Forum Discussion
mjudi
Dec 01, 2023Copper Contributor
The "Reference a file" feature not working as documented
In Word, and based on the help documentation, I'm supposed to see the "Your computer" and "Online" tabs but I don't see them when I choose "Reference a file". I also see this in Outlook. I see only t...
- Dec 05, 2023Hi mjudi,
Copilot can only use files which are stored "in scope of the platform". For example SharePoint Online (and OneDrive). Depending on the application from which you start the prompt it will show the last 3 or 10 accessed items.
To use another file you need to paste the full path after the "/".
MichelvanVliet
Dec 05, 2023Brass Contributor
Hi mjudi,
Copilot can only use files which are stored "in scope of the platform". For example SharePoint Online (and OneDrive). Depending on the application from which you start the prompt it will show the last 3 or 10 accessed items.
To use another file you need to paste the full path after the "/".
Copilot can only use files which are stored "in scope of the platform". For example SharePoint Online (and OneDrive). Depending on the application from which you start the prompt it will show the last 3 or 10 accessed items.
To use another file you need to paste the full path after the "/".
washingtonbr
Jan 27, 2024Copper Contributor
I have a personal office and copilot pro
I uploaded documents to my one drive but these documents do not appear
What I missing?
I read a lot of people with the same problem.
- Jur_DelFeb 01, 2024Copper Contributor
I waste few days to figure this out:
The "/refference" feature and some of other Copilot Pro most desirable features works ONLY on Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 plan (not shure, but it might also not work on Business Basic, Business Standard, or Business Premium).
The problem is that you have purchased a Copilot Pro license, but you do not have a compatible Microsoft 365 plan as Microsoft 365 E3 or E5. If you have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, you can only use Copilot in select Microsoft 365 apps, but not Copilot Pro. Thats mean that to use the ā/reference a fileā feature MS apps you need to change a plan for E3 of E5 subscription.If you swich between accounts during the session in Word you will see following error:
1. In Personal or Family account with a Copilot Pro subscription you will find that "/refference" feature shows no results ("No suggestions avaiable"). Also if you will try to manually write down the file name or file path to OneDrive or path on your PC, the Copilot will process the request to infinity (with no respond) or will give an error: "Something went wrong. Please try again in a moment." or "Copilot can`t generate high-quality content for this. Please change your description and try again."
2. Now try to switch accounts
Go to Account and swich for Enterprise (or School account) with NO Copilot Pro plan. Here after promting "/" you will be able to see few files in dialog box. This will confirm that OneDerive search of refference path finding configurated and works properly, so it is able to find some files.But after you ask Copilot to work with this documents the following error will appear:
"We encountered a problem validating your Copilot license. For more information, see https://aka.ms/copilotlicensecheck"So according to my "investigation" you cant use Copilot Pro features in Family or Personal plan. You can use only basic version of Copilot. This mean that the only way you can use Copilot Pro is in Bing chat with using all those GPT+ features and its completely not worth it untill Microsoft will allow personal users to use Copilot Pro in MS365 apps as it is possible for Enterprise users.
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Edition 01.02.2024
I contacted Microsoft Support and it was confirmed that reference file feature "/" should work for MS365 Family apps but it`s not working. So its not in accordance to official documentation. The tier 2 technical support will work on this bug/error.- cylnameFeb 02, 2024Copper Contributor
Jur_Del Thank you for sharing your findings!
According to the post here,
"This feature is only available to customers with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license. It is not currently available to customers with a Copilot Pro license."
and here,
"As we all know, Copilot and Copilot Pro is still in preview mode and some features as still developing. We consulted this to our internal team and confirmed that this feature is currently not yet available. Our engineering team is currently working on it and make sure to include this on the next updates. For now, we don't have a timeline yet as to when would this be fully available but just make sure to enable auto update in Word so it will be applied to your version as soon as it's rolled out. "
I am confused about whether it is a bug or if they intended to not include the feature from Copilot Pro. I doubt that they will include that feature in the future.
Hope I am wrong.
- MichelvanVlietFeb 02, 2024Brass Contributor
washingtonbr
To add to the excellent info/research from Jur_Del: as far as I know the "reference a file feature" uses the Semantec index and Microsoft Search from the M365 tenant. This probably explains the absence of the feature within the Pro license because there is no M365 tenant connected.BTW: that's also the reason why only files stored within SharePoint (including OneDrive) can be used as a file reference.
- MichelvanVlietJan 28, 2024Brass Contributor
washingtonbr the files need to be indexed for them to appear in the short list. This takes time.
You should always be able to reference the file by using the full path (URL).- washingtonbrJan 28, 2024Copper Contributor
And ... how to do this? The files are in the OneDrive for 7 days and still do not appear in the word with copilot.
Another point: I also tried to paste the link of the document in OneDrive (shared it first) and nothing happened. I received the message: "Copilot cannot generate document..."
What I need to do ?