How to Delete Saved Prompts and Custom Instructions in Copilot

The Microsoft 365 Copilot Cleanup Guide: Part 3

If you've been experimenting with Microsoft 365 Copilot, you've probably saved a few favorite prompts or given Copilot instructions about how you'd like it to respond.

Maybe you told it to keep answers short, use a particular writing style, or always format information in a certain way. That's wonderful until you change your mind and Copilot keeps following instructions you forgot you gave it.

Unfortunately, saved prompts, shared prompts, and custom instructions don't all live in the same place. And deleting your chat history doesn't automatically remove them.

Here's how to clean things up.

1. Delete Your Saved Copilot Prompts

Saved prompts are reusable instructions you can access without typing everything again. They're useful for recurring tasks, but your collection can become cluttered with outdated or unnecessary prompts.

To remove one:

1. Open Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.

2. Open Prompt Lab using the prompt suggestions or three-dot menu beneath the message box.

3. Select Your prompts to view your saved collection.

4. Find the prompt you want to remove.

5. Select its Remove or saved-bookmark control to unsave it.

Depending on your Copilot interface, the prompt-management options may look slightly different.

Removing a saved prompt doesn't delete conversations where you previously used it. Those are separate records, covered in Part 1 of this series.

2. Remove Prompts Shared With Your Team

Copilot allows users to share prompts with Microsoft Teams teams, making it easier for colleagues to reuse helpful instructions.

But sharing introduces a complication: your saved version and a team-shared version aren't necessarily managed together.

To remove a team prompt:

1. Open Prompt Lab or the available team prompts experience.

2. Select Team prompts.

3. Choose the appropriate Microsoft Teams team.

4. Find the prompt you want to remove.

5. Select the Remove control on the prompt card, if available.

Removing a team prompt doesn't necessarily erase copies that colleagues have independently saved or reused.

If you're replacing an outdated prompt, communicate the change. Otherwise, someone may continue using the original instructions long after you've retired them.

For organization-wide prompts managed centrally by IT, an authorized administrator may need to make the change.

3. Delete or Change Custom Instructions

Custom instructions tell Copilot how you prefer it to respond. They might include your writing style, formatting preferences, job responsibilities, or other information intended to personalize future conversations.

To update them:

1. Open Copilot Chat.

2. Select Settings and more (⋯) in the upper-right corner.

3. Choose Chat settings → Personalization.

4. Find Custom instructions and select Edit instructions.

5. Remove or change the instructions and select Save instructions.

You can also turn off the Custom instructions toggle if you'd rather stop using them without deleting the text.

Remember: Changing these settings affects your general Copilot Chat preferences. Instructions embedded in saved prompts, Notebooks, or custom agents must be edited separately.

4. What If Copilot Still Remembers Something?

Here's where it gets interesting. Copilot Memory is separate from your custom instructions and can remember information from previous conversations.

If Copilot continues referencing something you'd rather it forget, review your saved memories.

1. Open Chat settings → Personalization.

2. Find Saved memories and select Manage saved memories.

3. Delete individual memories or select Delete all memories, if appropriate.

Turning off saved memories alone doesn't delete information already stored there.

Copilot can also personalize responses using previous chat history. The Chat history or Chat history & work insights setting controls that behavior. Turning it off initiates removal of those inferred memories, but Microsoft warns that turning it back on within 30 days can restore them.

The Bottom Line

Deleting Copilot chats, saved prompts, and custom instructions involves different controls because they're different types of information.

Remove reusable prompts from Prompt Lab, update shared prompts where they're published, and manage your instructions and memories through Personalization.

A little housekeeping now can prevent Copilot from faithfully following instructions you stopped liking three months ago.

Because nothing says artificial intelligence quite like a computer stubbornly remembering something you wish it wouldn't.

Javalot Jive — Powered by C₈H₁₀N₄O₂ and a healthy appreciation for technology that actually makes life easier.