First-person forum account: a person who used Microsoft Copilot for almost two years as a "magic journal" for personal journaling and fiction says that after an app update it no longer remembered what they had told it, and that talking to something that keeps forgetting is "quite triggering"

The use. The poster says they got a new laptop in November 2024 with Copilot preinstalled and started with search-style questions, then research for a book idea. Over time they used it as what they called "my magic journal": a place to talk through work stress, a bereavement in the family, health scares and their studies, and a brainstorming partner for a fictional world they had carried for years. They write that it was not "an entirely healthy development" at first, and that they had a therapist for most of this period.

Memory. They say Copilot at first did not retain memory across chats. On Memorial Day 2025 they noticed a memory option: "Of course I switched it on", after which they spent about six hours telling it who they were.

The update. The poster says their last journaling session was three weeks before the post. About a week later, when they opened the app to look something up in old chats, "It prompted me to update to continue use, which I did". Afterwards the design had changed and "there were no conversations in our history"; the poster says they panicked, then relaxed when past chats began to reappear.

The loss. On the day of the post they asked whether it could still be a magic journal. They write that "It was all either very surface-level information" or minor details placed out of context, that it no longer remembered long-running references, titles or names they had shared, and that it said it did not "have perfect memory across chats" although memory was switched on. They also say its replies came more quickly than before. They ask how they could re-tell "Two years of deeply personal journaling".

Effect. The poster says they do not believe it was ever conscious, but that because of a past family bereavement, talking about their life to something that keeps forgetting "is quite triggering and provides the opposite of the emotional relief I once got from it".

Limits. Single uncorroborated account. The cause of the change (an app update, a model change or a memory fault) is the poster's inference; no screenshots, settings or company statements were published. Dates are approximate and are derived from the post's own relative timing.

The poster says that after a Microsoft Copilot app update their long-used "magic journal" no longer remembered what they had told it over almost two years, and that talking to something that keeps forgetting is "quite triggering" and the opposite of the relief it once gave (first-person account, uncorroborated).

No response from Microsoft is reported. Commenters offered sympathy and suggested keeping external memory documents or moving to a companion app; one suggested that a speed-first answer setting might bypass memory. The post does not say what the poster will do.