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:

• If you receive a communication error when attempting to insert a citation into a new, empty document:
  1. Make sure Firefox is running.
  2. If you are using Word, make sure Track Changes is disabled, as it is known to cause problems with Zotero integration.
  3. If you are using OpenOffice, make sure the plugin and the required Python components are correctly installed.
  4. Start Zotero with debug output enabled and look for “Integration HTTP server listening on 127.0.0.1:50001” in the first 15-20 lines. 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). 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.
  5. If the integration server is running, 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 can insert a citation into a new document but receive a communication error in an existing document:
  1. See Debugging Broken Documents below.

Still having trouble? Search the Zotero forums. There are many threads on communication errors in Word and OpenOffice and communication errors in OpenOffice specifically.

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. If you are using Word, make sure Track Changes is disabled, as it is known to cause problems with Zotero integration.
2. 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.
3. Try to isolate the problematic citation in the existing document. 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.
4. 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.