> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.zerotwo.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Deep Research Troubleshooting

> Solutions to common issues encountered during Deep Research sessions in ZeroTwo.

Deep Research involves multiple steps — plan generation, web crawling, synthesis, and report delivery — so there are more places where something can go wrong compared to a standard search. The sections below cover the most common issues and how to resolve them.

***

<Accordion title="Research won't start / pill is grayed out">
  The Deep Research pill is grayed out and clicking it does nothing, or starting a session fails immediately.

  **Check your daily limit first.**

  * **Free plan:** 1 Deep Research session per day
  * Go to **Settings → Usage** to see your current usage and when the limit resets (midnight UTC)
  * Upgrade to Pro or higher for more sessions per day

  **Check for an already-active session.**

  * Only one Deep Research session can run at a time per account
  * If a session is currently running in another chat tab, wait for it to complete before starting a new one
  * If you are unsure whether a session is running, check **Settings → Usage** for active sessions

  **Check the active model.**

  * Some models in ZeroTwo do not support tool use
  * Switch to a supported model (Claude Sonnet, GPT-4o, or Gemini) and try again
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Research stuck on 'Searching...' for more than 15 minutes">
  The progress indicator has shown no change for an unusually long time.

  **Normal behavior first:**
  Deep Research can take 2–10 minutes. Some phases — particularly the crawl phase for complex topics — may appear idle in the progress indicator while work is happening server-side. If it has been fewer than 10 minutes, wait it out.

  **If it has been more than 15 minutes with no change:**
  This indicates a server-side issue. Here is what to do:

  1. Wait 5 more minutes — some longer research plans genuinely take more time
  2. If still stuck, open a **new chat** at `/c`
  3. Retry your research request with the same (or refined) prompt
  4. The stuck session's credit may have been consumed — check **Settings → Usage** before retrying

  <Warning>
    Refreshing the page or closing the tab does not cancel a stuck session — it continues running server-side. If the session eventually completes, the report will appear in the original chat thread.
  </Warning>
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Daily limit reached">
  You see a message indicating your daily Deep Research limit has been reached.

  **Why this happens:**

  * Free plan: 1 Deep Research session per day
  * Pro and higher plans have more sessions, but they are not unlimited on all tiers

  **What to do:**

  * **Wait for the reset:** Daily limits reset at midnight UTC. Check **Settings → Usage** for the exact time remaining
  * **Upgrade your plan:** Pro, Pro 2x, Plus Ultra, and Business plans all offer higher Deep Research limits — compare at [zerotwo.ai/pricing](https://zerotwo.ai/pricing)
  * **Use Web Search as a stopgap:** For time-sensitive needs that cannot wait, Web Search with a well-crafted prompt can produce useful results for narrowly scoped questions

  <Info>
    If you believe your limit counter is incorrect (e.g., a failed or stuck session counted against your quota), contact support from **Settings → Help & Support** and include the chat thread link.
  </Info>
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Report is missing important topics">
  The delivered report does not cover topics that were important to your research goal, or covers them only superficially.

  **Why this happens:**

  * The research plan was not specific enough about required topics, so ZeroTwo allocated crawl effort elsewhere
  * The topic has limited publicly available source material
  * The plan was approved before all required subtopics were specified

  **What to do:**

  * **Use follow-up prompts in the same chat:** "Expand the \[section name] section with more detail on \[specific subtopic]" — ZeroTwo can do targeted additional research on a section without starting a full new session
  * **Start a focused new session** specifically on the missing topic — sometimes a narrow, focused research session produces better coverage than a broad one
  * **Next time, specify every subtopic before approving:** "Before you start, I need to confirm the plan covers: (1) X, (2) Y, and (3) Z."

  <Tip>
    Do not just approve the first research plan draft. Use the review step to add specific sub-questions for each section before proceeding — this single step dramatically improves coverage.
  </Tip>
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Sources are all from the same domain">
  The report's Sources list shows many entries from the same website, suggesting the research was not diverse.

  **Why this happens:**

  * A single dominant source on the topic (e.g., a major news outlet or authoritative site) may have dominated search results
  * A very narrow topic may genuinely have limited source diversity on the public web
  * No explicit instruction to diversify sources was given during the plan step

  **What to do:**

  * In the plan review step, add: "Use diverse sources — avoid relying on any single domain. Include at least 5 different domains."
  * Specify the types of sources you want: "Include academic papers, news coverage, industry analyst reports, and official company sources"
  * If you have already received the report, ask ZeroTwo: "The sources feel narrow — can you supplement this with additional sources from different domains for the \[section] section?"
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Report quality is low or too generic">
  The report feels shallow, surface-level, or does not go beyond information you could have found in a few minutes of searching yourself.

  **Why this happens:**

  * The initial research prompt was too vague or broad, causing ZeroTwo to produce shallow coverage across too many angles
  * No scope constraints were provided (timeframe, geography, audience)
  * The topic is very well-covered on the web, causing ZeroTwo to surface common-knowledge content rather than finding deeper insights

  **For future sessions — write a stronger prompt:**

  * Specify a timeframe: "as of 2024–2025," "in the last 6 months"
  * Define the audience and use case: "for a VC investor evaluating a Series A," "for an enterprise procurement team"
  * Set a quality bar: "I want analysis and synthesis, not just a summary of what is publicly known"
  * Ask for specific outputs: "Include a comparison table," "provide a SWOT analysis," "cite specific statistics"

  **For the current report — use follow-up prompts:**

  * "This feels too surface-level. Go deeper on \[section] with more specific data and analysis."
  * "Add more concrete examples, statistics, and named sources to \[section]."
  * "What are the non-obvious or counterintuitive findings from your research on this topic?"
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Can't edit the Canvas report">
  The report was delivered but you are unable to click into the document and make edits.

  **What to do:**

  1. Wait a moment for the Canvas document to fully render — large reports take a second to load completely
  2. Click directly on a paragraph of body text (not a heading) to enter edit mode
  3. If still not editable, look for an **Edit** button or pencil icon in the Canvas toolbar at the top of the document
  4. Try opening the chat in a new browser tab or temporarily disabling browser extensions that may interfere with the Canvas editor
  5. As a workaround, ask ZeroTwo to make edits via the chat: "Please edit the Executive Summary to..."

  <Info>
    Canvas documents are editable by default when delivered from Deep Research. If you received a share link from someone else, you may be in read-only mode — request edit access from the person who shared it.
  </Info>
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Research completed but no report in chat">
  You received a completion notification but cannot find the report.

  **What to do:**

  * Scroll up in the chat thread — the report was delivered as a Canvas document message in the conversation and may be above your current scroll position
  * Check whether the Canvas panel is open on the right side of the screen — it may have loaded there without a visible message
  * Try refreshing the page; the Canvas document should reappear
  * If the chat thread looks empty or only shows partial content, the report may still be rendering — wait 30 seconds and refresh
</Accordion>

***

## Still having issues?

If none of the above resolves your problem:

* Try starting a new chat thread and retrying your research from scratch
* Check [zerotwo.ai/status](https://zerotwo.ai/status) for any active service incidents affecting Deep Research
* Contact support from **Settings → Help & Support** and include the URL of the affected chat thread so the team can investigate