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When scanned, barcodes are not recognized or have no response
When scanned, barcodes are not recognized or have no response
Will avatar
Written by Will
Updated over a week ago

In most cases, the scanner does not scan due to some reasons.

There are two easy ways to differentiate the root causes and what we can do to resolve them. Please follow the situation below.

Situation A

If the POS APP show message like the barcode xxxxxx is not recognized, it means the barcode is readable, but the item can't be found. We simply know that by the message already showing the barcode number. Please check the article below:

Situation B

If the POS APP does not react to barcodes, it means the scan fails, the barcode image needs more space to display, or we need to check where the data comes from. Please check the article below:

The barcode image is not clear

Every barcode image needs sufficient room to generate a clear image. With longer numbers, the barcode image needs more space. For instance, if the element block is very short like in the image below.

The barcode line is skinny and close to each other. It causes the barcode image to be hard to read by scanners.

Solution

Give element block as much as possible when we give more room for element block. Scanners can recognize the barcode. Compare the two barcode images below. Scanners will scan the second one, but the first one will be failed in most cases.

The scanner does not support specific barcode types

Solution

Every barcode has a particular barcode type, and every scanner can configure its barcode type. Usually, it is hard to know which barcode type is not applied to the scanner.

This website can generate different barcodes; please type your barcode data to the website and select the barcode type you want to test.

Suppose the scanner can not recognize the barcodes from the website. It means your barcode scanner is disabling the barcode type. You will need to check the scanner's manual.

We can help! Leave the message for us, and let us help you figure out how to enable the barcode type you need from the scanner.

The product status on the Shopify product page was not equal to active.

Solution

Make sure the product status is active. Please check the image below.

Shopify POS APP has not recognized the barcodes.

Solution

At the time, Shopify POS APP could only support scanning barcode data fields; if you link to other data fields for barcode images, Shopify POS APP will not get the item.

If you need to scan barcodes with the Shopify POS APP, ensure that you only link to the BARCODE data field. Shopify POS APP will not respond to barcodes generated by other data fields.

Shopify POS APP hasn't synced the data

If you update the product data on Shopify, it normally takes a few minutes or longer for the POS APP to sync the data to your mobile; in rare circumstances, this is why the POS app can't read barcodes.

Solution

Check the network status on iOS, then close and reopen the app. This action forces the program to sync data once more. For Android, please do the same action; learn how to quit an app on Android here.

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