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Troubleshooting

This page covers the most common issues and how to fix them. Issues are grouped by who encounters them.

General Issues​

Ava isn't responding in Teams​

Symptoms: Clicking on Ava does nothing, or you see "This app is unavailable."

Steps to fix:

  1. Close and reopen Microsoft Teams.
  2. Check if Ava is still installed: go to Apps → Built for your org and look for Ava.
  3. If Ava doesn't appear, ask your admin to reinstall it.
  4. If the problem persists, check your organisation's Microsoft 365 service health dashboard.

The Ava menu is missing options I expect to see​

Symptoms: You can only see Set Dates and Upcoming Celebrations, but expect to see admin options.

Explanation: You're logged in as a regular User. Admin features are only visible to accounts that have been granted admin access.

Fix: Ask a current Ava admin to grant you admin access via Configure Admins.

Birthday & Anniversary Messages Not Sending​

Ava didn't post on someone's birthday​

Checklist:

  1. Is the birthdate in the system? Ask the team member to open Ava → Set Dates and confirm their date is entered correctly.
  2. Is the channel still active? Check that the notification channel still exists and Ava has permission to post in it.
  3. Did Ava lose permissions? If Teams permissions changed, Ava may have lost the ability to post. Reinstall Ava or check app permissions in the Teams Admin Center.
  4. Is the date format correct? If the date was imported, verify it was in DD/MM/YYYY format.

Ava posted the celebration on the wrong day​

Most likely cause: The date was entered or imported in MM/DD/YYYY format instead of DD/MM/YYYY.

Fix:

  1. Have the team member re-enter their date in Set Dates, double-checking the format.
  2. Or, if imported, re-export and re-import with the corrected date format.

Ava is posting duplicate celebration messages​

Most likely cause: Ava may have been reinstalled or a second instance was set up, resulting in duplicate notifications.

Fix:

  1. Go to Settings and confirm there is only one notification channel configured (not duplicated across multiple configurations).
  2. Contact your Microsoft 365 administrator to check if Ava is installed more than once.

Import Issues​

My spreadsheet upload failed​

Error messageCauseFix
"Invalid file type"File isn't .xlsxSave your spreadsheet as .xlsx and re-upload
"File too large"File exceeds 5 MBSplit into multiple smaller files
"Missing required column"Column headers were changedRe-download the template and copy your data in
"Could not read file"File is open in ExcelClose the file in Excel, then re-upload

Some rows show "Email not found in Teams"​

Cause: The email address in your spreadsheet doesn't match the person's Microsoft Teams account email.

Fixes:

  • Check for typos (e.g. sara@ instead of sarah@)
  • Confirm the person is actually a member of this Teams workspace
  • Ask IT if the person uses an alias — use their primary email instead

Import succeeded but dates look wrong in analytics​

Cause: Date format mismatch — days and months were swapped.

Fix:

  1. Re-export from your HR system and manually verify a few dates.
  2. Re-import with corrected data.

Warning: This will overwrite existing dates

Re-importing will replace any existing data for the affected team members. Affected users will get a new celebration on the corrected date.

Collection Request Issues​

Team members aren't receiving the collection request​

Checklist:

  1. Check spam/notification settings — Teams notifications may be muted for that user.
  2. Confirm the user is active — if their account is disabled or they've left, Ava can't message them.
  3. Try sending again — go to Collect Dates → View Response Status and resend to Pending recipients.

A team member says they responded but their status still shows "Pending"​

Possible causes:

  • There was a brief sync delay — wait a few minutes and refresh Analytics.
  • The user may have dismissed the message without submitting — ask them to try again via Set Dates directly.

Analytics Issues​

The analytics dashboard won't load​

  1. Refresh the Ava panel in Teams.
  2. Close and reopen Teams completely.
  3. Try from a different device.
  4. If the issue persists for more than an hour, contact your IT team to check if there's a service outage.

Analytics shows 0 upcoming celebrations even though dates are set​

Checklist:

  • Check the date range filter — it may be set to 30 days when celebrations are farther out.
  • Expand to 60 or 90 days.
  • Verify dates are correctly entered by asking a team member to check their Set Dates page.

Still Stuck?​

If none of the above fixes your issue:

  1. Check the FAQ → for more common scenarios.
  2. Ask your organisation's IT admin to check the Microsoft Teams Admin Center for app-related errors.
  3. File a bug report or request on the GitHub repository.