Introducing the Viva Engage Track at the 2026 Microsoft 365 Conference
Internal communications has never been more complex — or more essential. Whether you’re trying to cut through the noise, connect leaders with employees, or bring clarity to AI-driven change, the role of the modern communicator is evolving fast. At this year’s M365 Community Conference, we’re excited to bring you the Viva Engage Track — a focused learning path designed to help communicators, HR leaders, IT partners, and community champions build connected, informed, and high‑performing workplaces. You’ll get access to Microsoft’s own communications experts, Viva Engage product leaders, and practitioners who run global‑scale comms — all ready to share the patterns, storylines, frameworks, and real‑world playbooks that drive impact. You’ll learn how to inform, inspire, and activate employees in ways that actually work at scale. The sessions are stacked with can’t‑miss moments Across three days, this track walks you through the full modern comms lifecycle — strategy, storytelling, measurement, deployment, AI readiness, and community activation. Whether you’re focused on executive comms, knowledge sharing, community management, or engagement strategy, this is built for you. Today’s communicators are expected to: Navigate more channels than ever Reduce noise while increasing clarity Build trust in an era shaped by AI Move leaders closer to employees Create belonging in hybrid, dispersed organizations Support rapid change and transformation Here’s a closer look at what you’ll learn in the Viva Engage & Communications track: Modern Communications & Strategy How Microsoft Manages Global Employee and Executive Communications Learn from John Cirone, Sr. Director of Communications, how Microsoft orchestrates communications for 200,000+ employees, drives leadership connection, and uses Engage, SharePoint, and Copilot to scale impact. Breaking Through in a World of Information Overload and AI Amy Morris, Director of Communications, will help you reimagine channels and delivery across Engage and SharePoint to reach the right people at the right time—without adding noise. Use data, insights, and employee listening to build your comms strategy How do you measure and define success, and leverage signals from employee engagement and listening to drive business transformation and performance? Join Microsoft communications and product leaders for a practical look at how to build an effective listening system with tools including Engage, Insights, Glint and Pulse. Learn how to empower leaders and change agents with a comprehensive, 360-degree view of employee sentiment. And explore how insights can inform strategies and tactics to achieve your business objectives. Events, Communities & Knowledge Sharing Company-Wide Events—Scaling Innovation with Engage Learn how organizations run high-impact town halls, all-hands, and campaigns using Events, Q&A, Storyline, and Copilot. Product Group experts Dan Holme and Tricia Lybrook will give you the end-to-end experience for creating events your employees will remember! AI-Powered Collaboration: Unlocking Your Employee Knowledge Base See how Engage, Copilot, and intelligent agents help surface expertise and solve problems faster, while keeping people in the loop. See demos and learn directly from product group leaders Allison Michels and Ramya Rajasekhar about making this reality in your own organizations. Governance, Deployment & AI Transformation From Governance to Growth: A Practical Playbook for Viva Engage Deployment Turn governance, readiness, and compliance into a launchpad for adoption and engagement. Hear directly from the Product Group Leaders, Venkat Ayyadevara and Spencer Perry. Community in the Age of AI - Humans at the center of Copilot Adoption Elevate your communications and campaigns through the power of community and peer-to-peer lead learning. Communicators can lead the AI transformation at your company. Learn how AI-powered agents support community managers, but humans drive rituals, events, and engagement. Hear product experts Allison Michels and Sarah Lundy as they take you behind the scenes and showcase some Microsoft employee favorites, like the Copilot Adoption Community, campaigns, Camp Copilot and more. The Communicator’s Guide to Viva Engage Learn how to maintain relevance and authenticity in the age of AI through personalization, targeting, and sequencing that respects how people work. Learn from Product Group expert Sarah Lundy, drawing on her experience at Microsoft Digital Comms, and Product Manager Najla Dadmand as they show how technology and communications can work together. Spotlight Session: Engage Everywhere - The Viva Engage Roadmap One of the most anticipated sessions of the entire track, Engage Everywhere: Communities, Events & Storylines in Teams (Roadmap), offers a first look at what’s coming next. Hear directly from our Product Leadership Team, Jason Mayans, VP of Product, Steve Nguyen, Customer Experience, and Murali Sitaram, CVP Viva Engage. You’ll explore: The deeper native integration of Viva Engage inside Microsoft Teams -making communities, events, campaigns, and storylines feel seamless across devices and workstyles. AI-enhanced capabilities that connect employees to knowledge, leaders, and each other more intuitively and efficiently. New ways organizations can unify communications and engagement across Teams, Engage, Email, and SharePoint. What’s next for Events, Storyline, and Communities as Microsoft continues to converge engagement experiences in one place. This session is designed to help you visualize the future employee communications and engagement ecosystem—and understand how to build toward it today. Key Takeaways: Whether you’re modernizing communications, rolling out Copilot, building communities, or shaping culture, you’ll walk away with: Practical templates, patterns, and playbooks Insights from Microsoft’s own communications experts Guidance for integrating AI responsibly and effectively Clear steps to elevate engagement across your organization The Viva Engage Track brings together the people driving community and connection every day, inside Microsoft and across customers to explore what’s working, what’s changing, and what’s possible. If you want to build stronger community, elevate employee connection, or shape the future of workplace storytelling, this track belongs on your agenda. Join us!
Graph /shares endpoint returns 401 for Guests until I force a 403 on /groups - Why does this fix it?
Hi everyone, I am encountering a bizarre authorization behavior with Microsoft Graph API involving External Guest Users (B2B) accessing SharePoint Online files. I have isolated the issue to a specific sequence of calls that suggests a "Just-In-Time" permission or session-hydration lag, but I can't explain why a specific error fixes it. The Scenario User: External Guest (B2B) invited to the tenant. Auth Flow: Delegated Permissions (Token contains Files.Read.All, Sites.Read.All, User.Read.All). Action: Attempting to resolve a sharing link (encoded) via the /shares endpoint. Context: The user has been granted access via "Specific People" sharing. Environment: Fails consistently in Production, works perfectly in a Lab tenant. What I have already ruled out: Lockdown Mode: "Limited-access user permission lockdown mode" is NOT active on the site collection. User Info List (UIL): The Guest User exists in the Site User Information List with the correct claims identity (i:0#.f|membership|...). I have manually verified the entry is correct and not a "decoy" email-only entry. Conditional Access: The token has valid MFA claims (amr: mfa) and acrs: p1. The Anomaly (The 401 -> 403 -> 200 Pattern) Step 1 (The Goal): GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/shares/u!{encoded_url}/driveItem Result: 401 Unauthorized (Code: accessDenied). Note: Attempting a direct call to /drives/{id}/items/{id} with the same token also returns 401. Step 2 (The "Voodoo" Fix): GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/groups/{random_group_id}/drive Target: A Microsoft 365 Group the user is NOT a member of. Result: 403 Forbidden (As expected). Step 3 (Retry Step 1): GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/shares/u!{encoded_url}/driveItem Result: 200 OK. The API now successfully resolves the link and returns the file metadata. This access persists for several hours before the cycle repeats. My Analysis Since "Lockdown Mode" is disabled and the user is present in the UIL, I suspect the /shares (and /drives) endpoint is hitting a legacy authorization stack that perceives the guest session as "stale" or "unverified" for the specific site resource. The /groups endpoint interacts with the modern Unified Groups infrastructure. My theory is that hitting this endpoint forces a JIT (Just-In-Time) refresh of the user's security context or group membership claims against Entra ID. This side-effect seems to "warm up" or side-load a permission cache that the legacy SharePoint stack requires to authorize the request. The Question Has anyone seen this 401 -> 403 -> 200 pattern before? Is there a known "hidden" cache or synchronization process that the /groups endpoint triggers which /shares does not? I am looking for a cleaner way to initialize this context than intentionally triggering a 403 error in my application logic. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
SharePoint Template Gallery
Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue with the new SharePoint site page template gallery. Some of my templates are showing up consistently, while others appear intermittently — even though all the metadata is identical across them. I've been troubleshooting but can't pinpoint what's causing the inconsistency. For context: I have over 100 templates in the gallery. A template I just created is displaying fine, but one I made last week isn't showing up at all, so I don't think it's a template count issue. Any insights would be really appreciated!
External guest users now see Classic view in document libraries (was Modern)
We are seeing a recent change in behaviour (last ~1–2 weeks) affecting external/guest users only. Context: Sites are created from an approved SharePoint Communication Site template Tenant and site are configured for Modern (New) experience Document libraries were previously rendering in Modern view for external guests Internal users still see Modern view as expected Current behaviour: External/guest users now consistently see document libraries rendering in Classic view The library shows “Exit classic experience”, but selecting it does not switch the library to Modern This occurs even when: Accessing via the site home page Navigating via the site menu Using a newly created site from the same template Testing in InPrivate/Incognito Library settings are explicitly set to Default experience = New experience SharePoint Admin Centre is set to New experience (no Classic defaults enabled) Important observations: This behaviour did not occur during earlier testing using the same template and permissions No template changes have been made Reproduces across multiple sites Reproduces only for guest users (internal users unaffected) The issue persists even after refreshing, changing views, or setting the library experience explicitly to Modern Question Has there been a recent change or regression in how SharePoint Online renders document libraries for guest users, particularly when accessing libraries on Communication Sites created from templates? Specifically: Are there known issues where guest sessions are forced into Classic rendering despite Modern being configured at the tenant, site, and library level? Are there any recent changes (late 2025 / early 2026) affecting guest rendering or Classic fallback behaviour? Any guidance or confirmation would be appreciated, as this represents a change from previously working behaviour and impacts external user experience.The Future of SharePoint AI: Inside the New Knowledge Agent for Microsoft 365
Excited to share my new video on one of the biggest AI innovations coming to Microsoft 365 and SharePoint: Knowledge Agent — now in Public Preview! Knowledge Agent is transforming SharePoint into an intelligent, AI‑ready knowledge hub. It automatically enriches your content with metadata, improves governance, identifies outdated or broken content, and most importantly, delivers higher‑quality grounded responses in Microsoft 365 Copilot. In the coming months, Copilot will also take advantage of this enriched metadata to provide more accurate answers thanks to new metadata reasoning capabilities — a major leap forward for content quality and AI readiness. In my new video, I walk through: 🔹 What Knowledge Agent is 🔹 How it enhances Copilot results 🔹 How metadata is generated automatically 🔹 How site owners can detect broken links, stale pages, and content gaps 🔹 Practical scenarios for HR, Legal, Finance, and more 🔹 How to enable it in your tenant 🎥 Watch the full video here: 👉 https://youtu.be/WD8_uqWYeHs If you're working with Microsoft 365, Copilot, or SharePoint, this is a game‑changer you don’t want to miss. #Microsoft365 #SharePoint #Copilot #AI #KnowledgeAgent #ModernWork #Productivity #DigitalTransformationPnP Search Results Handlebars template saves but does not reflect on UI
Hi everyone, I am working with the PnP Search Results web part in SharePoint Online and facing an issue where a custom Handlebars result template saves successfully but does not reflect on the UI. I created a table-style Handlebars template with columns Document, Region, Country, Language, Status and Validation Date, one row per document. Documents are returned correctly and filters based on the same refinable properties work as expected. Debug output using JSONstringify(item) confirms that all refinable values are present. The same if-condition logic using item.RefinableStringXX works in a list-style layout, but in a table layout the template saves without errors and either does not reflect on the UI or renders rows with empty metadata columns. Inline bindings do not render unless wrapped in if blocks and even after fixing this the UI sometimes continues to show the previous layout. Managed property mappings, selected properties, indexing and library reindexing have already been verified. Has anyone experienced this behavior with PnP Search Results templates or knows if this is related to caching, result types overriding templates or a known limitation with table-style Handlebars layouts?
Quick Parts for SharePoint Properties and file corruption
I'm wondering whether anyone has successfully used quick parts in footers, with a heavily commented SharePoint file without corruption? We have content types with templates, that use quick parts connecting to SharePoint properties. We have been in discussions with Microsoft and all we can get from them is that there are multiple circumstances where adding comments corrupts the file if quick parts are used. This does not give me confidence that quick parts should be used for anything. But, our workflow requires a date and status be set based on SPO properties at a certain point in our workflow to mark a file as approved before pdfing. Has anyone had success using quick parts in SharePoint? We are using docx files because we have a templates library where we edit our templates so we then link to those from the content types. Our templates have custom formatting that is very dense. We do have quick parts in the header, footer, and table. With all they are saying below, it sounds like quick parts are risky and do not work. But since we need it I'm thinking we pull formatting out of our footer, and just have the one date and text field populated, we could live with the rest not working. Has anyone had success with this? and if not, how are you populating dates when documents are finalized. Manually? Microsoft's recommendations imply Quick Parts are dodgy and can't be relied upon: Move comments out of the structured range Place Modern Comments on the paragraph before/after the Quick Part; avoid anchoring inside the building block or content control. Bind formatting to a style, not direct formatting Create/assign a character or paragraph style (e.g., DocProp-Label) to the Quick Part’s visible text. Avoid mixed direct formatting (bold/size applied manually) inside content controls. Stabilize the review surface Temporarily resolve/delete non‑essential comments and Accept/Reject tracked changes in the affected section. This reduces recomposition during merges. Reinsert the Quick Part cleanly In a new, plain document, recreate the building block and Save to the org template (.dotm/.dotx). Reinsert into the affected doc and test with one collaborator. Control field updates During heavy edits, avoid automatic field updates (e.g., on print). After review cleanup, select the section and press F9 to update fields once, then verify format persistence. Coauthoring‑specific mitigations Edit in Draft/Web Layout for large docs Less pagination recalculation → fewer layout resets during merges. Switch back to Print Layout for final checks. Limit nested structures Avoid Quick Parts inside tables, numbered items, or headers/footers while multiple people comment. Those containers amplify reflow. Break work into sections If a chapter has heavy comments + Quick Parts, split that section to a temporary working file, finalize, then paste back (Keep Text Only → re‑apply styles; reinsert Quick Parts last). Template hygiene Keep org Quick Parts in a central template (.dotm/.dotx) and ensure all collaborators load the same template version to prevent style drift.
Microsoft Lists, bad links at pictures
About a year ago, I created a list in Microsoft Lists and filled a "Picture" column with photos. It's now located at https://lists.live.com/. The images stopped displaying in March 2025 and several times before that. Only a placeholder image with an ID (e.g., "https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/5a9a22e9-7005-4772-a54f-9ca6434db3bb?platform=QnA") is shown. The problem occurs in the browser (Chrome), in the Lists desktop application, and in the Android app. I've tried it on three PCs and two mobile devices, and the problem appears the same everywhere. I suspect there's something wrong with the link between the image in the list and the Microsoft server. How can this problem be solved? When clicking on a corrupt picture/link I end in a new browser tab showing this: { "error": { "code": "invalidRequest", "message": "Invalid request" } }
Microsoft 365 Purview Logs not showing Export List Events
We recently conducted an audit on our system - as we are part of a regulated industry - and had to clarify exactly which user events are captured in the Unified Audit Log. We did the usual confirmations and provided evidence of events where users add, update, delete items in SharePoint Lists and Libraries, however, we were asked specifically if events for exporting List Items to CSV or Excel were captured in the Log. We performed the usual test and waited for the events to appear in Purview, but to our suprise, there was nothing in the Log to indicate a user exporting to CSV or Excel. Can anyone confirm whether Export to CSV or Excel from a SharePoint List should be captured and is reportable in the Audit Log? This seems to be a massive oversight if these events are not auditable?
