In short: if several people lose Copilot at once, check Service health and wait. If only one person is affected, check the licence, the account and the app version. In both cases, do not move company data into a personal AI tool to finish the task.

Two kinds of Copilot problem

Everyone is affected

A Microsoft service issue. Check Service health and wait. Nothing needs to be changed.

One person is affected

Check the licence, the account that is signed in, and whether the app is up to date.

How to tell the two apart. Hexafusion IT Solutions.

When it is a Microsoft service issue

  • Several people lose Copilot at the same time. That points to the service, not to one computer.
  • Check Service health. Your Microsoft 365 administrator can see incidents in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Health, then Service health. Microsoft 365 Copilot is listed there as its own service.
  • Other Microsoft 365 services matter too. Copilot works with your email, files and meetings, so an incident that affects Outlook, SharePoint or Teams can affect Copilot at the same time. That happened in the Microsoft 365 outage of November 12, 2026.
  • Wait, and change nothing. Work in the apps continues without the assistant.

When only one person is affected

  1. Licence: Copilot only appears for users who have a Copilot licence assigned. Ask your administrator to confirm it.
  2. Account: make sure the app is signed in with the work account, not a personal Microsoft account.
  3. App version: update the Microsoft 365 apps, then close and reopen them.
  4. Try another app or the web version. If Copilot works there, the problem is in one app.

Keep company data where it belongs

When the assistant is unavailable, it is tempting to paste the document into a free AI tool to finish the job. Client and staff information should stay in the tools your organization has approved. Our guide to using AI tools at work under Canadian privacy law explains why and what a simple policy looks like.

See also: our incident report on the Microsoft 365 outage of November 12, 2026, the Microsoft 365 continuity checklist, and what to do when Teams is down.

Common questions

Why is Microsoft 365 Copilot not working?
Either Microsoft has a service issue, which affects several people at once and shows under Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin center, or the cause is specific to one user: the licence, the account that is signed in, or an app that needs updating.
Does an Outlook or Teams outage affect Copilot?
It can. Copilot works with email, files and meetings, so an incident that affects those services can affect Copilot at the same time.
Can I use a free AI tool instead while Copilot is down?
Not with company, client or staff information. Keep that data in the tools your organization has approved.

Want AI tools set up safely for your team?

We help businesses in Metro Vancouver roll out Microsoft 365 and AI tools with clear rules for company data.

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