Help.I have 365 Premium subscription, it hasn't expired, but I lost access to Copilot on phone.
I'm an Office 365 premium subscriber. I used to be able to use Copilot normally on Office on both my computer and iPhone, but now I can only use Copilot on Office on my computer. When I try to use Copilot on Office on my phone, it says: 'It seems you don't have a valid license. To get access, please contact your admin.' Before this problem happened, I sent an invite link to someone else to use Office 365 with me, and then I clicked the invite link myself on my phone using my subscriber account, and it showed that I successfully joined the sharing. After that, I couldn't use Copilot on Office on my phone anymore. Even though my subscription account is still shown as the organizer in the Family group and my subscription hasn't expired, it seems like I lost access to Copilot on my phone.
Excel Copilot fails when local workbook filename contains #
Excel Copilot does not work with locally stored workbooks whose filename contains the '#' character. The same workbook works correctly after renaming the file to remove '#'. The same workbook also works when stored on OneDrive with '#' in the filename. The issue appears specific to local files and filename parsing. Specifically, when clicking on Copilot in Excel, Copilot says "This file type is not supported for editing with Copilot. Please save this file as a modern file format, such as ".xlsx", to be able to edit it with Copilot." Interestingly, Copilot works fine if the Excel file name contains, for example, % or &, the problem only occurs if the name contains #. We suspect this is a bug. In our workflows, we work a lot with files that have # in their names and we would be very happy if this was indeed a bug and if it was fixed. Tnx.
Primary Proposal: Copilot as an AI Gateway
Problem Statement Advanced users increasingly encounter limitations in Copilot’s ability to: generate or modify complex VBA safely maintain architectural integrity in multi‑module systems perform multi‑step workflows inside Office apps handle file generation or structured content creation operate without overly restrictive guardrails provide specialized domain expertise (e.g., coding, data science, creative tasks) Competitors — even free tiers — often outperform Copilot in these specialized tasks, despite lacking Microsoft’s integration advantages. This creates a mismatch between user expectations and Copilot’s current capabilities. Opportunity Microsoft does not need to build every specialized AI capability internally. Instead, Copilot can become the trusted orchestrator that: Authenticates the user Understands the task Selects the best AI engine for the job Executes the task securely Delivers the result inside Microsoft applications This approach: reduces Microsoft’s infrastructure burden increases Copilot’s capability ceiling preserves enterprise security and compliance provides users with best‑in‑class results positions Copilot as the central nervous system of the Microsoft ecosystem Proposed Architecture: Copilot as an AI Gateway Identity & Security Layer (Microsoft) Copilot remains the authentication and authorization layer, ensuring: user identity data boundaries compliance logging enterprise governance Task Classification Layer (Copilot) Copilot determines: the user’s intent the domain (VBA, Excel, OneDrive, coding, creative, etc.) the required capability level the risk profile AI Routing Layer (Copilot) Copilot selects the appropriate engine: Microsoft models for general tasks Specialized third‑party models for advanced tasks Local models for privacy‑sensitive operations Domain‑specific engines (e.g., coding assistants, creative generators) Integration Layer (Microsoft Apps) Results are delivered directly into: Excel Word PowerPoint OneDrive Windows Teams Outlook This is where Copilot’s integration advantage becomes unbeatable. Benefits to Microsoft Reduced infrastructure burden Increased user satisfaction Competitive differentiation Enterprise trust Developer ecosystem growth Secondary Proposal: OneDrive User‑Choice Restoration Overview OneDrive’s increasing emphasis on automatic cloud storage, forced sync behaviors, and reduced local‑storage autonomy has created friction for advanced users and power workflows. While these defaults benefit casual users, they can unintentionally disrupt professional, technical, and offline‑critical workflows. Restoring user choice — even through advanced or hidden settings — would allow OneDrive to serve both mainstream and power users without compromising Microsoft’s cloud‑first strategy. Issues Addressed Forced Cloud Migration Can Break Application Dependencies Automatic OneDrive migration can cause: broken links missing references VBA failures sync conflicts unexpected file locks Especially in Excel/VBA environments and engineering workflows. Sync Conflicts Create Data Integrity Risks Automatic sync can introduce: partial uploads version conflicts corrupted files duplicate “ghost” versions These issues disproportionately affect advanced users. Offline‑Critical Workflows Are Undermined Forced cloud storage can result in: files unavailable offline delayed syncs “file not found” errors This disrupts field work, travel, and low‑connectivity environments. User Intent Is Overridden Automatic folder redirection and forced sync violate a core professional principle: Users should control where their files live. Enterprise and Power Users Need Granular Control Organizations and advanced users often need: selective sync local‑only folders per‑directory rules opt‑out flags Providing these options would dramatically reduce friction. Proposed Solution Introduce a User Choice & Advanced Control Panel for OneDrive, allowing: per‑folder sync control local‑only folder designation optional migration prompts clear visibility into file location enterprise policy overrides Outcome This complements the Copilot gateway proposal by ensuring the underlying file system behaves predictably — a prerequisite for reliable AI‑assisted workflows.Has anyone seen Excel workbooks become corrupt after using M365 Copilot to summarize data?
We’ve run into an issue twice where a user opened an existing Excel sales workbook, used Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel to summarize/analyze the data, received the response successfully, and then later could no longer open the original workbook because Excel reported it as corrupt. Internally, this has been reported as happening on some files but not all, and it has occurred twice so far. I’m trying to determine whether this is: a known issue with Copilot in Excel a workbook-specific problem related to file location/sync/versioning or something tied to workbook structure I did find public reports of related Excel Copilot issues — including Copilot crashing in Excel, failures that seem specific to certain workbooks, and Copilot-created Excel files being reported as invalid/corrupt — but I have not yet found a clear Microsoft-hosted thread describing this exact scenario with the original existing workbook becoming corrupt after summarization. If anyone has seen this, I’d appreciate any insight on: whether Microsoft has acknowledged a known issue whether this points to specific workbook features/structures whether there are logs or diagnostics that help isolate root cause whether there are best practices to reduce the risk
