thread Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco... in Payments Troubleshooting

Why are my online store notifications affecting my bluetooth connection?

lemondogs — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 17:26:15 GMT

[The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reconnect]

Steps to reproduce:

1) enable online store order notifications within register app on iPad
2) play music on the iPad using a Bluetooth speaker

3) place an order in the online store
4) when the notification occurs on the iPad, square disconnects it from the Bluetooth speaker to play the notification on the internal speaker (this is good) but after the notification has played, the music never resumes on the external speaker.

optimally Square would not interrupt the speaker playback at all and be able to simply play the notification through the internal iPad speaker while music continues on the Bluetooth speaker. However if this is not possible then at least it should resume Bluetooth speaker playback after the notification sound has played.

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

Alex_ — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 00:07:01 GMT

Hi @lemondogs,

Thank you for posting. This is definitely an interesting issue.

What source/app are you using to play music?

Please let me know by replying in this thread. I'll keep an eye out for your response.

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

lemondogs — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 00:35:35 GMT

Hey @Alex_

I'm using Spotify for music playback.

In the interest of clarity, I should indicate that the Bluetooth connection appears to remain connected when this bug is reproduced. It's just the audio playback (that happens to be over Bluetooth) that cuts out and switches from the BT speaker to the internal iPad speaker. It then plays the notification (on the internal iPad speaker) and does not switch the audio back to the BT speaker.

At this stage (after the notification plays), if I press the home button to switch *out* of the Square Register app, and display the home screen, playback resumes on the BT speaker.

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

Alex_ — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 22:37:06 GMT

@lemondogs,

Does this occur with other music apps/sources besides Spotify? Or is it just with that one app?

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

lemondogs — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 23:18:09 GMT

I'm about 80% sure it also occurred with the Amazon Prime Music app, but I don't know that with absolute certainty as I've switched between that and Spotify.

But since this is an iPad, can't apps only tie into the audio stream via Core Audio APIs? (As in it's a fairly limited function and all apps would be required to use the same set of integrations, except of course Apple's Music app).

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

Alex_ — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:49:20 GMT

@lemondogs,

Understood. Do you have any pending updates for the app or operating system running on your iPad?

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

lemondogs — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:56:54 GMT

@Alex_ It's running iOS 12.4.7, which is the latest release compatible with the iPad Mini 2.

I'm (just now) updating Square to v5.42 from the currently installed version 5.41 (5410011). Will update here if that resolves the problem.

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

Alex_ — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:59:03 GMT

@lemondogs,

Sounds good, just let me know! Thank you for keeping us posted.

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

lemondogs — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 18:21:05 GMT

Hey @Alex_ no luck; still the same issue with the latest updates.

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

Joe — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 19:12:00 GMT

@lemondogs 👋 I can step in for Alex in his absence here!

Thanks for bouncing back and letting us know where you landed with troubleshooting. We appreciate you trying out those steps.

Since we've seen no change, I would recommend flagging this over to our Support Team directly when you can. This will give us the opportunity to troubleshoot with a bit more 'hands-on' approach.

We will keep an eye out for your contact!

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

lemondogs — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 21:03:10 GMT

Thanks @Joe I have submit this issue to support via email.

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

lemondogs — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 14:38:39 GMT

In case anyone else has experienced this issue, the support team says that since the iPad can't update to the latest iOS (even though Square itself supports the older iPad and iOS version), they cannot do anything about this. Their only solution was to disable order notifications and use a separate device for order management and music playback.

Re: Online store order notifications disconnect audio from Bluetooth speaker on iPad, and no reco...

Joe — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 19:25:49 GMT

Thanks for bouncing back here and updating everyone this thread with the conclusion you reached with our Support Team, @lemondogs. We appreciate you! I'm going to go ahead and tag your post as a Best Answer to this thread so others can easily find it.

Thanks, again!