💡 Our Technical Review in summary
1. Summary
Microsoft has temporarily disabled the “Edit in Outlook” button within Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. This action was taken to address separate service performance issues and slow request response times associated with the feature. While a fix is being developed, the button will remain unavailable for most users.
2. Impact
Users who prompt Copilot Chat to draft an email message will not see the option to automatically transfer that draft to Outlook via the “Edit in Outlook” button. This impacts any user attempting to use the cross-app drafting workflow.
Workaround: Affected users should manually use the Copy button to transfer the generated text from Copilot Chat into a new Outlook message. If Copilot is enabled within the Outlook app itself, users can continue refining the draft there.
3. Status
Current Status: Service Degradation / Advisory.
The restoration process is currently paused. Although a rollout reached 50% of the environment in late January, it was halted due to insufficient performance metrics and slow response times. Microsoft is currently optimizing the feature to ensure stability before proceeding with the remaining 50% of the rollout.
- Start Time: Friday, December 19, 2025
- Estimated Resolution: Friday, March 20, 2026
- Next Update: Monday, March 9, 2026
Microsoft Official Issue Details
User Impact
Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message.
Status: serviceDegradation
Service: Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
Classification: advisory
Origin: microsoft
Updates
- 2026-02-23 20:53
Title: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email messageUser impact: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message.
More info: As an optional work around, affected users can use the Copy button to transfer a generated draft from Copilot chat to Outlook, and continue their work. If your organization has enabled Copilot access within Outlook, the user can continue using Copilot to draft an email once they’ve moved to Outlook.
Current status: Our work to improve the slow request response times continues. We’re ensuring that the improvement process will not cause any additional service issues before we re-enable the feature. We anticipate being able to have a solution ready by Friday, March 20, 2026. We will provide any available updates to the progress at next scheduled communication time.
Scope of impact: Any user prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message may be impacted.
Start time: Friday, December 19, 2025, at 6:00 PM UTC
Root cause: We’ve disabled the “Edit in Outlook” feature in Copilot Chat while we implement a fix for a separate service issue relating to the feature, causing impact.
Next update by: Monday, March 9, 2026, at 10:00 PM UTC
- 2026-02-12 21:57
Title: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email messageUser impact: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message.
More info: When users prompt Copilot Chat to draft an email message, the button to “Edit in Outlook” may not appear as expected.
Current status: Our metrics indicate that there are slow request response times, making the current metrics insufficient to proceed with re-enabling the “Edit in Outlook” button for the remaining 50 percent of users. We’re reviewing possible options to improve request response times, so that we can bring the metrics up to an acceptable level before re-enabling the feature.
Scope of impact: Any user prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message may be impacted.
Start time: Friday, December 19, 2025, at 6:00 PM UTC
Root cause: We’ve disabled the “Edit in Outlook” feature in Copilot Chat while we implement a fix for a separate service issue relating to the feature, causing impact.
Next update by: Monday, February 23, 2026, at 11:00 PM UTC
- 2026-02-05 21:23
Title: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email messageUser impact: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message.
More info: When users prompt Copilot Chat to draft an email message, the button to “Edit in Outlook” may not appear as expected.
Current status: After re-enabling the feature for 50 percent of the affected environment and then pausing the rollout, the current metrics we’ve reviewed are not substantial enough to confirm whether to proceed with re-enabling for the remaining 50 percent. We’re continuing to monitor metrics until our next scheduled communication update to gather more insight and determine when to proceed with further enabling.
Scope of impact: Any user prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message may be impacted.
Start time: Friday, December 19, 2025, at 6:00 PM UTC
Root cause: We’ve disabled the “Edit in Outlook” feature in Copilot Chat while we implement a fix for a separate service issue relating to the feature, causing impact.
Next update by: Thursday, February 12, 2026, at 11:00 PM UTC
- 2026-02-03 21:14
Title: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email messageUser impact: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message.
More info: When users prompt Copilot Chat to draft an email message, the button to “Edit in Outlook” may not appear as expected.
Current status: We’ve paused re-enabling the feature as we perform additional validations to ensure the efficacy of the fix in the broader environment. Once these validations have completed, we’ll resume enabling the feature for the rest of the impacted users to fully remediate impact. We expect to have a timeline for completing re-enablement of the feature with our next scheduled communication update.
Scope of impact: Any user prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message may be impacted.
Start time: Friday, December 19, 2025, at 6:00 PM UTC
Root cause: We’ve disabled the “Edit in Outlook” feature in Copilot Chat while we implement a fix for a separate service issue relating to the feature, causing impact.
Next update by: Thursday, February 5, 2026, at 11:00 PM UTC
- 2026-01-26 22:16
Title: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email messageUser impact: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message.
More info: When users prompt Copilot Chat to draft an email message, the button to “Edit in Outlook” may not appear as expected.
Current status: We’ve begun re-enabling the feature and about half of the affected users will now see the “Edit in Outlook” button. As the feature continues to saturate the affected environments, users will gradually have access to the feature.
Scope of impact: Any user prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message may be impacted.
Start time: Friday, December 19, 2025, at 6:00 PM UTC
Root cause: We’ve disabled the “Edit in Outlook” feature in Copilot Chat while we implement a fix for a separate service issue relating to the feature, causing impact.
Next update by: Tuesday, February 3, 2026, at 11:00 PM UTC
- 2026-01-24 00:18
Title: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email messageUser impact: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message.
More info: When users prompt Copilot Chat to draft an email message, the button to “Edit in Outlook” may not appear as expected.
Current status: We’re continuing to determine a timeline for the re-enablement of the “Edit in Outlook” feature in Copilot Chat that we expect will remediate impact.
Scope of impact: Any user prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message may be impacted.
Root cause: We’ve disabled the “Edit in Outlook” feature in Copilot Chat while we implement a fix for a separate service issue relating to the feature, causing impact.
Next update by: Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at 12:00 AM UTC
- 2026-01-15 19:23
Title: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email messageUser impact: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message.
More info: When users prompt Copilot Chat to draft an email message, the button to “Edit in Outlook” may not appear as expected.
Current status: We’ve disabled the “Edit in Outlook” feature in Copilot Chat while we implement a fix for a separate service issue relating to the feature, causing impact. We’re determining a timeline for the re-enablement of the feature.
Scope of impact: Any user prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message may be impacted.
Root cause: We’ve disabled the “Edit in Outlook” feature in Copilot Chat while we implement a fix for a separate service issue relating to the feature, causing impact.
Next update by: Saturday, January 24, 2026, at 1:00 AM UTC
- 2026-01-15 18:58
Title: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email messageUser impact: Users aren’t shown the “Edit in Outlook” button after prompting Copilot Chat to draft an email message.
More info: When users prompt Copilot Chat to draft an email message, the button to “Edit in Outlook” doesn’t appear as expected.
Current status: We’re investigating a potential issue with Copilot Chat and checking for impact to your organization. We’ll provide an update within 30 minutes.
