How to fix Your organisation has turned off automatic access

Question

Microsoft 365 Personal purchased through Apple is active. Excel for Mac version 16.98 shows “Your organization has turned off automatic access” in Copilot and the Upload File option is disabled. I am using a personal Microsoft account, not a work or school account.

Answer 1

Hello @rashid zafar

Since you're using a personal Microsoft account with Microsoft 365 Personal, the message “Your organization has turned off automatic access” is a little misleading. I would first check the Microsoft 365 connected-experience/privacy settings, rather than looking for an organization administrator.

Microsoft confirms that Copilot in Excel depends on both Experiences that analyze your content and All connected experiences being enabled.

On your Mac, try:

1. Open Excel and go to Excel > Preferences > Privacy.
2. Select Manage Connected Experiences.
3. Make sure Experiences that analyze your content and All connected experiences are enabled.
4. Restart Excel.

I would also update Excel. Version 16.98 is quite old relative to the current Microsoft 365 for Mac builds, and Microsoft specifically recommends using the latest build when troubleshooting missing/unavailable Copilot functionality. After updating, go to Excel > About Excel > More Info > Refresh License, then restart the Microsoft 365 apps.

Microsoft 365 Personal is an eligible subscription for Copilot in Excel, subject to the applicable AI-credit and account requirements, so having a personal account by itself shouldn't produce an organizational restriction.

If the message remains after updating, refreshing the license, and enabling both connected-experience settings, please share whether those two privacy options are enabled, disabled, or grayed out. That will help determine whether Excel is incorrectly detecting a managed policy/account.

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