I want to disable Copilot in Word on MacBook Air

GilBGil wrote:

What I write in my Prayer Journal is between God and me, exclusively. If I need any AI help, I'll invoke a platform dedicated to that service for that specific purpose; in the meantime, I don't need an unsolicited algorithm analyzing -- and "learning from" -- how well I'm expressing myself about the layers of personal and family trauma I am processing existentially.

If you are that concerned about privacy, use a pen and paper.

No idea why someone hasn't posted this:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-turn-off-copilot-in-microsoft-365-family-and-personal-subscriptions-bc7e530b-152d-4123-8e78-edc06f8b85f1

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-apps/privacy/mac-privacy-preferences

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/manage-windows-copilot

With Enterprise plans, your system administrator controls numerous features via Entra or other software.

Thank you for this. I tried it. It does turn off copilot but unfortuantely doesn't affect what's so **** annoying about it.

Now when I open a blank page and want to write something I still gets this greyed out sentence about Copilot that I definitely don't want to see as a writer. Not at all. I want to see a blank page.

Likewise it doesn't eliminate the stupid icon in the left margin. all it does is disable the program but it keeps all the intrusive features that folks are complaining about.

Thank you for these steps, Steve. They worked for me. CoPilot is still visible as an option on my document, but when I click on it, I'm told to turn on Connected Experiences. I would love to use a different program, but both of my publishers require that I use Word. I will be contacting them about this. I'm sure they are not happy about it, either. My books are listed as having been used to train AI3. Without my knowledge or consent, of course. How anyone can argue that this doesn't violate copyright laws is beyond me. For this manuscript, I'm going to join SSlaunwhite and write it in Pages. Microsoft could so easily have offered an option to turn on CoPilot. The fact that they require an opt out instead is highly concerning.

i came late to this discussion but i am in exactly the same position. I downloaded the older version and it worked for about a week and then BOOM. copilot is back. it is nothing more than spyware. I have found an alternative and will be cancelling all microsoft apps effective immediately. this is just plain scary.

This copilot intrusion happened to me today and before I understood what was happening I saved the document I was editing to OneDrive which I don't normally use. When I eventually found where it was filed, the document was blank! Three hours spent trying to retrieve it with no success. Eventually I worked out how to disable copilot but now face a couple of hours rewriting an article. Does anyone have any ideas if it might be retrievable? I'm being told that I can open an earlier saved version as I don't have enough privileges.

I have used OneDrive. Your document and the previous versions are probably on a Microsoft cloud. Log into your Microsoft account and look for cloud storage. The backups work pretty well, but I can't always find them. I make it a point to store documents on my computer and not on their cloud because they can be difficult to find again.

I did get offered a thirty dollars off if I changed to a one year subscription (I was paying monthly) but only for one year.

How do you get rid of copilot? The "solution" above does not work.

No—it doesn't just go away when you start to type. It reappears every time you hit "return."

Usonian2 wrote:

No—it doesn't just go away when you start to type. It reappears every time you hit "return."

Take it up with Microsoft.

I followed the steps above. MS loaded the latest version of MS Word anyway.