thread Re: Why does one item appear differently on our KDS? in Payments Troubleshooting

Why does one item appear differently on our KDS?

yaykenny — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 10:37:14 GMT

Hi
I know the Square system pretty well and also our KDS setup. We have a product (cheese panini) that always appears on the screens with a grey box around it (2 pics attached). I can;t see any difference in the way this product is setup so am stumped as to why it has the box around it. 1 breakfast item also does this. Any ideas?
Thanks

Re: Why does one item appear differently on our KDS?

Summer2024 — Tue, 27 May 2025 15:27:32 GMT

Hi, @yaykenny !

Here are several reasons why specific items might appear with a grey box on your KDS and how to fix them:

Item Modifiers Setup:
- Check if these items have special modifiers
- Compare modifier settings with similar items
- Look for any "forced" or "required" modifiers
- Verify modifier group settings
Item Categories:
- Check if these items are in special categories
- Compare category settings with other items
- Verify KDS routing settings for the categories
Preparation Time Settings:
- Check if custom prep times are set
- Look for any timing alerts or notifications
- Compare with similar items' prep settings
KDS Station Routing:
- Verify station assignments
- Check if items are routed to multiple stations
- Compare routing rules with similar items
Item Properties:
- Check "Item Options" settings
- Look for any special preparation notes
- Verify "Kitchen Notes" settings
- Check for any custom attributes

To Troubleshoot:

Compare Settings:
- Create a duplicate of the panini item
- Remove all special settings
- Test if the new item shows the grey box
- Add settings back one by one to identify the cause
Check System Settings:
- Review KDS display settings
- Verify printer routing rules
- Check category assignments
- Review modifier groups

If none of the above works, please let me know, and I will escalate to our engineers.

Re: Why does one item appear differently on our KDS?

yaykenny — Tue, 27 May 2025 15:36:06 GMT

Thanks for the info. I have worked through most of these before posting but have just realised that the grey box only appears on the 2 items that are causing this issue on the kitchen workstation, they appear as normal on other workstations/expo screens so I assume the issue must be on the kitchen KDS. I will take a look tomorrow but we have 8 panini all on the same lunch/panini category all with exactly the same modifiers so is an odd one.

Kenny

Re: Why does one item appear differently on our KDS?

HiveStores — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 16:21:36 GMT

We have the same problem and we can't find the cause or solution.

One item started a few weeks back and a second more recently without any changes being made back of house etc... So i just wondered if you had found a cause / solution?

Obviously i'll have to try the trouble shooting options....

Re: Why does one item appear differently on our KDS?

The_Sun_Inn — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 08:49:05 GMT

We also have just 1 item that appears like this! Cannot see any reason why.

Re: Why does one item appear differently on our KDS?

yaykenny — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:44:09 GMT

Hey,

Nope! We have 2 kitchen prep workstations and an expo station and these grey boxes on the 2 products affected only appear on one of the kitchen screens, the others are fine. There is nothing in the KDS settings I can see that are any different from the other screens or anything that could possibly put a grey box around a specific product.

We are actually used to it now but it can be fixed by deleting the product and adding a new one which is pretty quick but would be good to know what is causing it and what it actually means, I had thought that a greyed out item had something to do with timing or pre order but not sure.

Cheers

Re: Why does one item appear differently on our KDS?

yaykenny — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:45:17 GMT

Just replied to HiveStores above, we can't figure it out but you can delete and re-add the product which seems to fix it 🙂