thread Re: SKU search at checkout no longer selects it's related variation in Orders, Menu Items, Catalog & Fulfilment

SKU search at checkout no longer selects it's related variation

mrtoddkennedy — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 15:35:14 GMT

Using Square on an iPhone, a recent update has changed how the search worked.

We have SKU's for all of our variations, and until now, you could enter the SKU of the exact variation, and it would select that variation for you, one tap and it was added to checkout.

Now if you enter the SKU, it will select the first variation of a product, not the variation of the specific SKU. Meaning you now have to scroll through the list of variations in order to select the correct one, but of course the SKU's aren't listed on this screen, so you have to choose the one based on the description. This adds a number of steps to the checkout process, and increases the chance of error.

For example, we have a product called "Malita ESP First Run" and using SKU 25-101998 for the variation "PurplePink/Red - 173-174g"

Entering "25-101998" brings up the product. (prior to this update, if you then tap "Malita ESP First Run PM" it automatically adds the correct variation to the checkout)

Now, if you tap "Malita ESP First Run PM" it brings up the product, and selects the first variation:

To get the correct variation, you now have to scroll down, (too long in this example) to find the variation: "PurplePink/Red - 173-174g"

This adds multiple steps and is prone to error, what if I tap the wrong one? It slows down the time it takes to check-out for customers, as they are waiting for you to scroll down and find the correct product.

This just started happening sometime in the last couple of weeks. It was worked correctly for years, but now is going to cause a lot of hardship.

Is there a setting that we can change to bring the correct behaviour back?

Todd

Re: SKU search at checkout no longer selects it's related variation

grrr2 — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 22:32:21 GMT

We are having the same problem and it is causing inventory problems. Please fix ASAP!

Re: SKU search at checkout no longer selects it's related variation

SimpleSF — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 22:30:18 GMT

Same. Square…help!!!

Re: SKU search at checkout no longer selects it's related variation

mrtoddkennedy — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 15:38:05 GMT

Saw this in another post, and tried it and it works. Not perfect, but it will get me by.

Instead of searching on the main checkout screen, tap the Items first...

That takes you to the Items search screen:

Now enter the SKU to search:

Tap on the resulting item and it does add the correct variation to the cart:

I still think it should work from the main checkout screen, and hopefully Square fixes the behaviour. But for now, as long as I tap Items first, then it works correctly.

Re: SKU search at checkout no longer selects it's related variation

hewnbabi — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 17:05:21 GMT

I am having the same issue, and the quick fix of searching under "items" no longer works either

Re: SKU search at checkout no longer selects it's related variation

hewnbabi — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 22:39:55 GMT

figured this out! you need to go to your Square dashboard on a desktop and create a "Retail" Mode, then change your iPad/IPhone from standard mode to Retail mode. This lets your SKUs auto-populate!

Re: SKU search at checkout no longer selects it's related variation

jkfender — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 19:58:34 GMT

We are having this same issue and our iPads are already in Retail Mode.

Re: SKU search at checkout no longer selects it's related variation

jkfender — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 20:14:13 GMT

Square - Please fix this update! It is greatly affecting our workflow, speed of checkout, and inventory accuracy. You completely removed the functionality of assigning sku's at the POS.