How to set up and configure Microsoft Teams meeting breakout rooms for training sessions and workshops

Summary

This guide helps you troubleshoot and resolve: How to set up and configure Microsoft Teams meeting breakout rooms for training sessions and workshops. Follow the steps below to fix the issue.

Common Causes

Breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams let you split a large meeting into smaller groups for activities such as training exercises, collaborative discussions, or workshop activities. Participants can work together in their own room before returning to the main session. This guide walks through planning, creating, and managing breakout rooms for your next training session or workshop.

Before You Begin

Breakout rooms are available in scheduled meetings, channel meetings, and instant meetings. To use them, your meeting must be organised through Teams (rather than dialled in via phone), and your organisation must have a Microsoft 365 plan that supports the feature, such as Business Basic, Business Standard, E1, E3, or E5.

You'll need to be the meeting organiser or co-organiser to create and manage breakout rooms. Participants don't need any special setup — they will be prompted to join their assigned room automatically.

Creating Breakout Rooms

1. Start or join your Teams meeting.
2. In the meeting controls at the top of the window, click Breakout rooms. If you don't see the option, click More actions (the three dots) first.
3. In the Breakout rooms pane that opens on the right, click Create rooms.
4. Choose the Number of rooms you want to create (up to 50).
5. Decide whether participants should be Automatically assigned or Manually assigned.
6. Click Add rooms.

Teams will create the rooms and display them in the pane, ready for you to rename or adjust.

Configuring Room Settings

Once your rooms are created, you can fine-tune how they behave during the session.

1. In the Breakout rooms pane, click Settings (the cog icon).
2. Review and adjust the following options:
   • Automatically move participants to opened rooms — when enabled, participants are sent to their room as soon as you open them.
   • Let participants choose their room — when enabled, participants can pick which room to join themselves.
   • Set a time limit — set a maximum duration. Rooms will close automatically when the timer ends.
   • Allow participants to return to the main meeting — when enabled, participants can leave their breakout room and rejoin the main session.
   • Allow participants to ask for help — participants can notify you if they need assistance.
3. Click Apply to save your settings.

Assigning Participants to Rooms

Automatic Assignment

1. Open the Breakout rooms pane.
2. Click Assign participants.
3. Choose Automatically.
4. Click Assign.

Teams will distribute participants evenly across your rooms.

Manual Assignment

1. Open the Breakout rooms pane.
2. Click Assign participants.
3. Choose Manually.
4. Tick the checkbox next to each participant's name.
5. Click the arrow next to the room you want to assign them to.
6. Repeat for each participant until all rooms are populated.

Renaming Rooms

1. In the Breakout rooms pane, hover over a room name.
2. Click the pencil icon that appears.
3. Type a new name (for example, "Group A", "Marketing Team", or "Workshop 1") and press Enter.

Managing Rooms During the Session

Opening Rooms

1. When you're ready to begin the activity, click Open at the top of the Breakout rooms pane.
2. A notification will appear in the main meeting asking participants to join their assigned room.

Sending Announcements

You can broadcast a message to all rooms without leaving the main meeting.

1. Click More options (the three dots) in the Breakout rooms pane.
2. Select Make an announcement.
3. Type your message and click Send.

Joining a Room

1. In the Breakout rooms pane, click Join next to the room you want to enter.
2. To return to the main meeting, click Return in the room's controls.

Closing Rooms

1. When the activity is finished, click Close in the Breakout rooms pane.
2. Choose whether to Send participants back to the main meeting or wait for them to return manually.

Troubleshooting

The Breakout Rooms Option Isn't Showing

• Confirm you're using the full Teams desktop or web app — the option is not available in some legacy versions.
• Check that you're the meeting organiser. Co-organisers can manage rooms, but standard attendees cannot.
• Verify your Microsoft 365 plan supports breakout rooms.
• Update Teams to the latest version by clicking More options (three dots next to your profile picture) and selecting Check for updates.

Participants Aren't Moving to Their Rooms

• Confirm Automatically move participants to opened rooms is enabled in Settings.
• Ask participants to click Join on the notification that appears when rooms open.
• If a participant joined by phone, they cannot be moved to a breakout room. They will need to join via the Teams app or web browser instead.

Can't Assign a Participant to a Room

• Participants must be in the meeting before they can be assigned. Wait for latecomers to join, then assign them.
• If a participant is using a personal device on a restricted network, they may not appear in the participant list immediately. Refresh the pane by closing and reopening it.

Best Practises for Training Sessions

• Brief participants first. Before opening rooms, explain the activity, expected outcomes, and how long they have.
• Use clear room names. Replace default names like "Room 1" with descriptive labels such as "Team Alpha" or "Workshop A".
• Set a time limit. Use the timer feature to keep the session on track and prevent overrun.
• Rotate facilitators. If you're running multiple activities, assign a co-organiser to monitor different rooms.
• Recap afterwards. Use the announcement feature or return to the main meeting to gather feedback from each group.

Still Having Issues?