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What to Gather Before Contacting Support

Before opening a ticket with Anthropic or your IT team, collect the information below. Having this ready means faster resolution — support staff won't need to follow up asking for details you could have included upfront.

Part 1 — Universal information (all tiers)

Every support ticket should include these regardless of which problem you're experiencing.

Your error message

Copy the exact error message from the troubleshooting guide or directly from the Cowork error screen. Exact wording matters — don't paraphrase it.

Steps you have already tried

Copy the relevant steps from the troubleshooting guide you followed. This prevents support staff from asking you to repeat things you've already done.

Your Claude Desktop app version

  1. Click your profile name or avatar in the bottom-left corner of the Claude Desktop app
  2. Select Settings
  3. Go to the General tab under "Desktop app"
  4. Scroll down — your app version is listed there
  1. Open the Claude Desktop app
  2. Click Claude in the top menu bar (next to the Apple logo)
  3. Select About Claude to view your version number

Your operating system

  1. Open the Start menu
  2. Go to Settings → System → About
  3. Scroll down to Windows specifications
  4. Note your Edition, Version, and OS Build
  1. Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen
  2. Select About This Mac
  3. Note the macOS name and version number displayed

Relevant logs

Logs give Anthropic's engineers and IT support the technical detail needed to diagnose what went wrong.

  1. Click the Start menu or search bar and type Event Viewer — open it
  2. In the left panel, click the arrow next to Windows Logs to expand it
  3. Click Application
  4. In the middle pane, find and click the Claude Desktop or Cowork log entry
  5. Read the details in the bottom pane
  6. To export: Hold Ctrl and click to select multiple log entries → right-click your selection → choose Save Selected Events → save as a text or CSV file to attach to your ticket
  1. Press Command + Spacebar to open Spotlight, type Console and open it — or find it in Applications → Utilities
  2. In the left sidebar, look at the Reports section
  3. Click Crash Reports, Spin Reports, or Log Reports
  4. Click the Claude Desktop or Cowork report to read its details in the bottom pane
  5. To export: Right-click the report in the sidebar → choose Reveal in Finder → attach the raw file to your ticket

Part 2 — Tier-specific information

Find your tier below and include this additional information in your ticket.

Tier 1 — Networking & Plugins

Your symptoms may include: "API Unreachable" errors, invalid JSON output, or Plugin Marketplace DNS failures.

Additional information to include:

  • The exact error message shown in the Plugin Marketplace or API response
  • Whether the issue happens on all networks or only on specific ones (e.g., home Wi-Fi vs. office network vs. mobile hotspot)
  • Whether you are using a VPN — and if so, which one
  • Whether the issue started after a specific update or change to your system

Tier 2 — Scheduled Tasks & Storage

Your symptoms may include: Tasks failing silently or UNC path errors.

Additional information to include:

  • The exact task that is failing and what it was set up to do
  • Whether your documents or storage are on a different drive than your Windows installation (e.g., files on D:\ when Windows is on C:)
  • Whether your organization uses folder redirection via Group Policy
  • Whether the failure happens when your computer is in sleep or focus mode

Tier 3 — Connectors & Add-ins

Your symptoms may include: Missing MCP tools or Office Add-in authentication failures.

Additional information to include:

  • Which connector or add-in is affected
  • Whether the issue appeared after a Claude Desktop or Office update
  • Whether the problem occurs in the CLI version of Claude, the Desktop app, or both
  • Any authentication error messages shown during login or token refresh

Tier 4 — Known issues (not user fixable)

Your symptoms may include: Issues that persist after all troubleshooting steps, or problems that match known Anthropic server-side bugs.

What this tier means

Some issues are caused by bugs on Anthropic's side — not your computer. These include things like missing OAuth scopes, AppleScript bugs in compiled binaries, or Windows Home limitations. If your troubleshooting guide directed you here, your ticket is important — it helps Anthropic's engineering team track and prioritize these fixes.

Additional information to include:

  • Confirmation that you have completed all steps in the relevant troubleshooting guide
  • The name of the troubleshooting guide you followed
  • Whether the issue is reproducible — does it happen every time, or intermittently?
  • Any workarounds you have found, even partial ones

Ready to open your ticket?

👉 How to reach Anthropic support

ArchieCur created in collaboration with Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic) · v1.0 · June 2026