"Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure that Zotero is open and try again."

abigailwolf

Hi,
I've been consistently unable to use Zotero from within Microsoft Word for a couple of days now. The plugin appears, but every time I try to use a Zotero feature I get the notification "Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure that Zotero is open and try again."... I am on Zotero 7.0.30, and MacOS Tahoe 26.1. I've tried all the troubleshooting tips I could find on the website and everything seems to act normally until the time comes to actually use Zotero. I tried what I found on this page: https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_plugin_troubleshooting. I've also deleted and redownloaded both Zotero and Word, restarted my computer, and ensured it's up to date with the latest software update.

Please help!

I submitted a report ID: 2009872674

adomasven

Could you produce a Debug ID for a Zotero restart? Make sure you wait a few seconds after the Zotero application fully loads.

abigailwolf

The debug ID is D550249829

adomasven

That is not a Debug ID for a Zotero restart. Please follow the instructions on the page linked above.

abigailwolf

Is D1034721453 what you mean?

adomasven

If you open Zotero and go to 127.0.0.1:23119, does a page load that says "No endpoint found"? If you go into Word startup folder is there a ZoteroPort.txt file in there? Does removing it and attempting to cite work then?

abigailwolf

Yes, a page loads that says "No endpoint found". I don't have a ZoteroPort.txt file in there
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u15634937/a3xykxcpwin0npfte0z9.png

adomasven

Do you use any security software or firewall on your machine that may be blocking (local) network connections? Does it help if you temporarily disable it?

If not, are you using something that may be potentially replacing the curl command, such as Anaconda?

abigailwolf

I checked my setup. I don't have any security software or firewall that might be blocking the connection as far as I'm aware.

I do have Anaconda installed on my computer. Within my terminal, "which curl" points to:
/Users/[my name]/anaconda3/bin/curl

What should I do in this situation?

abigailwolf

I did some searching within the forum and found this post: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/488814#Comment_488814

Pasting

curl -X GET "http://127.0.0.1:23119/integration/macWordCommand?agent=MacWord16&command=addEditCitation&document=/Applications/Microsoft Word.app/&templateVersion=2"

in my terminal leads to a citation dialog appearing from Zotero.


I tried following the instructions posted by @fanfanmeemda and changing lines like export PATH="/Users/yourusername/anaconda3/bin:$PATH"

to:

export PATH="$PATH:/Users/yourusername/anaconda3/bin"

within the ~/.zshrc and ~/.bash_profile files on my computer. However, I am still getting the "Word could not communicate with Zotero" message

adomasven

Place this Zotero.dotm file in your Word startup folder, where we've fixed the issue.

For posterity: This file will be bundled with the official Zotero client in a future update. If you are someone who finds this forum post at a later date than December 2025, the instruction above no longer applies, please create a new thread.