thread Card Reader issues in Payments Troubleshooting

Card Reader issues

BriantspuddleSh — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 09:35:19 GMT

Hello Square Community,

HAs anyone else had this problem?

We have a Square Stand operating with a Gen1 Card reader in a Gen1 Doc connected via USB. After operating seamlessly for a long time, we are now having issues with the reader suddenly disconnecting and being unable to take payments.

At first we reset the reader, then restarted Square, then restarted the iPad, each of these would bring a temporary improvement (between 40min and up to 5 or 6 days). We also found that cycling the ipad Bluetooth connection on/off/on sometimes worked to bring the reader back to life even though it is connected via the dock plugged into the Square USB hub.

Next we purchased a new dock and a new Reader both Gen1 and these have been installed, but the problems keeps reoccurring.

In addition to the card reader disconnecting we sometimes get other error messages in the yellow band at the top of the screen: ‘Reader not Present” and “Account Suspended” these disappear once the reader comes back online.

This is a really irritating but intermittent fault that is causing our shop volunteers to lose confidence when dealing with customers. We are a small community not for profit shop and do not have the funds to replace the entire system piece by piece to try and find the fault.

We are resetting the system on a frequent basis and often with customers waiting to pay.

Any advice gratefully received.

Regards

David

Re: Card Reader issues

JK_Fiber_Art — Mon, 29 May 2023 18:44:24 GMT

Hi BriantspuddleSh,

Sorry to hear about your issues. Troubleshooting a pain as it is part logic and part luck - I know !!

You stated that replacing both the Dock and Reader and still get the same results. That may indicate that the issue may be somewhere else as you replaced the old hardware with new hardware of the same Generation. As I'm only familiar with iPads and Square's Stand configuration - assuming you still have the same iPad and Square Stand, one or both of those components could be the root cause. Start with making sure your iPad has the latest iOS, also check to see if your Square POS app is up to date. Sometimes deleting the POS app and reinstalling from scratch would make a difference. If you do delete the app, do a restart on your iPad afterwards, then reinstall the app for a clean installation - the app would also help to ensure that the Stand's firmware is current. And there's the cables and USB Hub to consider, however, it would be rare that either would fail but, never say never. Just some thoughts of course.

Last, contacting Square's Tech Support is another option - at least at that point, you can tell them what troubleshooting you have done.

Re: Card Reader issues

Candlestore — Wed, 31 May 2023 19:42:11 GMT

@BriantspuddleSh ,

Usually I do not work our Square Stand which is setup basically like yours. Today I did notice that after scanning my items into the cart, pressing Charge, I would also see a Yellow Banner Flash then go away. I never saw what it said since I would also be packing the items I rang up, while the customer was getting the credit card they wanted to use out. I would suggest making sure your Ipad is on the most current Square and IOS updates.

As of May 31st, 2023.

Square 6.18 is available in the Apple App Store. I just realized i was still on 6.16.

IOS for Ipad 16.5