Troubleshooting

My API key was rejected

Mailchimp keys end in a datacenter suffix (e.g. -us21) — the plugin uses that suffix to know which API region to call. Make sure you copied the entire key from Account → Extras → API keys, including everything after the last dash. A key with the suffix trimmed off will fail to connect.

A subscriber isn't showing up in my list

Check whether the form has Double Opt-in turned on. If it does, the subscriber is sitting in a pending state — Mailchimp or Constant Contact has sent them a confirmation email, and they won't appear as a full subscriber until they click it. Ask them to check their inbox (and spam folder) for that confirmation.

If double opt-in is off and they still don't show up, the submission likely hit a temporary provider outage — it's queued for automatic retry rather than lost, and should complete on the next retry pass.

My form isn't rendering

• Confirm the shortcode/tag ID matches the form's actual ID from the Forms list — [ottercontact_form id="123"] on WordPress, {ottercontact-form id="123"} on Joomla.
• Confirm the form's status is Active — inactive or deleted forms render nothing, on purpose, rather than showing a broken form.
• On Joomla, confirm the tag is inside content that actually runs content plugins (an article body or a module set to process plugins) — Joomla won't expand the tag in raw/unprocessed text.

Still stuck? Contact us and we'll get back to you.