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.
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
Copilot in Excel - Web vs Desktop
Hello Community! Over the past few months, I've noticed that when using Copilot in Excel, the newest features appear in Excel on Web for weeks or months (also PowerPoint, and possibly Word and other M365 Applications) before appearing in Excel on Desktop App. Right now, this is occurring with Plan mode appearing in Excel Web although not Excel Desktop. Does anyone know why this occurs?What’s New in Microsoft 365 Copilot | May 2026
Welcome to the May 2026 edition of What's New in Microsoft 365 Copilot! Every month, we highlight new features and enhancements to keep Microsoft 365 admins up to date with Copilot features that help your users be more productive and efficient in the apps they use every day.
Where does Copilot actually fit in your Excel workflow?
I’ve been experimenting with Microsoft 365 Copilot for some of my Excel-related work, especially for quick analysis, formula generation, and summarizing data. Right now, I’m mainly using it for first-pass exploration (like generating formulas or getting quick insights), and then switching to native Excel features like PivotTables, Power Query, or structured formulas when I need more accuracy or repeatability. What I’m struggling with is knowing when it actually makes sense to use Copilot vs just sticking with Excel’s built-in tools. In your experience, where does Copilot genuinely add value in a production workflow, and where does it still fall short compared to traditional Excel tools? Are there other ways you’re using it that I might be missing?
Feature Proposal: OS-level Intelligent Task Organizer (Windows + Copilot)
A Idea about Intelligent Tasks organizer, I have to remember a lot of things during the team meetings like what is been said (we'll schedule a call or follow up etc.,) and what has been communicated in the emails (I'll get back to you after 2 weeks, or call us after two weeks) , And notes that I took in the notepad, or notepad ++,or sticky notes, or word, or one note. I want to chronologically display tasks on the right hand side of the laptop screen just like sticky note and it shall display all tasks one by one, it shall remove tasks are already complete (email sent with confirmation). and arrange, adjust every few mins according to priority/time or user added priority. App shall display small icon (just like chat) upon clicking it shall display ordered list of tasks. and desktop apps like teams/note/word/notepad++,sticky notes can participate by default or other apps like notepad++ can be onboarded manually in to the app. You can use a local model which infers the meaning of “I’ll call you in two weeks” - who is “I”? you or them? “Let’s follow up later” - task or casual statement? “I sent it” - which task did this complete? You can use a local model such that Corporate Teams/Outlook access may allow by corporate policy. Need to put much emphasis on false positives if the app keeps inventing tasks. Do not need to bring big LLMs in to the picture for inference, because of corporate policies may not allow. Microsoft provides operating system,office 365, tools with copilot, the inference can be possible because of all apps/content can be accessible at os level. Problem: Users capture tasks across multiple tools: Teams meetings and chats Outlook emails Notes (OneNote, Notepad, Sticky Notes, Word) Tasks become fragmented, untracked, and often lost. Proposed Solution: A lightweight system-level task layer integrated with Windows + Copilot that: Core Features Automatic task extraction From Teams, Outlook, notes, and user text Example interpretations: “I’ll call you in 2 weeks” “Let’s follow up later” Context-aware inference (local model) Identify: Task owner (“I” vs “you”) Priority signals Deadlines Minimize false positives Chronological task timeline Tasks auto-organized by: Time Priority Recency Floating task panel (desktop UI) Docked widget (like Sticky Notes or chat bubble) Expand/collapse view Always visible option Automatic task lifecycle tracking Detect completion: “Email sent” “File shared” Remove or mark complete automatically Continuous re-prioritization Adjust every few minutes based on: New inputs Deadlines User behavior Privacy-first architecture Use local models (SLM) instead of large cloud LLMs Enterprise admin control for data access Why this matters: Millions of users manually track tasks across fragmented tools, losing productivity daily. This feature would unify task understanding across the OS and M365 ecosystem.Architectural: Copilot should detect missing source data, avoid inference, and surface uncertainty.
Users expect the AI to detect when it lacks source data, avoid inference, surface uncertainty, and adapt to environmental constraints like character normalisation. These behaviours materially improve trust and usability. I’ve been working with Copilot on structured data extraction from a PDF and noticed a behaviour that seems like an architectural gap rather than a simple bug. Copilot attempted to infer table structure from a template when it did not have access to the actual source data. It produced confident but incorrect output instead of signalling that the source was unavailable. Additionally, Copilot attempted to output TAB‑delimited data, but the MS365 environment silently normalised TABs to spaces, and Copilot did not detect or adapt to this constraint. Recommendation: Copilot should proactively: detect when it lacks source data avoid inference when accuracy is expected surface uncertainty explicitly detect environment‑specific formatting limitations (e.g., TAB stripping) adapt output formats automatically These behaviours would materially improve trust, reliability, and user experience.
