CoPilot isn't working inside a word document

Question

I have a Microsoft 365 premium account. When I use copilot, it does not allow me to rewrite within a word document. It requires me to authenticate. Then tells me something went wrong and doesn't perform properly. This is something that's changed recently within the Microsoft sphere. I used to be able to make these changes inside a word document but no longer can I have to get out of word copy and paste into a browser, the narration or word section that I want to change and have it done through the browser. Then copy it go back to my Word document. Very inefficient and wasteful of my time.

Why is this happened and what do I need to fix it?

Answer 1

The issue you are experiencing is likely due to a breakdown in the secure token exchange between your local Office application and the Microsoft 365 cloud identity service. When Microsoft updates their authentication protocols or when your local Office credential cache becomes corrupted, the “in-app” Copilot integration often fails to verify your license status, even if your browser-based session remains active and authenticated.

To resolve this persistent authentication failure, you should begin by clearing the Office credential cache. Close all Office applications, open the Windows Credential Manager, and navigate to “Windows Credentials.” Look for any entries labeled “MicrosoftOffice16_Data:ADAL” or anything containing “Office” and remove them. This forces the application to request a fresh, clean handshake with the server the next time you open Word.

After clearing the credentials, verify that your Office installation is fully updated. You can do this by going to File, then Account, and selecting Update Options to ensure you are running the latest build. Older versions of the Office desktop client often struggle with the newer authentication tokens required by Copilot.

If the issue persists, your local identity profile may be out of sync. Within the same Account menu in Word, sign out of your Microsoft 365 account entirely. Restart your computer, reopen Word, and sign back in. This process re-establishes the trust relationship between your local machine and the Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) service that governs your Copilot permissions.

It is also possible that a security policy change within your organization—or a global change in how Microsoft handles “Conditional Access”—is triggering this behavior. If you are part of a managed enterprise, your IT department may have implemented a policy that requires re-authentication for AI-driven features. If you are a personal or small business user, check to ensure that “Connected Experiences” are enabled. You can verify this by going to File, Options, Trust Center, Trust Center Settings, and then Privacy Options. Ensure that the box for “Turn on experiences that download online content” is checked, as Copilot requires this bridge to function within the desktop interface.

If you continue to encounter the “something went wrong” error after these steps, it suggests a deeper sync conflict between your local identity and the Microsoft cloud. In such cases, running the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA) tool is the recommended path, as it can automatically diagnose and repair the specific configuration files that manage your M365 authentication state.