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

Psyjoker
Hi everyone,

I’m having trouble with the Zotero plugin for Word. When I try to add a citation, a small gear icon shows up in the status bar, then disappears, and I get the error message: “Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure that Zotero is open and try again.”This issue has never occurred in my previous use.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
1. Made sure Zotero is open
2. Reinstalled the Word plugin: I’ve gone through the process of reinstalling the Zotero plugin from within Zotero, and it looks like it’s installed correctly.
3. Tried different versions: I’ve tested different versions of both Zotero and Word, including Zotero 6 and Word 2019, but the problem still happens. My Word current version is 16.93 (25011212).
4. Followed the troubleshooting steps on the site: I went through the official troubleshooting guide, checked plugin settings, macro settings, and manually copied the zotero.dotm file but no luck.
5. Restarted everything: I’ve restarted both Zotero and Word multiple times, even rebooted my computer, but the issue persists.

Any help would be much appreciated! I’m stuck here and could really use some guidance on how to fix this.

Thanks so much!

  • adomasven
    The Zotero Plugin in Word sends a HTTP request to Zotero which is running a server. Security software or system configuration may block it. If you open a browser with the Zotero plugin installed and try to save any webpage, does that succeed or also fail saying that Zotero is not open?
  • Psyjoker
    Zotero plugin works well in Chrome, and i found the zotero Add-in went normally in Libreoffice.
    However, the same issue still occurs in Word.
    Thanks for your help.
  • adomasven
    edited March 3, 2025
    If you open a new Word document, then open Terminal.app and paste in

    curl -X GET "http://127.0.0.1:23119/integration/macWordCommand?agent=MacWord16&command=addEditCitation&document=/Applications/Microsoft%20Word.app/&templateVersion=2"

    do you see a citation dialog appear from Zotero?
  • Psyjoker
    curl: (3) URL rejected: Malformed input to a URL function
  • adomasven
    Sorry, the Zotero forum code seems to have modified the command that I posted. I've now edited it. Copy it above and try again please.
  • Psyjoker
    sorry i haven't been following up this discussion recently. It works and i can add citations through this command. However, I still can't add citations via "Add/Edit Citation", it still shows the same error message.

    I really appreciate your help with my question。
  • adomasven
    As per my previous posts, this means that something in your system is blocking Word communicating with Zotero. This could be a misconfigured proxy or some security software.
  • Psyjoker
    oh my god I found it's using anaconda's curl all the time!!!!!!!! lol
    after i using the system's curl the zotero add-in finally works！
  • Psyjoker
    i really appricate your help!
  • adamsmith
    Could you say how you managed to figure that out? You're presumably not the only person with Zotero and Anaconda on their machine, so good chance others might see this.
  • Psyjoker
    Since your command and the EndNote add-in were working fine, I figured the issue probably wasn’t with local network access or MacScript. So I wrote a simple test macro using echo to check, and it ran without any problems. That got me thinking — maybe the problem was with curl. So I ran which curl to check… lol then i realize activating the conda environment rewrites the $PATH but i do it in .zprofile
  • Psyjoker
    I hope this helps anyone who runs into a similar issue!
  • dstillman
    Do you know why the Anaconda curl was failing?

    In any case, I guess we should hard-code this to /usr/bin/curl. No reason to use any other version in the path.
  • Psyjoker
    I think the problem lies in how Word VBA is trying to call curl.
    But hard-code this to /usr/bin/curl is a once-and-for-all solution.
  • fanfanmeemda
    I met exactly the same issue. And tried the following steps to solve the problem.

    Step 1: Identify which curl is being used
    Open Terminal and run: which curl
    If this shows a path like /Users/yourusername/anaconda3/bin/curl or anything other than /usr/bin/curl, then you've found the issue.

    Step 2: Test with system curl
    Try running the curl command using the system's curl explicitly:

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

    If this works (shows a citation dialog), then the issue is confirmed.

    Step 3: Check your shell configuration
    The problem is likely in one of these files:

    ~/.zshrc (if you're using zsh)

    ~/.bash_profile (if you're using bash)

    ~/.zprofile

    Look for lines that modify the PATH variable, especially ones that add Anaconda paths to the beginning. For example:

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

    Step 4: Permanent solution
    Modify your shell configuration file to ensure system paths come before Anaconda paths. Change lines like:

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

    to:

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