thread Re: Contactless batttery issues one red light after being charged 24 hrds in Hardware Setup & Troubleshooting

My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Rylee095 — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 19:46:58 GMT

My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

George — Thu, 05 May 2016 00:22:16 GMT

One blinking red light means that your contactless and chip reader is low on batteries.

Just plug one end of the the accompanying USB cable into your reader and the other end into a USB port, like a cell phone charger or computer. With a low battery, the reader will take approx. two hours to charge completely.

See this support article for more info on charging your reader. Hope that helps!

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Biatorrance — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 19:01:32 GMT

My chip reader is flashing red, all the 4 lights. My phone can't see the reader and when I try to connect the reader, I end up with flashing red lights. I've unistalled the app and re-installed it, it worked after that. Unfortunatly after a couple of days I was back, getting frustrated with it. I don't want to keep unistall and re-install the app.

How can I resolve the chip reader problem?

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Nanica54 — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 12:37:14 GMT

Hi,

I have the same problem, one red blink and reader disconnecting. The battery does not seem to be charging, as the reader is physically connected to a USB port all the time (we have an iPad 2). What should I do? Software is up-to-date. Thank you for your help.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

RayD — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 14:08:22 GMT

I'm having the same problem. I keep my chip reader plugged in all the time and am getting a flashing red light indicating low battery. Unit arrived in January. Is it dead already?

Ray

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Sean — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 05:53:05 GMT

Sorry to hear about the reader issues!

If you see one blinking red light, then it means your contactless and chip reader is low on batteries and is in need of a charge.

If you are seeing all 4 red blinking lights, it sounds like you’ve held the button for too long, and the reader has been reset to factory settings. You'll need to re-pair it to your device, as if it were new.

You can also find some more useful troubleshooting steps here.

Hope this helps!

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

sonorayogaloft — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 20:23:22 GMT

Same issue here. I love how the person offers a fix ignores the fact that we have ONE blinking red light and instead tells us how to fix the multiple red light issue from holding the button too long.

I am currently going back and forth with customer service regarding this isssue. I too leave my reader plugged in all the time and the battery slowly drains until I get the single blinking red light. At this point it will not work even though it is plugged in. Customer service tried to tell me how they tested theirs and it will connect while charging... yep, knew that. They seem to ignore the fact that the issue is with a unit that has a dead battery and do their tests with a unit that is charged. Very frustrating. Also frustrating that they seem to have designed a unit that will only work when the battery is charged and will not work even when plugged in if the battery is low/dead and will not maintain a charge even when plugged in if it is in use.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Spenser — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 21:25:59 GMT

Sorry to hear about the continued trouble, @sonorayogaloft. I'd imagine you've gone through most of the troubleshooting with our Support team so it's probably safe to say there is a fault with your Reader's battery. We can absolutely get you a replacement without cost, head to our warranty page to get started.

Apologies again for the experience, let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

sonorayogaloft — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 02:12:06 GMT

Thanks for the offer, but that was the first thing customer support did (send me a new one) and the new one does the exact same thing as the old one. None of the staff I have spoken to seem to be aware that a single red blinking light indicates low battery. Everyone tries to tell me I am seeing multiple red blinking lights. No where in the instructions that came with my unit does it says that a single red blinking light means low battery. Frankly I don't think Square knows about this from the responses I have received. The units seem to be defective by design. I have had two myself that have the issue, and I have found other people online with the same issue as me. Seems to be the way the unit (or software) was designed.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Nanica54 — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 17:51:11 GMT

It's happening to me again, after it stopped for a while. I really don't think it's the unit. I've used the same chip reader the whole time, it worked well, then it didn't, then worked well for another couple of months, now again the single red light is flashing. It can't be the battery - how it could it have fixed itself? It has something to do with the Square updates and iPad updates and which one happens first - that should be your clue. Could you fix it at the next update, please? Current Square update is from August 30th,

using iPad 2, updated to 9.3.5

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Nanica54 — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 19:06:32 GMT

Could I also add that the chip reader turns itself on (flashes all four lights orange, then green) even when the iPad is not on? Definitely can't be the battery.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

sonorayogaloft — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 05:40:50 GMT

Nanica,

Yours just went out again too? I just put in a warranty claim for ANOTHER replacement today, 9/8/16, due to the mysterious single blinking red light. Last time thought my charger wasn't working right so I've been checking battery status frequently and it never depletes (I have it plugged in all the time) then suddenly single blinking red light and reader doesn't work (it actually works sporadically, but you can't run a business that way). I have all my stuff set to auto update so I didn't make the connection there. Do you have any more info about this? Maybe we can work together and find the solution Square can't...

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

RayD — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 14:29:41 GMT

I've had the same problem, I also leave mine plugged in all the time. After replacing it the new one occasionally still does this. Try unplugging it for a while, it's works for me.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Nanica54 — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 15:21:48 GMT

Ours works sporadically too. Just checked with another local merchant yesterday and theirs does the same thing. It's either a problem in how the reader was made or else it's the updates.

Why do I think the updates have something to do with it? Ours was on manual update at first, so the first time the blinking red light happened, I updated Square, quit the app, entered it again and did a reader hard reset by holding the button until it flashed 4 orange and then 4 green lights. This made it work fine again so I changed the updates to automatic. Now it's happening again. I'll try the advice of the person above who said to unplug it for a bit, though I did so the first time the reader was misbehaving and it did not seem to help.

I don't really know anything about programing or computers so if a restart won't work, I'm lost as to what to try next. But if this is happening to so many people and getting a new chip reader isn't helping, it's a deeper problem and Square needs to get its wizards thinking about it. I doubt that it's a physical problem with the reader and battery (like fixing old TVs by hitting them) since our chip reader has had no accidents, it did not fall, get hit or so on.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Nanica54 — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 17:12:43 GMT

The chip reader is behaving normally now after being unplugged for about 45 minutes and plugged back in. I don't see the single red light flash anymore and it seems to always be on when the iPad is on. Simple solutions are best. Thank you very much RayD! I'l post again if I have more trouble.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

WineandRoses — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 22:03:54 GMT

I just tried only holding the power button down for two seconds and it immediately goes to 4 flashing red lights.

This is the 6th card reader (out of 11) that I have had problems. I've tried the hard reset and it just comes back on with 4 flashing red lights. Pretty darn frustrating!!

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Glimmer42 — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 10:38:29 GMT

Same problem with the flashing 4 red lights.

Sign out and sign in again. Fixed it for me.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

BayBarbers — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 14:15:48 GMT

I am having this problem , my reader is factory reset, I did that because it stopped pairing with my devices. Bluetooth is on when trying to pair, the lights on my reader just never flash orange I’m just holding it down so long trying to pair it on a 24 g network , it just flashes red again. Help.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Helen — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 21:07:03 GMT

Hi again @BayBarbers, sorry to hear your reader isn't pairing with your device. Have you tried the additional pairing troubleshooting steps in the Support Center? If the reader still won't pair I recommend calling our CS team so they can help you to get your reader back up and running!

Contactless batttery issues one red light after being charged 24 hrds

BeesBody — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 18:33:14 GMT

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Contactless batttery issues one red light after being charged 24 hrds

Contactless reader battery has one red light after being charged 24 hrs or more