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Copilot Studio: Error in the Generative Answers Node

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Posted on by CU27080519-2 16

Hello everyone,

 

I am a beginner in Copilot Studio development, so I apologize if I am overlooking something obvious.

I am Japanese, so English is not my first language. I apologize if any part of my post is unclear.

For quite some time, I have been experiencing issues with the Generative Answers node.

In most cases, it returns the following message:

"No information was found that could help answer this question."

 

Environment / Configuration

Model: Claude Sonnet 4.6

Knowledge source: SharePoint Knowledge (uploaded to Dataverse)

Knowledge retrieval and responses are handled using the Generative Answers node

Allow responses without grounded data: ON

Use general knowledge: ON

Content moderation level: Low

Things I have already tried

After reviewing posts in this community, I tried the following:

Enabling settings such as Allow responses without grounded data

Storing the response from the Generative Answers node in a variable instead of sending it directly, then displaying it with a Message node immediately afterward

Using custom data with JSON (to be honest, I am not very familiar with this approach. If Power Automate is not being used, does custom data still provide any benefit?)

Removing all instructions/prompts to ensure there were no unintended restrictions

Testing with different models

Unfortunately, none of these attempts have solved the problem.

Has anyone encountered a similar issue? If so, I would greatly appreciate hearing what worked for you. Even general troubleshooting tips or things you have tried would be very helpful.

Since I am still learning Copilot Studio, any advice or guidance would be sincerely appreciated.

  

Thank you very much for your help!

 

  • Sam_Fawzi Profile Picture
    Sam_Fawzi 1,079 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
     
    The most useful thing to know first: the model is not the cause. Retrieval runs before the model sees anything, so if the search step returns nothing, every model gives the same result. That is why switching models did not help. The problem is in retrieval and configuration.
     
    That message is the default text on the "no answer" branch of the Generative answers node, so the node genuinely returned nothing.
     
    Also, which SharePoint path did you use? The two fail for different reasons:
    • Add knowledge > SharePoint (site URL): real time, uses Microsoft Search / Graph, nothing stored in Dataverse.
    • Add knowledge > Upload files > SharePoint: files are copied into Dataverse, chunked and indexed.
    Your description sounds like the second. Checks in the order I would do them:
    1. Knowledge source status. It must show Ready on the Knowledge page. "In progress" means indexing is unfinished. "Unknown" usually means Dataverse search is off, authentication is wrong, or DLP is blocking it. Do not test until it says Ready.
    2. Dataverse search. Required for anything stored in Dataverse (uploaded files, Dataverse tables, SharePoint lists). Admin center > Environments > Settings > Product > Features > Dataverse search. If it is off, the source never becomes usable. This is my first guess.
    3.  Authentication. Set the agent to "Authenticate with Microsoft". With no authentication, or manual auth missing scopes, these sources return zero results silently with no error.
    4. Node data source. Open the node > Properties > Data source. If "Search only selected sources" is on and your source is not selected, the node searches nothing and does not fall back to agent-level knowledge.
    5. Prove the content is findable. Search a rare keyword from the document in SharePoint's own search box. If the file does not appear, the problem is SharePoint indexing, not Copilot Studio.
    6. File size, if you used the site URL path. Without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in the tenant, only files up to 7 MB are processed, and "Tenant graph grounding with semantic search" must be off. With the license, 200 MB and the toggle on. Oversized files still appear in search but are never summarized, which looks exactly like your symptom.
    7. Document content. Scanned or image-only PDFs have no extractable text and index as empty. Test with one plain .docx as a control.
    8. Language. Ask using words that appear literally in the document rather than a paraphrase, and confirm the agent language matches the document language.
    Fastest way to isolate this: new blank agent, upload one small Japanese .docx with a distinctive sentence, wait for Ready, ask using words from that sentence. If it works, the issue is your original source or node config. If it fails, it is environment level, almost certainly Dataverse search or authentication.
     
    On custom data: it only helps when you supply your own search results, for example from Power Automate or an OnKnowledgeRequested topic. Otherwise it adds nothing.
    Most of the above is covered in more detail here, including a query for checking whether content moderation silently filtered the answer:
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/power-platform/copilot-studio/knowledge/sharepoint-no-response
    Let us know which path you used and what status the knowledge source shows.
     
  • Suggested answer
    Mohsin Ali Profile Picture
    Mohsin Ali 836 on at
    Hello @CU27080519-2 - No need to apologize. Your question is perfectly understandable, and we’re all here to learn and help each other. I’ll be happy to help with this.
     
    The technical details @Sam_Fawzi has explained really well. So I would keep it short that for generative agents, usually I recommend keeping "User General Knowledge" off. This way you're setting up boundary for agent to respond only based on knowledge source added. Additionally, if possible then break the agent to smaller agents and for any specific job or task they would can leverage on fellow agent. This would also help you to understand at which stage the agent is basically not able to respond or resolve the query.
     
  • Suggested answer
    sannavajjala87 Profile Picture
    sannavajjala87 1,091 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at
    Hi,
     
    It sounds like you've already tried many of the common troubleshooting steps, so I don't think you're overlooking anything obvious.
     
    One thing I've seen in Copilot Studio is that this message can occur when the knowledge retrieval step isn't finding relevant chunks in the indexed content, even though the knowledge source appears to be configured correctly. Since you're using SharePoint knowledge uploaded to Dataverse, I would check the following:
     
    • Confirm the knowledge files have finished indexing and are in a healthy state.
    • Test with a very simple question that contains exact wording from the source document.
    • Verify the content actually appears in the knowledge source preview and is searchable.
    • Try creating a brand new Generative Answers node in a separate test topic and connect it to the same knowledge source.
    • Review whether the documents contain mostly images, tables, or scanned PDFs, as these can sometimes impact retrieval quality.
    • Check if the issue occurs with all knowledge sources or only a specific SharePoint source.
    • If possible, create a small test document with a few sentences and see whether Copilot can answer questions from that document.
     
    Also, enabling "Allow responses without grounded data" and "Use general knowledge" does not guarantee a response will be generated. If the model cannot retrieve relevant content and is unable to confidently answer, you may still receive the "No information was found that could help answer this question" message.
     
    Regarding Custom Data, it is mainly useful when you're passing external data into the Generative Answers node at runtime. If you're only using SharePoint knowledge and not supplying additional data dynamically, Custom Data is unlikely to help with this particular issue.
     
    To narrow down the root cause, could you share whether the failure happens with all questions and documents, or only with specific knowledge sources? That detail would help determine whether this is a retrieval/indexing issue or something specific to the content itself.
     
    Thanks & Regards,
    Manoj Annavajjala
  • Suggested answer
    11manish Profile Picture
    11manish 4,580 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at
    The configuration is not obviously wrong, and the troubleshooting already performed has reasonably eliminated several common causes. The strongest remaining hypothesis is a knowledge retrieval/indexing issue rather than a Claude model or Generative Answers response-handling issue. The next step should be to isolate the retrieval pipeline using one small, known-good document and one Generative Answers node. If an exact phrase from that document cannot be retrieved, investigate SharePoint indexing, Dataverse Search, permissions, authentication, source selection, and filters. If the small test works, then investigate the structure and indexing of the actual production documents.
  • Suggested answer
    BilalDev_01 Profile Picture
    BilalDev_01 72 on at

    Hi,

    Welcome to Copilot Studio! Your English is perfectly clear. 🙂

    One thing I would check first is whether the problem is actually with knowledge retrieval rather than the Claude model or the Generative Answers node itself.

    Since your knowledge is coming from SharePoint and has been uploaded/indexed in Dataverse, I would test the following:

    1. Test a very specific question
      Ask something where the answer is definitely contained in one of your SharePoint documents. Avoid broad questions initially. This helps determine whether the issue is retrieval or answer generation.

    2. Check the knowledge source/indexing status
      Make sure the SharePoint content has finished processing/indexing and that the agent can actually retrieve the relevant documents. If the source was recently added or changed, allow some time for indexing.

    3. Check permissions
      Verify that the account/context used by the agent has access to the SharePoint content. A document being available in SharePoint does not necessarily mean Copilot can retrieve it successfully.

    4. Test the knowledge source separately
      If possible, temporarily create a very simple test topic/agent using only this SharePoint knowledge source. Remove other instructions, variables, custom data, and actions. If it still returns "No information was found...", this points more strongly toward the knowledge/retrieval configuration.

    5. Custom data is not a replacement for the knowledge source
      Custom data can be useful when you want to provide your own retrieved content to Generative Answers, for example from Power Automate, an API, or another data source. If your SharePoint knowledge source is already working correctly, you don't normally need custom data just to make Generative Answers work.

    6. Try temporarily disabling "Use general knowledge"
      This can be useful for troubleshooting. First confirm that the agent can answer questions strictly from the SharePoint content. Once retrieval is working, you can enable broader knowledge again if required.

    I would also test with a document containing a very obvious piece of information, such as:

    "The project manager for Project ABC is John Smith."

    Then ask: "Who is the project manager for Project ABC?"

    If Copilot still says that no information was found, I would focus on the SharePoint knowledge source, indexing/retrieval, permissions, and environment configuration, rather than changing models or prompts.

    If you can share a screenshot of the Generative Answers node configuration and the SharePoint knowledge source configuration (with any sensitive information removed), the community may be able to identify the issue more precisely.

  • CU27080519-2 Profile Picture
    CU27080519-2 16 on at
    @BilalDev_01
     
    Thank you very much for your response.
    My English is still a work in progress, so I apologize if my explanations are not always clear.
    I tested the items you suggested:
    1. I used content that definitely contains the answer, but I still could not retrieve a response.
    2. The status remained "Preparing." I did not make any configuration changes.
    3. I confirmed that the permissions were assigned correctly.
    4. I created a new one and tested it, but I still could not retrieve an answer.
    5. Thank you for the information. As someone with limited knowledge in this area, I found it very helpful.
    6. I tested both enabled and disabled settings, but neither worked.
    What I find particularly strange is that this happens with every SharePoint site I try, and even with files that are uploaded directly. Whenever I use the "Generative Answer" node, the same issue occurs.
    One important detail that I forgot to mention is that I can briefly see the correct answer being generated, but immediately afterward it falls back to the fallback response. This behavior occurs regardless of the knowledge source being used.
    However, when I do not use "Generative Answer" and instead use "Resource Search" (without creating any topics and only providing instructions), I am able to retrieve accurate answers with good precision.
    I am quite stuck at this point, but thanks to everyone's support, I have learned many things that I did not know before. I truly appreciate all of your help.
    Thank you in advance for any additional suggestions or insights.
  • CU27080519-2 Profile Picture
    CU27080519-2 16 on at
     
    Thank you very much for your response.
    My English is still a work in progress, so I apologize if my explanations are not always clear.
    I tested the items you suggested:
    1. I used content that definitely contains the answer, but I still could not retrieve a response.
    2. The status remained "Preparing." I did not make any configuration changes.
    3. I confirmed that the permissions were assigned correctly.
    4. I created a new one and tested it, but I still could not retrieve an answer.
    5. Thank you for the information. As someone with limited knowledge in this area, I found it very helpful.
    6. I tested both enabled and disabled settings, but neither worked.
    What I find particularly strange is that this happens with every SharePoint site I try, and even with files that are uploaded directly. Whenever I use the "Generative Answer" node, the same issue occurs.
    One important detail that I forgot to mention is that I can briefly see the correct answer being generated, but immediately afterward it falls back to the fallback response. This behavior occurs regardless of the knowledge source being used.
    However, when I do not use "Generative Answer" and instead use "Resource Search" (without creating any topics and only providing instructions), I am able to retrieve accurate answers with good precision.
    I am quite stuck at this point, but thanks to everyone's support, I have learned many things that I did not know before. I truly appreciate all of your help.
    Thank you in advance for any additional suggestions or insights.
  • CU27080519-2 Profile Picture
    CU27080519-2 16 on at

    Thank you for your advice.

    I tested using a minimal SharePoint knowledge source, but I was still unable to retrieve an answer.

    I also checked the indexing status, permissions, and SharePoint configuration, but I could not find any obvious issues.

    What I find particularly strange is that this happens regardless of which SharePoint site I use. The same behavior also occurs when I upload files directly. Whenever I use the "Generative Answer" node, the issue appears.

    One important detail that I forgot to mention is that I can briefly see the correct answer being generated, but immediately afterward it falls back to the fallback response. This behavior occurs with every knowledge source I have tested.

    However, when I do not use "Generative Answer" and instead use "Resource Search" (without creating any topics and only providing instructions), I am able to retrieve accurate answers with good precision.

    I am quite stuck at this point, but thanks to everyone's support, I have learned many things that I did not know before. I truly appreciate all of your help and suggestions.

    Thank you very much.

  • Suggested answer
    Sam_Fawzi Profile Picture
    Sam_Fawzi 1,079 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
     
    Thank you for the two new details, because they change my answer.
    The important one: you can briefly see the correct answer being generated, then it is replaced by the fallback. That means retrieval worked and generation worked. Something is discarding a good answer after it was produced. So this is not an indexing or retrieval problem, and most of my earlier checklist was aimed at the wrong thing. Sorry for sending you down that path.
    The second: Resource Search with only instructions gives you accurate answers. That confirms the same knowledge is retrievable. The problem is specific to the Generative Answers node.
    What discards an answer after generation
    Two gates run after the model produces text, and either one replaces the answer with the fallback message:
    Content moderation. You set it to Low, which is right, but there is also a separate prompt shield for cross-prompt injection that is not configurable and can fire on retrieved document content. If your documents contain anything that resembles instructions, that can trigger it.
    The grounding check. When the node cannot verify the answer against the retrieved passages, it discards the answer even though the text was already generated. I have seen this behave less reliably with non-English content, which may be relevant for Japanese documents.
     
    How to confirm which one
    Go to Analytics, then Sessions, and open the transcript for one of these failed conversations. The transcript shows what the node actually did and why it took the no-answer branch. This is the single most useful thing you can do, because it turns guessing into reading.
    A quick test to separate the two
    Create one small Japanese .docx with a single plain sentence, nothing that looks like an instruction, and ask a question using the exact words from it. If that works, the problem is content in your real documents triggering a filter. If it still fails, the gate is firing on something more general.
    On the "Preparing" status
    You mentioned the knowledge source stays at Preparing. That is a separate problem and it should reach Ready. Check Dataverse search in the admin center under Environments, Settings, Product, Features. But since Resource Search finds your content, this may be a display issue rather than the cause of the fallback.
    My practical recommendation
    You have already proven that generative orchestration with instructions works well for your case. I would use that and stop fighting the Generative Answers node. Classic topics with Generative Answers are the older pattern, and generative orchestration with agent level knowledge is where the platform is heading. Since the approach that works is also the recommended one, there is no reason to keep the node just to make it behave.
    Keep the node only if you specifically need to control retrieval inside a topic. Otherwise the simpler path is the better one here.
  • CU27080519-2 Profile Picture
    CU27080519-2 16 on at
    Thank you for your continued support.
    I went through each of the points one by one.
    1.The knowledge files were indexed successfully and appeared to be healthy.
    2.I performed the test, but I was still unable to retrieve an answer.
    3.The content could be found through search without any issues.
    4.I tried connecting to a different topic, but no answer was generated.
    5.Images were included; however, as mentioned below, I can retrieve answers 6.successfully when using Resource Search.
    6.This issue occurs with all files, not just SharePoint content.
    7.This showed the same behavior as item 5.
    However, when I do not use the "Generative Answer" node and instead use "Resource Search" (without creating any topics and only providing instructions), I am able to retrieve the correct answers with good accuracy.
    This is why I am struggling to identify the root cause. Based on my testing, the issue seems to be specific to the "Generative Answer" node rather than the knowledge sources themselves.

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