Teams approvals not showing up or not notifying

Short answer: ask the approver to open the Approvals app in Teams and look at the Received tab, because the request can be there even when no alert showed. If it is not there, check that they are not a guest who never accepted the invitation, that the Approvals app is not turned off, and that the first-use Dataverse setup finished.

When an approver says "I never got it," work through six checks in this order. Is the Approvals app on for them? Are their Teams notifications on? Are they a guest who never accepted an invite? Is the app pinned on their phone? Are they looking at the right tab? Was the Dataverse database ever set up? If the request still gets missed, add an email backup so the approver gets it somewhere they already look.

Exact names may differ on your screen. Microsoft changes menus, so check the steps against Microsoft's help pages.

Who this guide is for

You send requests with the Teams Approvals app, or with a Power Automate flow, and some approvers say they never saw them. You may not be a Teams admin. Several checks below need an admin, and the guide says which ones.

This guide is about requests that do not show up. For the choice between Teams and email, see "Teams approvals vs email approvals: which one should your team use?". For an approver who is away, see "Approvals stuck when the approver is out". This guide does not repeat them.

Diagnosis checklist

Ask the sender and one approver to answer these questions. Write the answers down. The answers point to the fix.

Did the sender see the request under Sent in the Approvals app?
Did the approver see anything in Teams: a banner, an alert in Activity, or a badge on the Approvals app?
Is the approver inside your company, or a guest?
Does the approver use the phone, the desktop app or the web?
Is this the first approval anyone in your company has ever sent?
Did it fail for one approver or for everyone?

If it failed for everyone, suspect the app being off or the Dataverse setup. If it failed for one person, suspect that person's settings, guest status or phone.

Then work through these steps in order.

Who fixes each check

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: the split between user and admin below is how I sort the work. The Microsoft facts behind each row are in the steps.

| Check | Who fixes it |

| Look in Received and Sent | The sender and the approver |

| Teams notification setting | The approver |

| Guest invitation accepted | The guest, with your admin |

| Approvals app turned off | Your Teams admin |

| App pinned on desktop and phone | The approver, or your admin with an app setup policy |

| Dataverse setup and permissions | Your admin |

If the Approvals app will not load

Microsoft's admin page names two causes that can stop the app from working. First, it says the app is available by default and an admin can turn it off in the Teams admin center. Second, it says the first approval created from the Approvals app triggers the provisioning of the Approval solution in the default Microsoft Dataverse environment, and the prerequisites include permission to create a Dataverse database. Both are admin checks.

Microsoft also says this feature has not been released to Government Community Cloud High (GCCH) and Department of Defense (DOD) users yet. If your company is on one of those clouds, the app may not be there for you at all.

Microsoft's admin page also says that if someone deletes a Form template on the Microsoft Forms site, users get a "CDB TableNotFound" error when they try to open the approval template. That is a template problem, not a Teams problem. Ask the template owner.

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: if the app opens to a blank screen for one person only, try these in order. Sign out of Teams and sign back in. Clear the Teams cache. Open Teams in a web browser and see whether the app loads there. If it loads in the browser but not in the desktop app, the problem is on that computer, not in your tenant. If it fails in all three places, send the details to your admin.

Step 1. Check the sender's Sent tab

Microsoft says the Approvals app shows every approval you have sent or received, and that you open the Sent tab to see where a request stands. Start here. If the request is not under Sent, it was never sent, and the problem is on the sender's side. If it is under Sent and still in progress, the request exists and the approver has not acted on it.

Microsoft also says you can cancel an approval that is still in progress from the Sent tab. Cancel and resend only after you finish the other checks, so you do not create two live requests.

Step 2. Ask the approver to look under Received

A request does not always raise an alert. Ask the approver to open the Approvals app in Teams and look at the Received tab. Microsoft says that tab shows the approvals you have received, including ones that come in through a flow. If the request is there, the request arrived and the problem is the alert, not the delivery. Go to step 3.

Step 3. Check the approver's Teams notification settings

Microsoft's notification page says the Activity feed shows a timeline of notifications, and that you can change activity alerts from Activity, then More options, then Notification settings. For apps, Microsoft says the options include showing a notification in Activity, in Activity and banner, or turning the notifications off. Ask the approver to check that the Approvals app is not set to off.

On a Mac, Microsoft says Teams uses the macOS notification system, so alerts must be on in macOS first and Focus Mode must be off. Microsoft also describes a Test notification button in Teams settings.

On a phone, Microsoft says to tap your profile picture at the top left of the mobile app and select Notifications. For phone problems, Microsoft points to a separate article about troubleshooting notifications for Teams mobile apps.

Step 4. Check whether the approver is a guest

Microsoft says you can assign approvals to guest users in your Microsoft Entra tenant. It also says a guest who did not accept the B2B invitation is removed from the approval assignee list and does not take part in the approval. That means a vendor or customer who never accepted the invite will never see the request, and nobody gets an error.

Ask the approver whether they accepted the invitation. If you cannot tell, ask your admin. Microsoft also lists tenant settings that block assigning approvals to people outside your environment, such as the AllowAdHocSubscriptions setting in Microsoft Entra being off. That is an admin question. For outside people, use the email backup in step 7.

Step 5. Check the Approvals app is on and pinned

Per Microsoft's admin page, Approvals is on by default for every Teams user, and an admin can disable it in the Teams admin center. If one person cannot find the app, ask them to search for it in the Teams app list. If nobody can find it, ask your admin whether the app was turned off for your company.

Microsoft says users can pin the app, and that an admin can pin it for users with an app setup policy. Microsoft also says the tailored frontline app experience pins Approvals by default for users with an F license, on the bar at the bottom of the Teams mobile app. For everyone else, an approver who never pinned the app on their phone has to remember to open it. Ask them to pin it.

Step 6. Check the Dataverse database

Microsoft says the first approval created from the Approvals app triggers setup of the approvals solution in the default Microsoft Dataverse environment. Its prerequisites: rights to create a Dataverse database, a Power Automate account, an admin role in the target environment, and a Power Automate, Microsoft 365 or Dynamics 365 license.

For flows, Microsoft says that in a non-default environment the system sets up a database when the approvals connector is first used, and the person who runs the first approval flow must have an administrator role in that environment. It says the setup can take a few minutes. In the default environment, Microsoft says you do not need to set up the database yourself.

If the very first request in your company never showed up, ask your admin to check these needs.

Step 7. Add an email backup

A Teams alert can be muted, missed or never shown. A second route fixes a missed alert.

If you send requests with a Power Automate flow, Microsoft says the "Start and wait for an approval" action sends an approval request email to the address in the "Assigned to" field, and also adds the request to the approvals center. Per Microsoft's approval tutorial, the approver can answer in the email itself, in the Power Automate approvals center, or in the Power Automate app. Microsoft also says that after you assign a request, a user can respond from an Outlook email or a Microsoft Teams adaptive card if they have a license that includes Power Automate, such as a Power Automate license or certain Office 365 or Dynamics 365 licenses. Exact names may differ.

You can add one more email. In the same flow, add the "Send an email (V2)" action from Office 365 Outlook, which Microsoft's tutorial uses to email people about a decision. Send a short message to the approver that says a request is waiting and where to find it. Send one message, not a stream of messages.

Teams Approvals has a manual reminder. Microsoft's Support page says the sender can "follow up on approval requests to remind people to take action," and "Notifications are sent to any recipients who have yet to respond." The button is Follow up, on the request in the Sent list. Microsoft's pages do not describe automatic reminders, so repeat reminders need a flow. See "Remind an approver who has not answered after two days".

Prevention

Name one owner for approvals in your company. When a request goes missing, that person runs the checklist.
Ask every new approver to open the Approvals app once and pin it, on the desktop and on the phone.
Ask every approver to check their Approvals notification setting once.
Before you send to an outside person, confirm they accepted the guest invitation. If not, use email.
Send one test request from each new template or flow to a real approver before you rely on it.
Keep a short log of requests that were missed and why. If the same cause repeats, fix the cause.
For a steady flow of requests each week, a SharePoint list with a Power Automate flow puts every request on one list. See "Approvals lost in email: how to stop chasing sign-offs".

What to avoid

Do not cancel and resend before you check Received. You may create two live requests.
Do not assume a missing alert means the request failed. The request can be in Received while the alert never showed.
Do not send to a guest without checking they accepted the invitation.
Do not tell approvers to "check Teams more often." Fix the route instead.
Do not send many email nudges. People mute them.
Do not change tenant settings to unblock one request. Ask your admin.
Do not count on automatic reminders. Use Follow up from the Sent list, or a flow.

Honest limits

This checklist covers the causes I can source. It cannot tell you which one applies to your company without answers from the sender, the approver and your admin. Licenses and admin settings differ by plan, so check with your admin. If a request still does not show up after all seven steps, send feedback to Microsoft from Teams, as the Microsoft admin page describes.

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.

Tell me what's still manual

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: Tools I built

FAQ

Where does an approver see a Teams approval?

Microsoft says the Approvals app in Teams shows approvals you have sent or received, including ones that come in through a flow. The approver should open the Received tab.

Why did my guest approver never get the request?

Microsoft says a guest who did not accept the B2B invitation is removed from the approval assignee list and does not take part. Ask them to accept the invitation, or send the request by email.

Teams approvals not loading

Ask your admin two things: whether the Approvals app was turned off in the Teams admin center, and whether the first-use Dataverse setup finished. Microsoft's admin page describes both.

Teams approvals app not working (blank screen or error)

Microsoft says the app is not yet released to GCCH and DOD users, and a deleted Forms template gives a "CDB TableNotFound" error. For a blank screen, try the browser version first (our advice, not a Microsoft rule).

Teams approval notifications not working

Microsoft says you can change app alerts from Activity, then More options, then Notification settings. Ask the approver to make sure Approvals is not set to off, and to look in Received either way.

Can I remind an approver in Teams?

Yes, by hand. Microsoft says you select Follow up on the request in the Sent list, and only people who have not responded get the notification.