to the users."

Microsoft's examples page describes what a user sees: "no workspaces appear, including the 'My workspace' personal workspace," and when the user selects the Create button in the Loop app, "no creation options are presented."

If that matches your screen, an admin changed this setting. Ask your admin. Their steps, from Microsoft's page:

Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Go to https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home#/Settings/Services/:/Settings/L1/Loop
Choose the state for Loop workspaces with the checkbox.
Select Save.

Microsoft adds that these controls "don't restrict access to existing Loop files or workspaces," so older content stays. The same page says a Cloud Policy change can take up to 90 minutes to show, or up to 24 hours if the tenant had no policy configurations before.

Check 2. Is Loop turned off for Teams chats and channels

Microsoft's table says components in Teams chats and channels are controlled by SharePoint PowerShell, with the property IsLoopEnabled, and that the property "applies to the entire tenant and can't be configured at the user level." Microsoft also says: "Cloud Policy alone doesn't control Teams experiences."

This is an admin step. Ask your admin to run Get-SPOTenant and check that IsLoopEnabled is true. Microsoft says the change "will take a short time to apply across your organization."

When Loop components are disabled, Microsoft says "The create/insert entry point within Teams messaging and Outlook email is hidden" and existing messages "render as a hyperlink." If you see a plain link where a live component used to be, this is the cause. Selecting the link opens the file in a separate browser tab in the Loop viewer, and you can still edit it with edit permission.

Check 3. Network and WebSockets

Microsoft's requirements page says: "Allow WebSocket traffic to *.svc.ms and *.office.com endpoints." It also says to allow connections per the Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges. The page says WebSocket connections enable live editing, presence indicators and shared cursors.

If Loop shows on one network and not on another, ask your network admin whether WebSocket traffic to those two endpoints is allowed.

Check 4. Licenses and mailbox

Components need a OneDrive or SharePoint license, per Microsoft's requirements page.
Workspaces need the Loop with workspaces service plan.
Microsoft says an Exchange Online mailbox is needed for @mentions and workspace sharing, and users with Exchange On-Premises mailboxes "have limited capabilities."
To create components, Microsoft's Teams page says chat creators "must have a OneDrive account."

Check 5. Was the file moved

Microsoft's overview says components are .loop files stored in the creator's OneDrive. Two lines from the same page:

"Moving a .loop file from OneDrive to a SharePoint site results in the Loop component failing to load in Teams chat, Outlook email, or any other place it was previously shared to."
"Loop components don't load if the file was moved to a different library."

Moving the file to a different folder inside the same library is fine, per the page. If the component is gone, move the file back.

Microsoft lists known issues: a tenant default of Specific people can block access when a link is pasted into another chat, Loop components are listed as disabled in most federated environments, and workspaces are listed as Not available in US government cloud environments. If your tenant is a government cloud, workspaces are not offered there, per the matrix.

Check 7. A deleted workspace container

Microsoft's SharePoint Embedded admin page says an admin can open the Deleted containers page in the SharePoint admin center and "Soft delete, restore, and purge deleted containers." Microsoft's Loop admin page says shared Loop workspaces, including Teams channel workspaces, are stored in SharePoint Embedded containers. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: if a workspace is gone for everyone, ask your admin to check that page.

For a related Teams problem, see "Teams channel files missing".

When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: $5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "What a SharePoint tracker costs to build". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

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FAQ

Why is my Loop workspace not showing in Teams?

Workspace creation may be turned off by an admin through the Cloud Policy setting Create Loop workspaces in Loop.

Why does my Loop component show as a link in Teams?

Microsoft says that when Loop components are disabled, existing messages render as a hyperlink.

Does turning off Loop delete existing workspaces?

No. Microsoft says the admin controls don't restrict access to existing Loop files or workspaces.

Which network endpoints does Loop need?

Microsoft says to allow WebSocket traffic to *.svc.ms and *.office.com.

Can I move a Loop file to a SharePoint site?

Microsoft says moving a .loop file from OneDrive to a SharePoint site makes the component fail to load where it was shared.