Copilot not working? 15 fixes for Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and VS Code

How do you fix Copilot when it is not working?

Find your app in the table and start with its first fix. Every cause comes from a Microsoft or GitHub help page, read on 12 October 2026, and the sources are listed at the end.

Start at the top even if your row is lower down. The first three fixes cost a minute, and Microsoft's support article, updated July 2026, starts with the moved button. A Copilot that's only moved is the cheapest fix of all. "By default, the Copilot button appears in the lower-right corner of your document, workbook, or presentation," the page says.

Why is Copilot greyed out or missing in Word, Excel and PowerPoint?

Copilot is greyed out or missing in Word, Excel and PowerPoint when one of eight conditions Microsoft documents is true, and Excel has three more of its own. We counted them from Microsoft's troubleshooting article on Learn, now filed under previous versions, its support page for the missing button, and two Copilot FAQs, all read on 12 October 2026.

The eight shared conditions, in the order Microsoft gives the first seven:

1. A newly assigned license that hasn't propagated yet.
2. A personal and a work or school account signed in together, so Copilot can't validate.
3. A network that blocks what Copilot needs.
4. A recent Office reset or update that upset activation.
5. Device-based licensing.
6. The Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel.
7. Privacy settings that turn off connected experiences.
8. A plan with no Copilot in it at all.

Two of these only IT can fix. Microsoft's Learn article is blunt: "Copilot isn't available when you use device-based licensing for Microsoft 365 Apps." On channels it says "your organization must use the Current Channel or the Monthly Enterprise Channel." You can see your channel yourself. Open File, then Account, and read the Product Information box. If it says Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel, no fix on your PC will bring Copilot back.

Excel adds its three file rules. Microsoft's Copilot FAQ for home plans says "Copilot in Excel requires AutoSave to be enabled, meaning the file must be saved to OneDrive." The Excel FAQ adds two more. Copilot in Excel for Windows or Mac won't work on a file from a SharePoint site that requires check out, and an old format such as Strict Open XML Spreadsheet shows "Unsupported file state". So a workbook opened from an email attachment or your Downloads folder shows a grey button. Save it to OneDrive first.

On the web, the fix is in your browser. Microsoft's requirements page, updated 5 October 2026, says third party cookies must be on for Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the web. Home users have one more limit to rule out. Microsoft's AI credits page, updated October 2026, says you'll get a notice in the app when you near or reach a usage limit, and your balance sits under Services and subscriptions in your Microsoft account.

Why is Copilot not working in Outlook?

In classic Outlook for Windows, a missing Copilot is often a Microsoft bug. Microsoft keeps a known issues page for classic Outlook, and it listed four Copilot issues since July 2025 when we read it on 12 October 2026.

The open one hits both free and paid work users. Microsoft's issue page, last updated 15 September 2026, says it starts after classic Outlook updates to build 20026.20182 or higher, for anyone with "a Copilot Chat (Basic) license or a paid M365 Copilot (Premium) account." Microsoft offers three ways round it. Switch to new Outlook or Outlook on the web, create a new Outlook profile, or open File, Options, Advanced and tick Show Apps in Outlook. The May bug shows how these end. Microsoft fixed it from the service side on 27 May 2026, and a restart of Outlook picked up the fix.

With a home plan, the version matters more than any bug. Microsoft's page on sharing Copilot in Outlook says a Microsoft 365 account with AI credits lights up Copilot for Gmail, Yahoo and iCloud accounts signed in on the same device. Then comes the catch: "This feature is not available in classic Outlook for Windows." On a Mac, Microsoft says Copilot runs only in the latest Outlook for Mac, and "Legacy Outlook isn't supported." At work, Copilot also needs a mailbox in Exchange Online for anything that reads your email or calendar.

Is Copilot down right now, or is it just you?

Copilot is down when Microsoft's status page or your company's Service health page shows an open incident. It's you when Copilot fails in one app but works on your phone or in a browser. Check in that order.

Microsoft's public page tells a home user very little. When we read status.cloud.microsoft on 12 October 2026, it said "All products are operational" across four product lines, one of which covers every Microsoft consumer product. It showed no Copilot row and no incident history. The detail lives in the Microsoft 365 admin center, which only admins can open. Microsoft's service health guide says its Issue history tab covers incidents resolved in the last 7 or 30 days, and it names the @MSFT365Status account on X for news of some events.

So at work, ask IT to look at Service health before you reinstall anything. An admin can also file a missing incident through Report an issue, and Microsoft says it will add it if the fault is on its side. At home, the fastest test is a second device. If Copilot answers on your phone over mobile data, the fault is on your PC or your network. And if the Copilot app says your daily limit is reached, that's a usage cap, not an outage (what Copilot's daily limit means).

Why is Copilot not working on Windows 11 or in Edge?

The Copilot app on Windows 11 usually fails for one of two reasons: where you appear to be, or the app install itself. Microsoft's regions page, updated September 2026, says "Microsoft Copilot is available globally in over 170 markets around the world." The gaps are China, excluding Hong Kong SAR, and embargoed markets. A VPN that exits in one of those makes Copilot look broken, so turn it off first.

Then repair the app. Microsoft's Windows help gives the path: Start, Settings, Apps, Installed apps, then the More icon next to Copilot and Advanced options. Try Repair first. Use Reset only if Repair is missing or doesn't help. Word, Excel and PowerPoint repair from the same list. Microsoft's Office repair page says to pick Microsoft 365, choose Modify, then Online Repair "to make sure everything gets fixed."

In Edge, a missing Copilot icon is usually a setting. Microsoft's Edge troubleshooting article, dated 10 March 2026, gives five causes: the sidebar is off, the Copilot button is off, a Group Policy blocks it, Edge is older than version 111, or Copilot isn't offered for your region or account. Open the Copilot and sidebar page under Appearance in Edge settings and turn on Show Copilot button on the toolbar. On a work PC, the policy page in Edge shows whether HubsSidebarEnabled is set to Disabled, and only IT can change that.

Why is Copilot not working in Teams meetings?

Copilot doesn't work in a Teams meeting when the organizer turned it off, when another company hosts the meeting, or when nobody transcribed it. Microsoft's Teams Copilot page puts the second plainly: "Copilot won't work in meetings that are hosted outside the participant's organization." The organizer's Allow Copilot setting has three values. With During and after the meeting, "Transcription is required to use Copilot," so it starts only when someone starts the transcript. With Off, recording and transcription are switched off too. If you joined from outside, ask the host for the recap instead.

Why is GitHub Copilot not working in VS Code?

GitHub Copilot in VS Code most often fails because one AI model is down, not Copilot itself. We read GitHub's 50 most recent incidents from githubstatus.com on 12 October 2026. They ran from 1 August to 12 October 2026, and 16 of them named Copilot or listed a Copilot component.

That's why switching models in the chat picker is the first fix. In 11 of the 16, some models failed while others kept working. Half the incidents were over within 81 minutes. GitHub's troubleshooting page covers the rest. It says to "try signing in and out of Copilot from your IDE" and to keep the extension up to date on every machine. Two errors aren't faults at all. One "indicates that you do not have a Copilot plan," and another means you've hit a rate limit, which GitHub says is most common on select models with limited capacity.

What can you use when Copilot is down?

When Microsoft's side is down, only an assistant on another service gets you an answer today. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini each run their own status page, and what to use when ChatGPT is down lists them. Copy your prompt and the text you were working on before you switch.

Whizi, which publishes this page, is one of those options. A free account gets 10 messages a day on Whizi AI, Auto or Claude Haiku 5.5. Starter at $15.99 a month carries 800 credits for ChatGPT Luna, Claude Haiku and Whizi AI. A chat answer can come back as a real .xlsx or .docx file that you then open in Excel or Word. Where it loses: it doesn't run inside Word, Excel or Outlook, Starter has no image generation, and every plan stops at 60 messages an hour.