My Copilot won't work, please help

You cannot bypass the “New topic” prompt in that conversation; preserve the existing chat in Chats, copy its important content, and continue the work in a new chat.

Preserve and continue your work

1. Do not delete the conversation or turn off Chat history.
2. In Copilot, open the Chats list in the left navigation.
3. Select the affected conversation. Microsoft states that signed-in users can revisit prior conversations, read them, and—when the thread still permits it—continue them. Use … More → Rename to give it an easy-to-find name.^1^
4. Copy the essential prompts, answers, drafts, or other information into Word, Notepad, or another file as a backup.
5. Select New topic, then paste the relevant material with an instruction such as:

   Continue this project using the context below. Preserve the existing structure and do not discard any details.
   [Paste the important content here.]

Copilot may use useful details inferred from previous chats, but it does not remember every detail. Pasting the project context is therefore safer than relying on memory alone.^1^

If the conversation contains uploaded files, attach them again in the new chat where the attachment option is available.

What the limit means

The documented behavior of New topic is to start a fresh chat thread; it does not delete the old conversation.^2^ Microsoft does not document a setting or subscription option that reopens a thread after Copilot has declared that conversation complete.

A paid Microsoft 365 subscription provides broader Copilot allowances, but limits can still vary by feature, entry point, plan, and system conditions.^3^ Therefore, the message does not by itself show that the subscription has stopped working; it can be a boundary on that particular conversation.

If the old chat is missing

• Confirm that Copilot is signed in with the same Microsoft account used for the conversation.
• Reopen the Copilot app and check Chats again. On Windows, closing and reopening Copilot is designed to retain previous chat content.^2^
• If the paid benefits also appear missing, check that this account is the subscription owner. AI benefits for individual Microsoft 365 plans are available to the owner and are not shared with other members.^3^

Avoid deleting the chat while recovering the material: deleting a conversation removes it from chat history.^4^

References

1. How Microsoft Copilot Chat history works
2. Welcome to Copilot on Windows
3. How AI usage works across Microsoft 365 subscriptions for individuals | Microsoft Support
4. Microsoft Copilot for individuals: your privacy controls and choices | Microsoft Support