Zotero uses “translators” to allow you to save items from the websites you visit. When you get an “An error occurred while saving this item.” error when trying to save an item, first check the list of known translator issues below. If the translator you've been using is already listed, you don't need to take any action (unless you have some programming experience and want to help fix the translator). Otherwise, try taking the steps for troubleshooting translator issues.

You can see which translator Zotero tries to use by hovering your cursor over the “Save to Zotero” icon in the address bar of your browser (the tooltip shows the translator name between parentheses).

Note Zotero 1.0 and 2.0 no longer receive translator updates. If you have translator problems with these older versions, try upgrading to Zotero 2.1.

• AGU (American Geophysical Union)
  • Broken for URIs like …/journals/… (minor issues for URIs like …/pubs/…, more below). See this thread for developments.
• AMS (American Meterological Society)
  • Broken (DOI translator is used instead). See this thread for developments.
• Business Source Premier (EBSCO - old interface)
  • Business Source Premier works within the new EBSCO interface, but not the old one. Use the export Citation —> Endnote, Refman, CITAVI option instead.
• DOI
  • The DOI translator is a translator that scans webpages for DOIs, and collects the item metadata by using Crossref's DOI lookup service. If the DOI translator gives an error, either the translator mistook something on the webpage for a DOI, or Crossref doesn't (yet) have any item metadata available for the DOI.
• EBSCO
  • requires proxy to be routed by Zotero.
  • Doesn't work for items in “My Folder”.
• Gale (Infotrac)
  • Broken.
• Old Baileys
  • Frequently fails silently, due to an issue with google ads. Works reliably with an ad-blocker add-on enabled. See this thread for developments
• OVID
  • Broken. RIS import is faulty, due to non-standard RIS on the OVID site. see this thread for developments.
• SpringerLink
  • Broken (DOI translator, which does not save PDFs, is used instead).
• The Age Online
  • Broken, see this thread for developments.

• AGU (American Geophysical Union)
  • DOI and pagination mishandled for URIs like …/pubs/… (major issues for URIs like …/journals/…, see above). See this thread for developments.
• New York Times
  • The ad-blocker plus Firefox plugin can prevent proper saving of snapshots - they appear saved, but are empty instead.
• JSTOR
  • Only saves PDFs after manually clicking “OK” to the terms and conditions once in the session. Workaround: Manually download one PDF during each session; all subsequent ones should work fine.
• Scitation
  • No PDF download, see this thread for developments.
• CiteSeer
  • Uses the COinS translator and thus doesn't attach pdfs.
• ISI Web of Knowledge databases, including Web of Science
  • When saving from search results, only saves the first item selected. See this thread for developments.