Subject

Copilot Studio GCC Agent Suddenly Fails with SystemError When Attaching Documents + Missing File Upload Settings

Description

Hello,

I am experiencing an issue with a Copilot Studio agent running in a GCC environment.

Issue

Whenever a user attaches a document in the chat, the agent immediately fails with:

Sorry, something went wrong. Error code: SystemError

The failure occurs before any topic is activated. No trigger phrases or topics execute. Without attachments, the agent works normally.

Additional Details

Environment type: GCC
Agent works correctly with normal text prompts
Failure happens only when a document is attached
The test chat briefly shows “Generating plan” and then throws the SystemError
No topic activation occurs
This issue started recently
A couple of weeks ago, attachments were working correctly without any issues
No major changes were made to the agent configuration before the issue started

Important Observation

The setting to enable or disable file attachments is missing from the agent settings.

According to Microsoft documentation, there should normally be a setting similar to:

Settings → Generative AI → File processing capabilities → File uploads

However, this option does not appear at all in the GCC environment.

Questions

Are file attachments currently supported in GCC Copilot Studio environments?
Is there a feature flag or admin setting required to enable attachment support?
Is the missing “File uploads” setting expected behavior in GCC?
Has anyone else experienced SystemError failures before topic activation when attaching files?
Could this be related to a recent platform update or regression affecting GCC tenants?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Categories:

Bot administration

General topics

Hi @CM-12050008-0,

We’re seeing the same behavior in GCC Copilot Studio, and this is expected.

At this time, end‑user file attachments aren’t supported in GCC the way they are in commercial tenants. Because of that, the “File uploads” setting under
Settings → Generative AI → File processing capabilities does not appear, and there’s no feature flag or admin setting to enable it.

The SystemError before any topic activates when a file is attached is a common symptom of this platform limitation and has been reported by others.

Microsoft documents that Copilot Studio US Government (GCC) has feature differences vs commercial, and unsupported capabilities won’t show up in the UI.

Copilot Studio for US Government customers:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-licensing-gcc

Copilot feature availability differences in GCC:
https://deepwiki.com/microsoft/SLG-Business-Applications/5.1-copilot-feature-availability-in-gcc

If file handling is required in GCC, the supported pattern is to upload and process files outside Copilot (e.g., SharePoint + Power Automate) and pass summaries or extracted data back into the conversation.

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