Copilot stopped being able to read my Word or PDF files

Question

Copilot stopped being able to read my Word or PDF files

Rey 10

M365 Copilot has stopped being able to ready my Word or PDF files since yesterday, all of a sudden. It says: "The file appears to be empty, corrupted, or in a format I can’t read.". It gives me this error for all my Words and PDF files.

I have tried uploading the files from One Drive, and I get the same issue. I have changed nothing in the settings, and it just happened all of a sudden, yesterday. None of these files are empty or corrupt. I can open them in Microsoft word and edit them.

I tried updating my Microsoft license, it did not help.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

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2 answers

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Answer 1

Norah-L 6,265 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Good day Rey!

Thank you for reporting this issue to the Q&A forum.

From what you described, M365 Copilot has suddenly stopped being able to read any of your Word or PDF files, showing an error that the file appears to be empty, corrupted, or in an unsupported format. The same issue occurs when uploading them from OneDrive and updating your Microsoft license did not resolve the problem.

Based on recent reports in the community, this issue was also experienced by several other users starting yesterday. So far, there hasn’t been any official announcement regarding this behavior.

According to some user feedback, Copilot inside the Word app itself may still work with the same files. As a temporary workaround, you may try using Copilot directly within the Word application instead of uploading the file to Copilot Chat.

At the same time, I would strongly recommend submitting feedback through Copilot (via ... > Send Feedback > Report a problem) so the engineering team can investigate this further and work on a fix if it’s backend‑related. Since this is a user‑to‑user community forum, we can only share suggestions based on our findings and personal experiences.

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If there are any new updates on this issue, I will be sure to post them here.

Thank you so much for your patience!

Krisztián Üveges 5 Reputation points

2026-04-10T06:32:07.98+00:00

Hi Norah,

I am facing with the same issue, in my case, my file is txt, UTF-8 (no bom), just ~3000 chars in the file. Module I use within M365 Copilot app i Notebooks (I have M365 Premium license). Website method or Application method - both is not working at all.

Same error message: "The file uploaded is either empty, corrupted, or in a format that I cannot process."

Everything was fine on my side till last Sunday.
Vincent Choy 10,855 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-04-10T07:07:10.2866667+00:00

I face a similar issue, but with powerpoint in app agent
Norah-L 6,265 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-10T07:26:16.6966667+00:00

Hi Krisztián Üveges, Vincent Choy,

Thank you everyone for reporting this issue!

Please submit your feedback in Copilot and click “I have the same question” at the bottom right of this thread so you can stay informed and receive notifications if there are any updates or developments regarding this issue.
Thank you so much for your patience and time.

Yours sincerely,
Krisztián Üveges 5 Reputation points

2026-04-10T11:37:30.3966667+00:00

Hello Norah,

Many thanks :)

Please submit your feedback in Copilot

I did it.

Best Regards
Tresa 5 Reputation points

2026-04-10T14:29:29.5733333+00:00

I'm experiencing the same issue since yesterday!
Norah-L 6,265 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-17T06:20:39.06+00:00

Hi Tres!

There hasn’t been an official announcement about this yet, but a few users have mentioned that the Copilot desktop app seems to be working again.

See: M365 Copilot desktpp & Web

You might want to check for updates in the Microsoft Store and see if that makes any difference on your end. If you’re still running into the issue, please see my comment above on how to share feedback so it can reach to the product team.

Feel free to post back and let me know how it’s going for you!

Best regards.

Answer 2

Work with the supported Copilot troubleshooting steps already tried and add the ones that are still missing, focusing on license validation and app connectivity, since the files themselves open fine in Word.

Confirm the Copilot license and account
- In any Microsoft 365 app, check that the primary signed‑in account (shown at the top of the window) is the one that has the Copilot entitlement.
- For home use, that account must have Microsoft 365 Personal or Family, or Copilot Pro.
- For business use, that account must have one of the supported Microsoft 365 plans (Business Basic/Standard/Premium, E3, E5, F1, F3) plus Microsoft 365 Copilot.
- If multiple accounts are signed in, sign out the others and keep only the licensed account, then restart the app and try again.
Refresh the Copilot/Microsoft 365 license in the apps
- Windows desktop apps:
  1. Open Word.
  2. Go to File > Account.
  3. Select Update License.
  4. Close all Office apps, then reopen Word and test Copilot with a file again.
- Mac desktop apps:
  1. Open Word.
  2. From the top menu, select Word > About Word.
  3. Select More Info….
  4. Select Refresh License.
  5. Close all Office apps, then reopen and test.
Check privacy and connected-experiences settings (Mac) If using Word on Mac:
1. Open Word.
2. Go to Word > Preferences > Privacy.
3. Ensure Experiences that analyze your content is turned on.
4. Scroll down and ensure All connected experiences is turned on.
5. Restart Word and try Copilot again.
Check browser behavior if using Copilot on the web
- Refresh the page where Copilot is used (Word for the web, Microsoft365.com, etc.).
- If third‑party cookies are blocked in the browser, enable them temporarily and test again, because blocked cookies can cause Copilot license validation failures and generic “can’t read file” behavior. For more details, see I am getting license validation errors with Copilot.
If the issue persists
- For home users: after confirming the above, contact Microsoft Support as described in the license‑validation article so they can check the Copilot entitlement and backend status for the account.
- For business users: ask the Microsoft 365 admin to verify that the user still has a valid Microsoft 365 Copilot license assigned and that Copilot is not blocked by organizational policies. The admin can then open a support case with Microsoft if needed.

These steps address the main supported causes when Copilot suddenly stops working with otherwise healthy Word/PDF files: license propagation/validation issues, account conflicts, and privacy/connected‑experience settings.

References:

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Copilot stopped being able to read my Word or PDF files

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