Forum Discussion
Web Search in Copilot Notebooks Still Disabled Despite Policy Configuration
I've followed Microsoft's documentation to enable Web Search in Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks by creating a policy in the Cloud Policy Service. The policy includes:
- Allow web search in Copilot
- Pin Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
- Allow creation and viewing of Copilot Pages and Notebooks
The policy is assigned to an All Staff group, and users have the appropriate Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. It's been over 24 hours since the policy was applied, but the Web Search toggle in Copilot Notebooks is still greyed out.
I've verified:
- Users are on the Current Channel for Microsoft 365 Apps
- No conflicting Intune or GPO settings
- Network access to Bing and Microsoft services is unrestricted
Relevant Microsoft documentation:
- Manage public web access in Microsoft 365 Copilot: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/microsoft-365/manage-public-web-access
- Configure policies using the Cloud Policy service: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/admincenter/overview-cloud-policy
- Microsoft 365 Copilot service description: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-service-description
Has anyone else run into this issue? Any ideas or workarounds?
7 Replies
I don’t fully understand the point of the integration with notebooks here. Notebooks don’t have any web integration at all. Yes, the policy states that it can be enabled, but currently there is no support for it. Even as a reference, it’s not possible to add a website at this time.
The screenshot you’re showing is from Microsoft 365 Copilot (Business) Chat, correct?
In the policy “Allow web search in Copilot,” you have the following configuration:
Can you check this?
To enable web search in a Copilot policy in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, make sure the feature is turned on, then run the Sync-CopilotPolicy -Identity Global command to force the policy to sync, and then tap Refresh Permissions in the Notebook interface. Business users will have to wait 1-2 hours for the policy to take effect.
I can't believe it. Is everyone just copying and pasting forum questions into an AI system and trying to answer them here? Your statement is completely incorrect.
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried running Sync-CopilotPolicy -Identity Global, but it looks like that cmdlet isn’t recognized in my environment:
Sync-CopilotPolicy : The term 'Sync-CopilotPolicy' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program.After further research, it seems that this command isn’t part of any public PowerShell module (e.g., Microsoft.Graph or MSOnline) and is an internal tool or preview-only command used by Microsoft support staff or pre-release programs. Can anyone confirm this?
That said, I’ve already:
Enabled the “Allow web search in Copilot” policy in the M365 Apps admin center.
Verified the registry key at:
HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Cloud\Office\16.0\Common\Copilot\CopilotWebSearch = 1
Confirmed that users are on the Current Channel with full Copilot licensing.
Ensured there are no GPO or Intune conflicts.
Tested after waiting well beyond the policy propagation window.Despite that, the “Web content” toggle in Copilot Notebooks remains greyed out.
At this point, can I assume the feature is still controlled by a Microsoft-side feature flag and simply hasn’t been rolled out to my tenant yet?
If anyone sees the toggle activated in their tenant — especially post-Targeted Release — I’d love to hear about it. Thanks again for your input!
apathetic505 Did you see my message? I'm not sure what radmiru did to provide you with such inaccurate information, but it seems like the response you received was AI-generated and lacks any real understanding of the product.
If you re-check the cloud policy with the screenshot provided from my side and web search is still disabled, I would recommend validating that this policy control is in the right priority of other policies:
Would it be possible to either make a new policy or modify the order of your policy? The highest priority will be applied to the system
