Troubleshooting Generative Answers don’t return results

Generative answers empower creators to build Copilots that can respond to queries based on data from various sources, such as public websites or SharePoint. By directing the Copilot toward these data repositories, users can obtain relevant information. However, there are instances when the Copilot may not provide a direct answer and instead responds with a message like, ‘'I’m not sure how to help with that. Can you try rephrasing?

Generative answers pointing to SharePoint or OneDrive

When you’ve configured a SharePoint or OneDrive data source, several factors might hinder generative answers from providing a response. We will discover a few factors in this blog post.

Search results are missing

When generative answers are missing for a SharePoint or OneDrive data source, it’s because they rely on calls to the Graph API search endpoint. Specifically, only the top three results returned from the Graph API are used to summarize and generate a response. If no results are obtained from the Graph API, the generative answers node remains silent.

To troubleshoot whether Copilot Studio isn’t retrieving results from the Graph API, you can directly make calls to the Graph API search endpoint. This process simulates how Copilot Studio operates behind the scenes. You can use the following template with Graph Explorer to generate these calls. Remember to sign in using the appropriate credentials for your SharePoint or OneDrive tenant:

POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/search/query

{

??? "requests": [

??????? {

??????????? "entityTypes": [

??????????????? "driveItem",

??????????????? "listItem"

??????????? ],

??????????? "query": {

??????????????? "queryString": "SEARCH TERMS filetype:docx OR filetype:aspx OR filetype:pptx OR filetype:pdf path:\"DOMAIN.sharepoint.com/sites/SITENAME"

??????????? },

??????????? "from": 0,

??????????? "size": 3,

??????????? "QueryAlterationOptions": {

??????????????? "EnableModification": true,

??????????????? "EnableSuggestion": true

??????????? }

??????? }

??? ]

}

How to Resolve:

To resolve issues with generative answers, follow these steps:

Verify Content Location: Ensure your Create generative answers node is linked to a relevant SharePoint or OneDrive location containing the necessary content.

Check Document Formats: Only documents in supported formats will be used to generate responses. Ensure your documents are in the following format:

• SharePoint pages (modern pages)
• Word documents (docx)
• PowerPoint documents (pptx)
• PDF documents (pdf)

Indexing Delay: Recently uploaded documents to SharePoint or OneDrive may not be indexed yet.

Search Settings: Some sites may be excluded from search results due to settings. Check your settings to ensure they are configured correctly.

User Permission Issues

Generative answers for SharePoint and OneDrive require delegated permissions to access the Graph API. To function correctly, users must have:

Minimum Required Permissions

• Read permissions on relevant sites
• Read permissions on relevant files

Consequences of Missing Permissions

If a user lacks the necessary permissions:

• No results are returned from the Graph API
• No errors or exceptions are thrown
• It appears as though no documents were found, even if they exist

The app registration or copilot misconfigured

Generative answers rely on a correctly configured Microsoft Entra ID app registration and specific permissions. When administrators set up generative answers for SharePoint and OneDrive, they need to configure authentication using a Microsoft Entra ID and define additional scopes. If these settings aren't accurate or complete, the system won't return any results, even if documents exist. This can be misleading as it appears no documents were found.

Common Problems:

• Missing or incorrect scopes in the app registration.
• Insufficient permissions granted to the Copilot.
• Lack of consent for required scopes.

How to Resolve:

App Registration Scopes:

• Ensure that the necessary scopes are added to your App Registration in Azure Entra ID. These scopes define the permissions your application needs to access SharePoint and OneDrive resources.
• Commonly required scopes include?Files.Read.All?and?Sites.Read.All. Depending on your use case, additional scopes may be needed.

Copilot Authentication Settings:

• Make sure you’ve correctly configured Copilot to authenticate using the same app registration (client ID and secret) that you set up in Azure Entra ID.

Consent:

• Consent is crucial for your application to access user data. Ensure that consent has been granted for the required scopes.

File Size Limitations for Generative Answers

Currently, Generative Answers can only process files up to 3 MB in size. While larger files can be stored and searched within SharePoint, they cannot be directly processed for generating answers.

Exception: Customers using Microsoft 365 Semantic Indexing are exempt from this file size limitation.

Workarounds:

If your important files exceed the 3 MB limit, consider these alternatives:

• Microsoft 365 Semantic Indexing: Explore this option to process larger files for your conversational AI needs.
• Azure OpenAI: Integrate your data with Azure OpenAI to overcome file size restrictions and leverage advanced AI capabilities.

Content blocked by content moderation

Content moderation is an essential aspect of Copilot Studio’s operation. Copilot Studio features a robust content moderation system that automatically blocks:

• Harmful content
• Malicious content
• Non-compliant content
• Copyrighted material

If any content falls into these categories, generative answers remain silent—neither providing a response nor indicating that moderation occurred.

To monitor moderation events, Copilot Studio can be configured to send telemetry data to Azure Application Insights. This provides visibility into the types of content being blocked.

How to Resolve:

• Try to adjust?content moderation, but keep in mind that lower content moderation settings might result in answers that are less accurate or relevant.