In this post we take a look at a scenario where Copilot isn’t surfacing across all of Microsoft 365, how to troubleshoot and ultimately how to resolve.
The problem
My organisation has been trialling Copilot for some time now, but I recently applied myself a license again after not using it for the past few months (I’ve been playing with Teams Premium instead!). In what I would consider to be a pretty standard setup, licenses are controlled via a sGetecurity group in Entra ID and users are allocated a license by being added to the group.
So, I added myself to the group and waiting a bit for the license to apply and sure enough Copilot started appearing in the web version of my office apps. However, the experience was not so simple when it came to the desktop versions…
What worked for me
After a couple of hours of waiting, Copilot appeared as an app, pinned within my Teams gallery – so far, so good:
Next, it appeared in Outlook. A tip here is that Copilot doesn’t show automatically in the old version and you have to add it as an app, but in the new version it appears natively:
When it came to the other desktop office apps, like Word, PowerPoint and Excel – nothing was appearing. I tried clearing account manager, group policy force update and an office repair – nothing seemed to work. Then, the next day, Copilot appeared in Word!
So, I then tried the other desktop apps. The first time I opened both PowerPoint and Excel, the Copilot button was not displaying, but after re-opening both apps a few times, Copilot also appeared. So for me, I think it was just a case of waiting, restarting the machine a few times and restarting the apps another few times for it all to take affect. I have read some other useful tips when looking this issue up that I’d like to also document here in case it helps others.
Other things to try
- Refreshing your license: In any Microsoft 365 desktop app, go to File > Account and select update license. Close and restart all Microsoft 365 apps you might have open so that the license refresh can take effect.
- Make sure you’re on Current or Monthly Enterprise Channel: When using Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel of Microsoft 365, you’ll find that Microsoft 365 Copilot features are not available in your apps. In order to use the features enabled by your assigned Copilot license, you’ll need to switch to Current Channel or the Monthly Enterprise Channel. Find what channel you are on my selecting File > Account and it is under About Word.
- Check your privacy settings: Open any Microsoft 365 desktop app and select File > Account. Under Account Privacy select Manage Settings. There are two settings here that can cause Copilot to not appear in your Microsoft 365 apps. First confirm that Experiences that analyze your content is turned on. Then scroll down and make sure that All connected experiences is turned on.
- Try customising the ribbon: Open any Microsoft 365 desktop app, right-click on the ribbon and select customise the ribbon. Under choose commands from > switch to all commands > scroll down until you find Chat with Copilot and add it to the home ribbon section.
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