Copilot does not complete document or provide work it indicates it has been working on

Question

Copilot does not complete document or provide work it indicates it has been working on

Cheri Bell 26

I created an agent to highlight specific words in a document. It worked once, but now it says it's completing the task, but it doesn't. I prompt it to complete the task and it gives me the same response that it is working on it and to hold on while it completes the task. I know it's possible because it worked one time. It's very frustrating trying to get consistent results. Any suggestions?

Brent Cummins MPS-CT 0 Reputation points

2025-08-12T17:11:10.1933333+00:00

I've been waiting days for something to complete that would take 20 minutes to do manually.

Every time an Agent runs, M365 Copilot returns another excuse that it should have realized at the onset of the agent setup.

I instructed it to parse an Excel spreadsheet starting at the top and to work through the complete list until it reached the end. Find the website address for each of the companies in the list, then continue with the next row.

It started and worked for a couple of small batches. Hours later, it has made no progress. Asking it why, Copilot returns saying, 'there was an error in the automation loop so it didn't go any further.'

What automation loop? Follow the instructions you agreed to at the Agent setup. Go through the list top to bottom, Parse each row, then move to the next row.

And it is still sitting there, doing nothing.

OK. I ask it to provide a link to the data that you have processed.

Copilot displays the stats and a 'link,' which is not hyperlinked, just a name to a file that does not exist.

So it can't provide me the pathetic results (12 rows!!!!) that it spent all night processing.

It says it wasn't given explicit rights to create files.

What? That was discussed when the agent was set up. Why tell me now, when you agreed with it at the start.

And it goes on and on...

So I'm glad to report that I've missed every deadline this week.

Your answer

Brent Cummins MPS-CT 0 Reputation points

2025-08-12T17:11:10.1933333+00:00

I've been waiting days for something to complete that would take 20 minutes to do manually.

Every time an Agent runs, M365 Copilot returns another excuse that it should have realized at the onset of the agent setup.

I instructed it to parse an Excel spreadsheet starting at the top and to work through the complete list until it reached the end. Find the website address for each of the companies in the list, then continue with the next row.

It started and worked for a couple of small batches. Hours later, it has made no progress. Asking it why, Copilot returns saying, 'there was an error in the automation loop so it didn't go any further.'

What automation loop? Follow the instructions you agreed to at the Agent setup. Go through the list top to bottom, Parse each row, then move to the next row.

And it is still sitting there, doing nothing.

OK. I ask it to provide a link to the data that you have processed.

Copilot displays the stats and a 'link,' which is not hyperlinked, just a name to a file that does not exist.

So it can't provide me the pathetic results (12 rows!!!!) that it spent all night processing.

It says it wasn't given explicit rights to create files.

What? That was discussed when the agent was set up. Why tell me now, when you agreed with it at the start.

And it goes on and on...

So I'm glad to report that I've missed every deadline this week.

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Copilot does not complete document or provide work it indicates it has been working on

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