The "Reference a file" feature not working as documented

[mjudi]

In Word, and based on the help documentation, I'm supposed to see the "Your computer" and "Online" tabs but I don't see them when I choose "Reference a file". I also see this in Outlook. I see only three Excel files and nothing else. These seem to be the last three Excel worksheets I accessed since the installation of Copilot. I tried to save an online Word document in OneDrive but wasn't able to see this file when I clicked on "Reference a file". What might be the issue?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi @mjudi,
Copilot can only use files which are stored "in scope of the platform". For example SharePoint Online (and OneDrive). Depending on the application from which you start the prompt it will show the last 3 or 10 accessed items.
To use another file you need to paste the full path after the "/".

[#3]

Thank you, @Michel for your response. Very helpful!

[#4]

@mjudi I also cannot get this to work. Is it an "Enterprise" feature? I am using 365 Personal and Copilot Pro. It doesn't seem to recognise any documents when I type /

[#5]

Based on my experience, it can take several minutes or even up to an hour for a newly created file to become available to Copilot.

[#6]

@Andre_Caron Working with referenced files is not the most straightforward feature in Copilot. It took me a lot of time and experimentation to get it right. To get a file in your OneDrive, type / and start to type the file name. It will prompt you to select that file.

I also found that copying and pasting the file name doesn't work all the time. The file does not have to be in the root of your personal OneDrive. You can find a file inside a folder too.

To reference a document (Word and PPT only) in SharePoint, you need to Sync the documents to your OneDrive in order to reference them. The shortcut doesn't work even if you make it offline.

These are my observations. I hope they are helpful.

[#7]

@paulskully you don't even get a list of three documents? As far as I'm aware, CoPilot is only available on the Enterprise edition if I'm not mistaken.

[#8]

I’ve faced the same, and I’m convinced it’s not working as it’s designed. When you use World Online you have the ability to browse the cloud and select a specific file on your OneDrive or SharePoint. Why this functionality isn’t available in the desktop version of the app, I have no idea.

[#9]

@kinnoda I like the feature to browse for files in the online version of Word but this is also not working for me 😩 if someone can help me figure out what's wrong.

I agree, this feature is also needed in the desktop version.

[#10]

Following CoPilot's instructions, I cut/paste the filenames of a recent OneDrive file and and older OneDrive file. In both instances I received the following reply:

 

 

The files I am trying to access have the same permission settings as the 3 (unhelpful) files CoPilot suggests I open when I just press /

Am I missing a step?

[#11]

Hi @JLoODC ,

In the copilot prompt, I type the /[filename] where [filename] is the complete name of the file including the extension, no path, no square brackets like /yourdocument.pdf. Even if it doesn't show up, Copilot will retrieve the file from OneDrive. Of course, the file must be saved in your OneDrive or SharePoint.

I hope this helps, kind regards,

[#12]

@Andre_Caron - thank you! Curious that CoPilot gives different instructions. Add that to the bug list, I guess.

[#13]

Copilot is akin to a child in the early stages of learning to walk: with time, its capabilities are expected to improve significantly.

[#14]

@MichelvanVliet

I have a personal office and copilot pro

I uploaded documents to my one drive but these documents do not appear 

What I missing?

I read a lot of people with the same problem.

[#15]

@washingtonbr the files need to be indexed for them to appear in the short list. This takes time.
You should always be able to reference the file by using the full path (URL).

[#16]

And ... how to do this? The files are in the OneDrive for 7 days and still do not appear in the word with copilot.

Another point: I also tried to paste the link of the document in OneDrive (shared it first) and nothing happened. I received the message: "Copilot cannot generate document..."

What I need to do ?

[#17]

I'm not even getting option to select reference to a file, I'm using copilot pro on family 365. @MichelvanVliet 

[#18]

I waste few days to figure this out:
The "/refference" feature and some of other Copilot Pro most desirable features works ONLY on Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 plan (not shure, but it might also not work on Business Basic, Business Standard, or Business Premium).
The problem is that you have purchased a Copilot Pro license, but you do not have a compatible Microsoft 365 plan as Microsoft 365 E3 or E5. If you have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, you can only use Copilot in select Microsoft 365 apps, but not Copilot Pro. Thats mean that to use the “/reference a file” feature MS apps you need to change a plan for E3 of E5 subscription.

If you swich between accounts during the session in Word you will see following error:

1. In Personal or Family account with a Copilot Pro subscription you will find that "/refference" feature shows no results ("No suggestions avaiable"). Also if you will try to manually write down the file name or file path to OneDrive or path on your PC, the Copilot will process the request to infinity (with no respond) or will give an error: "Something went wrong. Please try again in a moment." or  "Copilot can`t generate high-quality content for this. Please change your description and try again."

2. Now try to switch accounts
Go to Account and swich for Enterprise (or School account) with NO Copilot Pro plan. Here after promting "/"  you will be able to see few files in dialog box. This will confirm that OneDerive search of refference path finding configurated and works properly, so it is able to find some files.

But after you ask Copilot to work with this documents the following error will appear:
"We encountered a problem validating your Copilot license. For more information, see https://aka.ms/copilotlicensecheck"

So according to my "investigation" you cant use Copilot Pro features in Family or Personal plan. You can use only basic version of Copilot. This mean that the only way you can use Copilot Pro is in Bing chat with using all those GPT+ features and its completely not worth it untill Microsoft will allow personal users to use Copilot Pro in MS365 apps as it is possible for Enterprise users.

_______________________________________________________________
Edition 01.02.2024 
I contacted Microsoft Support and it was confirmed that reference file feature "/" should work for MS365 Family apps but it`s not working. So its not in accordance to official documentation. The tier 2 technical support will work on this bug/error.

@washingtonbr 

[#19]

@Jur_Del Thank you for sharing your findings!

According to the post here, 

"This feature is only available to customers with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license. It is not currently available to customers with a Copilot Pro license."

and here,

"As we all know, Copilot and Copilot Pro is still in preview mode and some features as still developing. We consulted this to our internal team and confirmed that this feature is currently not yet available. Our engineering team is currently working on it and make sure to include this on the next updates. For now, we don't have a timeline yet as to when would this be fully available but just make sure to enable auto update in Word so it will be applied to your version as soon as it's rolled out. "

I am confused about whether it is a bug or if they intended to not include the feature from Copilot Pro. I doubt that they will include that feature in the future. 

Hope I am wrong.

[#20]

@washingtonbr 
To add to the excellent info/research from @Jur_Del: as far as I know the "reference a file feature" uses the Semantec index and Microsoft Search from the M365 tenant. This probably explains the absence of the feature within the Pro license because there is no M365 tenant connected.

BTW: that's also the reason why only files stored within SharePoint (including OneDrive) can be used as a file reference.