You may receive the following message when attempting to use the word processor plugins:

“An error occurred communicating with Zotero. Please ensure Firefox is open and try again.”

There are a number of possible causes for this error. Make sure you are running the latest version of Zotero, and then review the following steps in order:

1. See Debugging Broken Documents below.

1. Make sure Firefox is running and Work Offline mode is not checked in the File menu. You do not need to be online to use Zotero word processor integration, but Firefox's Work Offline mode cannot be enabled.
2. Check if you get the error using a different bibliography style.
3. Make sure the Track Changes feature is disabled in Word/OpenOffice, as it is known to cause problems with Zotero integration.
4. If you are using OpenOffice, make sure the plugin and the required Python components are correctly installed.
5. Start Zotero with debug output enabled and look for a message in the first 15-20 lines that includes the phrase “integration HTTP server”.
   • If you see the message “Not initializing integration HTTP server”:
     • Make sure other copies of Firefox/Zotero aren't running on your system (including in other user accounts or in hidden processes). Restarting the computer might help. Advanced users on OS X and Linux could use the netstat tool from a terminal window to check if other applications are bound to port 50001.
   • If you see the message “Integration HTTP server listening on 127.0.0.1:50001”:
     • Disable any firewall software running on your computer. If this fixes the problem, make sure your firewall is set to allow access to “localhost” or “127.0.0.1” (also known as the “loopback interface”).
     • If you don't have or have disabled firewall software, check your computer's proxy settings.
       • On Windows XP, open Internet Explorer, go to Tools→Internet Options→Connections→LAN Settings, and disable “Automatically detect settings” and “Use a proxy server for your LAN”. If this fixes the problem, you will need to keep “Automatically detect settings” off and make sure “Bypass proxy server for local addresses” is checked.
6. Still having trouble? Search the Zotero forums. There are many threads on communication errors in Word and OpenOffice and communication errors in OpenOffice specifically. If posting a new message, please include the following information:
   • Operating system
   • Firefox version
   • Zotero version
   • Word processor (Word or OpenOffice) and version
   • Zotero word processor plugin version
   • Whether the integration server was listed as running in the debug output
     • If the integration server was running, please also send in an error report via Report Errors (if available) in the Zotero Actions menu () and include the Report ID in your message.

This is a generic error with many potential causes. It is often caused by problems with proxy servers or other network settings.

1. Open Internet Explorer, go to Tools→Internet Options→Connections→LAN Settings, and disable “Automatically detect settings”. This is known to fix the problem for Shaw Cable users in Canada and may help with other ISPs as well.
2. See the relevant forum thread for further discussion.

If you can insert citations into new documents but receive an error in an existing document, follow these steps to find the cause of the error:

1. Make sure the Track Changes feature in Word/OpenOffice is disabled, as it is known to cause problems with Zotero integration.
2. Make a copy of your document to use for debugging.
3. Open the copied file and check if you get the error after switching to a different bibliography style.
4. If the document has a bibliography, delete it and check if you still get the error.
5. Check if “Report Errors…” in the Zotero Actions menu () is active and if new errors appear after attempting to insert a citation. If so, send in an error report and post the provided Report ID to the forums.
6. Try to isolate the problematic citation. Copy half of the document at a time into a new document and see if the error still occurs. If you can reproduce the error in the new document, continue copying half of each broken section into new documents until you find the problematic citation. Remove that citation from the original document and the problem should go away (unless there are multiple problematic citations, in which case you'll have to repeat the process). If you are able to find a problematic citation, you should also send that document excerpt to support@zot….org so we can take a look at it. For all other discussion, please post to the forums.
7. While debugging, it may help to display field codes rather than formatted text in Word/OpenOffice. To do this in Word, press Alt-F9 on Windows or Option-F9 on OS X. In OpenOffice, press Control-F9.