CoPilot Agent Not working on Teams

Question

CoPilot agent was created back in March. It was working fine un until 18 May where suddenly it stopped working on Teams. The one within CoPilot, it works fine. Agent is connected to the SharePoint and includes instructions to use only extract from SharePoint. SharePoint does have 5 folders. Each folder has 4-8 files in which this information is looked for by the agent and then a response is prepared. - Checked with IT - no change in licenses or access. - Created another agent, copied all the details from previous agent and published it. - not working. - Error - Something went wrong and we couldn't add Global OHS Standards Reference V1 or Bad Response - same as the original one except original one said "you can no longer chat with this bot" and then gave bad response as error when tried to add the agent to Teams. Both these agent work fine on CoPilot chat but I need it on Teams- Then created a dummy test agent - blank one - to check if bot is blocked but thats not the case. Dummy one works fine.- Hence, i built on the dummy agent step by step and tested it at every step to identify the bug - if its the sharepoint link or instructions or logo etc. But no success. So the dummy agent which was created and tested at every step is working fine in Teams. Hence, reaching out here to see if anyone can help me avoid this situation again. What may have gone wrong?

Answer 1

I had a similar issue where quality of the answers were not like how it was in test mode. I went to Teams Admin center, to Manage Apps and searched for the app. Then under the New Version I took the downloaded file from the Channel settings on Copilot Studio. Uploaded the Zip file to the "upload file" section in the app settings and it updated the agent immediately to working properly. I think the Teams agent does not configure well from the publish button on CStudio and sometimes needs to be updated via this file upload.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

I tried to disconnect the channel and re-connect it back. it works sometimes, but is not 100%

Answer 3

Based on the symptoms, there are two main areas to focus on: Teams app/channel behavior and SharePoint‑grounded agents’ known issues and limitations.

1. Verify Teams channel and app configuration

• Open the agent in Copilot Studio, go to Channels and open Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
• Confirm the Teams channel is still connected and not removed or disconnected. If needed:
  • Turn off the Teams channel, save, then turn it back on.
  • Republish the agent after re‑enabling the channel.
• If the agent was made available via the Teams app store or Microsoft 365 Agent Store and was previously approved by an admin, confirm with the Teams admin that:
  • The app is still Approved and not disabled or removed.
  • App setup policies still allow users to install and use the agent.
• If users see errors when adding the app ("Something went wrong and we couldn't add…"), this can indicate a stale or cached configuration in Teams. In similar scenarios, the recommended workaround is:
  • In the Teams admin center, disable the agent app, wait a few seconds, then re‑enable it.
  • In Copilot Studio, toggle the Teams channel off and on, then republish.
  • Have users sign out and back into Teams or refresh the Teams web client to clear app cache.

2. Check known limitations for Teams vs. Microsoft 365 Copilot

• Agents created with Microsoft 365 Copilot’s Agent Builder cannot be used in Teams Chat. If the working agent is an Agent Builder agent (created directly in Microsoft 365 Copilot) and not a Copilot Studio/Foundry‑published bot, it won’t be supported in Teams.
• Teams has its own known limitations for Copilot Studio agents, including:
  • Rate limiting on agents.
  • Restrictions on certain node types and authentication behaviors.
  • In group or channel chats, agents cannot use knowledge sources that require end‑user authentication (such as SharePoint) and are supported only in 1:1 chats.
• If the agent relies on SharePoint knowledge sources and is used in a context where end‑user authentication is required but not supported (for example, group chats or channels), the agent can fail at runtime even though it works in Copilot chat.

3. Validate SharePoint grounding and licensing

• Declarative agents grounded in SharePoint can fail at runtime with a generic error when the signed‑in user does not have a valid Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Even if IT reports no license changes, verify that:
  • The affected users still have an active Microsoft 365 Copilot or Microsoft 365 Copilot Business license.
  • The user can directly access the SharePoint site URLs used as knowledge sources.
  • The agent’s connection uses User authentication (service principals are not supported for SharePoint grounding).
  • The user has at least Read permission on the SharePoint sites.
• If the agent is created via Microsoft 365 Copilot and uses SharePoint knowledge sources, note that:
  • Auto‑sharing of SharePoint files/folders is limited to specific security groups; if permissions changed on those groups or files, the agent may stop returning information.

4. Compare with the working “dummy” agent

• The dummy agent working in Teams indicates:
  • Teams itself and the tenant’s basic bot policies are functioning.
  • The issue is likely related to either:
    • The specific app package/metadata of the original agent (for example, stale or invalid configuration in Teams), or
    • The SharePoint grounding and authentication model used by the original agent.
• To avoid recurrence:
  • Keep a simple test topic in the production agent that does not depend on SharePoint; use it to distinguish between Teams/app issues and SharePoint grounding issues.
  • When changing SharePoint sites, permissions, or knowledge sources, test the agent in both Copilot chat and Teams 1:1 chat immediately after publishing.
  • If the agent is exposed via the Teams app store or Microsoft 365 Agent Store, coordinate with the Teams admin so that any changes to access settings or app policies are reviewed when issues appear.

If, after re‑toggling the Teams channel, republishing, and confirming licensing and SharePoint access, the agent still fails only in Teams, the next step is to open a support case and provide the Conversation ID, Agent ID, and timestamps of the failing interactions so the backend configuration and runtime logs can be checked.

---

References:

• Connect and configure an agent for Teams and Microsoft 365
• Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Known issues
• Publish agents to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams