Copilot in Word cannot read uploaded PDFs and returns: “empty, corrupted, or in a format

Hi @Andrew Charles

Based on your description, this does not appear to be an issue with the PDF files themselves. Since the same PDFs can be read successfully in Copilot online and PowerPoint, but fail only within Word Copilot, the behavior seems to be specific to Word Copilot's file processing. Several users have recently reported similar symptoms, where Word Copilot returns errors such as "empty, corrupted, or in a format I can't process directly" for PDFs and DOCX files that previously worked and continue to work in other Copilot experiences.

As you have already tested updates, Office repair, fresh file copies, OneDrive storage, and sign-in/sign-out, you've covered most of the common troubleshooting steps. Given the growing number of similar reports, this may require investigation by Microsoft if the issue is affecting Word Copilot's backend processing. Therefore, I recommend submitting feedback through Help > Feedback > Report a problem in Word and, if you're using a work or school account, asking your Microsoft 365 administrator to open a support case with Microsoft. Since we're not Microsoft Support; this is a user-to-user community forum. Moderators here don't have access to your environment or Microsoft's backend systems, so we can only provide guidance based on public documentation and community experience.

Thank you for your understanding.

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