Using Classic Outlook on Windows for personal email, calendar, and contact management
If Outlook is classic Outlook for Windows, this is a known issue on build 20026.20182 and higher where Copilot can be missing, unavailable, or grayed out.
What to do:
- Check the Outlook build:
- Open Outlook.
- Go to File > Office Account.
- Check the version/build number.
- If Outlook is on 20026.20182 or later, use the current workaround:
- Use new Outlook or Outlook on the web for Copilot.
- If needed, also try the standard Copilot visibility checks in Microsoft 365 apps:
- In any Microsoft 365 app, go to File > Account > Update License.
- Restart all Microsoft 365 apps.
- In File > Account > Manage Settings under Account Privacy, confirm Experiences that analyze your content is turned on and All connected experiences is turned on.
- In Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, also check whether the Copilot entry point moved to the lower-right corner of the document as the Copilot Dynamic Action Button.
Important details:
- Microsoft is investigating the classic Outlook issue.
- Reported attempts such as creating a new Outlook profile, clearing cache/local config, signing out and back in, and restarting Outlook/Windows have not consistently restored the Copilot button.
- There is no estimated date yet for the Outlook on/off toggle in classic Outlook on Windows.
If Copilot works in other Microsoft 365 apps but is greyed out only in classic Outlook, the most likely cause is this known classic Outlook issue rather than the Microsoft 365 Premium subscription itself.