thread Remove card from reader error message in Payments Troubleshooting

Remove card from reader error message

Eco-Pebble — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 12:51:22 GMT

Hello,

my square card machine model S8 has developed a fault where it constantly says remove chip and pin card when there’s no card inserted. What can I do to fix this?

Re: Remove card from reader error message

Breffni — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 12:47:15 GMT

Hey @Eco-Pebble.

Welcome to the Seller Community, sorry to see this issue has brought you here for the first time.

It sounds like something small may have job jammed inside the Reader.

I would suggest unpairing your Reader from your device and then factory resetting the Reader.

To unpair your Reader:

Square Point of Sale App > More > Settings > Hardware > Square Card Readers > Disconnect.

Then to factory reset your Reader, hold down the small power button for 10+ seconds until the lights flash red and let go.

Once it stops flashing, we can repair the Reader in the same place in the Point of Sale app that we just disconnected from.

Then you can try to take another test transaction, if the error message still appears, you'll need to file a warranty claim so that we can send a new Reader out to you. Your new Reader will be out to you in 3-5 business days (along with a return form for the faulty Reader, which you'll need to send back within 30days).

Please let me know if the troubleshooting works. If it doesn't and you do file for a new Reader, you can still manually process payments using the Square app on your mobile device or via the Virtual Terminal in your online Square Dashboard.

Re: Remove card from reader error message

Sam_400º — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 21:28:19 GMT

Hey @Eco-Pebble that's really annoying!

I know @Breffni has already got you covered with what to do next, but just wanted to chime in as I had to do a warranty replacement last year and it's something Square seem to do really well! The new reader was with me super quickly and included everything to send the other back.

Another option to manually entering the card details while you wait for the replacement is to enable the 'send payment link' option as this has a lower rate than manually entering card details (1.9% rather than the manual rate of 2.5%)