Is Anyone Else Having Trouble with the SharePoint FAQ Web Part?

Question

Is Anyone Else Having Trouble with the SharePoint FAQ Web Part?

CK1104 50

I've recently started using the FAQ web part and have two problems:

The "Copy link to question" link doesn't take people to the question or even the FAQs - it just takes them to the top of the web page; and
I've tried submitting test questions using the "Submit question field" and they are all filtered out when I return later and go into Edit mode. If we use this field we need to be able to access all submitted questions, but if they're deemed irrelevant by AI, it looks like they aren't retained anywhere? I'm guessing the relevancy issue is based on the fact that I've imported my own questions and answers, so maybe this feature is only useful when AI generates the FAQ content?

If these are known issues and someone has solutions I'd be very grateful!

Karen Evans 0 Reputation points

2026-10-14T19:44:44.2433333+00:00
FAQ web part—author notifications, submission visibility, and follow-up for viewers

Thank you for the explanation. We have now successfully tested two relevant viewer-submitted questions. However, neither the FAQ author nor the person submitting the questions received a notification. As the author, I had to edit the page and select Add a question to discover the submissions.

Could you clarify whether notifications are available, configurable, or planned? If they are not currently available, please consider the following improvements:

Notify the FAQ owner and designated co-authors when a question is submitted, with an option for immediate notifications or a digest.

Provide an author review queue for all submissions, including those AI considers irrelevant. Flagging a question for review would be more useful than making it unavailable to the author.

Give the submitter a clear confirmation and next step. Explain whether an existing FAQ answer was suggested, the question was submitted for review, or it was filtered.

Offer optional answer notifications. Let viewers opt in to being notified when their question is answered or a related Q&A is published, while retaining anonymous submission as an option.

Make “Copy link to question” reliably open the relevant Q&A, ideally scrolling to and expanding it.

We understand that anonymous submission limits the ability to contact the submitter. An optional notification preference—or a private tracking link—could close that loop without exposing the person’s identity publicly.

Our goal is a practical, maintainable FAQ experience: authors should know when action is needed, and viewers should know what happened to their question and where to find the answer.

Please distinguish which of these behaviors are expected, which may be defects, and which should be submitted as feature requests.
CK1104 50 Reputation points

2026-10-14T19:57:44.14+00:00

Thank you for that question, @Karen Evans I agree with every proposed improvements and would add one more:- Notify the FAQ owner of ALL submitted questions rather than letting Copilot determine relevancy. We will never use the feature that allows page visitors to ask questions unless it is modified to notify the FAQ owner of every question regardless of perceived relevance by AI.
Karen Evans 0 Reputation points

2026-10-14T20:05:23.2766667+00:00

@CK1104 I agree with your addition. FAQ owners should be notified of every submitted question, regardless of AI’s assessment of relevance. AI could help categorize questions or suggest an existing answer, but it shouldn’t decide which submissions the owner gets to see.

A SharePoint list on the site could provide a practical review queue: retain every submission, notify the designated owners, and let us track which questions need an answer or should be added to the FAQ. Anonymous submissions could remain anonymous, with an optional way for viewers to receive an answer notification.

I’m currently testing the web part on two sites. In the meantime, I’ve added this notice near the submission section to set expectations:

Before you submit a question Questions are shared anonymously with the FAQ author. AI checks submissions for relevance, so some questions may not appear in the author’s review queue. Authors review questions periodically; a response may not be immediate, and you may need to return to this page to check for an answer.

The notice helps, but it isn’t a substitute for a complete submission-and-notification process. AI should assist the review—not prevent the owner from receiving the question.
Stefan Blom 354.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-14T20:15:52.42+00:00

@Karen Evans , @CK1104

If you want to, you can send feedback to Microsoft via the portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/06735c62-321c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 .

Answer accepted by question author

0 additional answers

Your answer

Karen Evans 0 Reputation points

2026-10-14T19:44:44.2433333+00:00

FAQ web part—author notifications, submission visibility, and follow-up for viewers

Thank you for the explanation. We have now successfully tested two relevant viewer-submitted questions. However, neither the FAQ author nor the person submitting the questions received a notification. As the author, I had to edit the page and select Add a question to discover the submissions.

Could you clarify whether notifications are available, configurable, or planned? If they are not currently available, please consider the following improvements:

Notify the FAQ owner and designated co-authors when a question is submitted, with an option for immediate notifications or a digest.

Provide an author review queue for all submissions, including those AI considers irrelevant. Flagging a question for review would be more useful than making it unavailable to the author.

Give the submitter a clear confirmation and next step. Explain whether an existing FAQ answer was suggested, the question was submitted for review, or it was filtered.

Offer optional answer notifications. Let viewers opt in to being notified when their question is answered or a related Q&A is published, while retaining anonymous submission as an option.

Make “Copy link to question” reliably open the relevant Q&A, ideally scrolling to and expanding it.

We understand that anonymous submission limits the ability to contact the submitter. An optional notification preference—or a private tracking link—could close that loop without exposing the person’s identity publicly.

Our goal is a practical, maintainable FAQ experience: authors should know when action is needed, and viewers should know what happened to their question and where to find the answer.

Please distinguish which of these behaviors are expected, which may be defects, and which should be submitted as feature requests.
CK1104 50 Reputation points

2026-10-14T19:57:44.14+00:00

Thank you for that question, @Karen Evans I agree with every proposed improvements and would add one more:- Notify the FAQ owner of ALL submitted questions rather than letting Copilot determine relevancy. We will never use the feature that allows page visitors to ask questions unless it is modified to notify the FAQ owner of every question regardless of perceived relevance by AI.
Karen Evans 0 Reputation points

2026-10-14T20:05:23.2766667+00:00

@CK1104 I agree with your addition. FAQ owners should be notified of every submitted question, regardless of AI’s assessment of relevance. AI could help categorize questions or suggest an existing answer, but it shouldn’t decide which submissions the owner gets to see.

A SharePoint list on the site could provide a practical review queue: retain every submission, notify the designated owners, and let us track which questions need an answer or should be added to the FAQ. Anonymous submissions could remain anonymous, with an optional way for viewers to receive an answer notification.

I’m currently testing the web part on two sites. In the meantime, I’ve added this notice near the submission section to set expectations:

Before you submit a question Questions are shared anonymously with the FAQ author. AI checks submissions for relevance, so some questions may not appear in the author’s review queue. Authors review questions periodically; a response may not be immediate, and you may need to return to this page to check for an answer.

The notice helps, but it isn’t a substitute for a complete submission-and-notification process. AI should assist the review—not prevent the owner from receiving the question.
Stefan Blom 354.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-14T20:15:52.42+00:00

@Karen Evans , @CK1104

If you want to, you can send feedback to Microsoft via the portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/06735c62-321c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 .

Answer 1

Both behaviors relate to how the FAQ web part is currently designed rather than configurable issues.

"Copy link to question" goes to the top of the page
The FAQ web part produces organized FAQ sections on a SharePoint page, but the documentation only guarantees that it can share specific Q&A pairs by copying the link, not that the link will auto-scroll or deep-link to the exact question location. The behavior described (landing at the top of the page) is consistent with a limitation of how the web part anchors questions on the page, not something that can be changed in settings. There’s no documented workaround to force the link to jump directly to the specific question; the supported behavior is that the link points users to the page that contains that Q&A.
Viewer-submitted questions being filtered out
The FAQ web part’s viewer feedback pipeline is explicitly designed to filter submissions:

As the FAQ author, viewer submissions can be enabled or disabled in the right-hand property pane using a toggle.
When enabled, viewers type their question and select “Send to author.”
When the author returns later, enters Edit mode, and selects Add a question, only viewer-submitted questions that the system considers relevant appear in the dropdown list.
Non-relevant questions are automatically filtered out by design.

There is no documented way to see all submitted questions or override this relevance filter. The system does not expose a separate log or list of filtered-out questions. This behavior is independent of whether the FAQ content was imported manually or generated by AI; the relevance filter applies in all cases.

Given the current documentation:

The inability to deep-link directly to a specific question and
The loss of viewer submissions deemed non-relevant

are limitations of the FAQ web part’s current implementation, not misconfiguration. For scenarios where every viewer question must be retained, an alternative feedback mechanism (for example, a separate form or list) would be required outside of the FAQ web part.

References:

Use a FAQ web part in SharePoint