Copilot Can’t Read or Write in Excel

Question

Copilot Can’t Read or Write in Excel

ach 10

Yesterday randomly my co pilot in excel stopped working giving me the error it can’t read or write. I’ve confirmed I am saved in my one drive and I have quit the app, restarted my computer, and even uninstalled one drive, excel, and copilot. I have done everything I can think of including asking AI

Interestingly, I am experiencing the issue on my MacBook Pro. When I use my pc, logged into the same Microsoft 360 account, using the same one drive folder. I don’t encounter any issues.

Please help me trouble shoot, the specific note from co pilot is "“Copilot in Excel on Mac is failing with ‘Script execution failed – unable to preview changes.’ It worked previously. Now all prompts fail including simple ones. File is in OneDrive, signed in, restarted, persists across all workbooks.”

Hitesh Reddy 10 Reputation points

2026-06-05T18:53:16.2866667+00:00

I have the same issue it works on the web but not on my mac. Tried to update/restart. Please let me know if you were able to resolve this
Max Lindgren (Xenit) 10 Reputation points

2026-06-08T11:12:43.2366667+00:00

Anyone who found a solution for this? We have experienced this with a device aswell
Craig Goodwin 15 Reputation points

2026-06-09T11:14:07.75+00:00

I started noticing this on the 5th June also and today its struggling again to read/write. Is this related to the latest OS update perhaps? I have tried all the suggestions but still cant get it to work on local, and the web is struggling too. A simple or blank sheet Co-Pilot can complete, but seems to timeout on larger requests so I wondering if this is more than a Mac OS issue?

5 answers

Your answer

Hitesh Reddy 10 Reputation points

2026-06-05T18:53:16.2866667+00:00

I have the same issue it works on the web but not on my mac. Tried to update/restart. Please let me know if you were able to resolve this
Max Lindgren (Xenit) 10 Reputation points

2026-06-08T11:12:43.2366667+00:00

Anyone who found a solution for this? We have experienced this with a device aswell
Craig Goodwin 15 Reputation points

2026-06-09T11:14:07.75+00:00

I started noticing this on the 5th June also and today its struggling again to read/write. Is this related to the latest OS update perhaps? I have tried all the suggestions but still cant get it to work on local, and the web is struggling too. A simple or blank sheet Co-Pilot can complete, but seems to timeout on larger requests so I wondering if this is more than a Mac OS issue?

Answer 1

Bryan 5

I have encountered the same problem and was able to troubleshoot with a MacBook that had not been updated. Sequence of events were we upgraded to OneDrive 26.095.1519.0003 and had no issues. We then upgraded to MacOS 26.5.1 and had no issues. We then upgraded Office which put Excel at 16.109.3 and this caused the problem and was replicable. We were previously at 16.109.1 with no issues.

This is a MS problem.

Richard 0 Reputation points

2026-06-11T13:03:50.0433333+00:00

yeah, this makes sense I cleared caches and rolled back to excel for Mac 16.109.2, it works sometimes for a while and then gets tired and stops. Did version of copilot impact??
Bryan 5 Reputation points

2026-06-11T15:04:28.6633333+00:00

We did not touch Copilot in the process and the machine is on 1.2606.0101.01
Richard 0 Reputation points

2026-06-11T19:43:46.14+00:00

thanks, I logged the issue a few days back with MS but no response. Any idea if they working on a patch ?

Answer 2

I have the same issue. Everything worked like a charm through April and May. Last time I think I used this feature on May 27th. I noticed yesterday (June 6, 2026) that Excel for Mac can no longer create graphs, charts, tables from the data in the spreadsheet. The files are saved as .xlsx. As of 10 days ago, it worked with files stored locally on the Mac's storage drive. This is an M4 15" MacBook Air running Tahoe 26.5. The error messages say something. Copilot inside Excel for Mac is complaining that reads and writes are failing. When I save the same file to OneDrive and enable autosave, the same or similar wording appears when I ask Copilot do create tables, charts, graphs, etc. from the data in the spreadsheet.

I've uninstalled and re-installed the entire office suite, and logged out and logged back in. I disabled and re-enabled the Copilot license in Microsoft admin center. I've cleared all the caches described in this thread and rebooted the Mac. The issue persists and occurs with all ChatGPT and Anthropic versions available in Excel via Copilot.

ach 10 Reputation points

2026-06-07T23:07:37.2833333+00:00

ive done all of this too, so frustrating!

Answer 3

Deleted

This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

Comments have been turned off. Learn more

Answer 4

Lucy 0

I've tried everything too, been on microsoft help for 2 hours even gave microsoft full access to my computer via Microsoft quick assist, still she just said "must be server isssue. could not help.

0 comments

Answer 5

Rayyan Fawad 1,075

That sounds incredibly frustrating, especially since everything works perfectly on your PC! Since the issue is happening only on your Mac, it's likely a hiccup with how Excel handles its local cache or security permissions for cloud scripts. Try signing completely out of your Microsoft account in Excel, restarting your Mac, and signing back in to refresh your login token. If that doesn't clear the error, try opening the file in Excel for the Web instead—it bypasses the desktop app entirely and usually gets Copilot working right away.

To help narrow this down, are you using a work or personal Microsoft account, and did this start after a recent macOS or Excel update?

ach 10 Reputation points

2026-06-04T21:32:17.3166667+00:00

Hey Rayyan, thanks for helping! i have tried all of these things with no luck. I am using it for work and it just randomly stopped working one morning. i dont think it was related to an update.
Rayyan Fawad 1,075 Reputation points

2026-06-04T21:34:53.5133333+00:00

Since this is a work account and the standard cache resets didn't do the trick, the issue is likely tied to how the macOS native sandbox manages the secure runtime environment for Excel add-ins. Because Copilot relies on local JavaScript API frameworks to communicate with your cloud-hosted spreadsheets, a localized corruption in the Office Add-ins cache can cause the script execution block you are seeing.

To clear this deep-level cache on your MacBook Pro, completely close Excel and open Finder. Press Cmd + Shift + G to bring up the "Go to Folder" prompt, paste ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Caches/, and delete any folders related to web content or add-ins. Additionally, since it's a corporate account, your company's IT department may have recently deployed a background conditional access policy or endpoint security rule that blocks third-party scripts from executing locally on non-Windows devices, so checking in with them to see if macOS script restrictions were updated is a smart next step.
ach 10 Reputation points

2026-06-04T21:44:50.29+00:00

thanks for the advice! i tried clearing like you described with still no luck. Any idea on how to know if the IT department may have deployed conditional access policy?
Rayyan Fawad 1,075 Reputation points

2026-06-04T21:48:22.57+00:00

To see if a Conditional Access policy or corporate restriction is blocking Copilot on your Mac, you can check a couple of places yourself before reaching out to IT:

Check the Entra ID / MyApps Portal: Sign in to myapps.microsoft.com using your work credentials, click your profile icon in the top right, and view your active organization security flags. If your Mac is flagged as "Non-Compliant," Conditional Access will silently block backend add-in scripts.

Look for an Edge/Chrome Sign-in Block: Open a web browser, sign into your corporate Microsoft account, and look closely at the URL or any error banners. If a policy is active, you will often see an explicit message stating, "You cannot access this right now" alongside a specific Tenant ID and Request ID.

If everything looks clean there, you'll need to open a ticket with your IT department so they can check the Microsoft Entra sign-in logs for your specific account to see exactly which security policy is blocking the script runtime on macOS.
ach 10 Reputation points

2026-06-05T17:03:07.81+00:00

sadly this did not work, i think its a greater issue with copilot mac
Rayyan Fawad 1,075 Reputation points

2026-06-05T17:08:59.06+00:00

You are entirely right to suspect a deeper macOS issue here—when a local cache purge fails, it’s almost always down to a frozen single-sign-on token stuck in the system's background identity files, or strict Apple sandboxing rules. Excel on Mac relies on an embedded WebKit browser engine to load the Copilot UI, and if you installed Office via the Mac App Store, those aggressive built-in apple-sandbox restrictions frequently block Copilot's automated script runtimes entirely. To fix this, your absolute best bet is to check how it was installed; if it's the App Store version, do a quick uninstall and download the official standalone Microsoft 365 installer package directly from your corporate office.com portal page. The direct CDN version runs with native local permissions, bypassing Apple's software barriers and usually lighting the Copilot panel straight up!
Katherine Ferguson 5 Reputation points

2026-06-10T12:48:01.4533333+00:00

I am using a personal Microsoft account and encountering this error as well. The only thing that has solved this problem is fully deleting the suite and all caches from my computer and reinstalling almost daily after 5-6 hours of work in excel. The latest reinstall did not fix the problem however and now I am really stuck.
Richard 0 Reputation points

2026-06-12T07:41:38.8166667+00:00

Im convinced its the latest Office update (excel 16.109.3) thats causing the problem, when I delete caches etc and rolled back my excel to previous version worked for a while but then stopped again with same problem. MS "report a problem" is unresponsive also
Lucy 0 Reputation points

2026-06-13T23:56:54.6833333+00:00

At least co-pilot still works on the on-line version which I have never really used til now. I find using two versions very confusing and always seem to lose my most recent updates.

Share via

Copilot Can’t Read or Write in Excel

5 answers

Your answer