Square Handheld purchased in the United States not functioning in South Korea

[Telica]

The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Square Handheld malfunction.

Hi,
I live in South Korea and purchased a Square Handheld through Amazon in the U.S. to test integration between my product and Square POS.
After receiving the device and turning it on, it went through a software update, and since then it has been completely unusable, as shown in the attached video.
I tried a factory reset and set it up again, but the same issue occurs.
I'd like to know what’s causing this and whether there is a solution.

The video failed to upload, so I uploaded it to YouTube instead.

https://youtube.com/shorts/PkRqL0dyO8A?feature=share 

[rtfulk]

@Telica First off welcome to the community. Square has strict country/region restrictions and when you updated the handheld you got a Hardware Region Lock. Below is information on the region lock and it sounds just like what is happening to your handheld.

The Cause: Hardware Region Lock

Square explicitly states that their hardware is only approved for use in the country for which it is intended.

• US Hardware is Region-Locked: The Square Handheld you purchased in the U.S. is certified for use in the U.S. only.

• The Software Update: When the device ran its software update in South Korea, the new firmware/software detected your current geographical location and attempted to align the device with local regulatory standards (like payment processing and telecommunications compliance) or a local Square ecosystem.

• • Conflict: Since the US-purchased hardware is not approved or certified for use in South Korea, the update likely resulted in a region-lock failure, leaving the device stuck in an unusable state, as the US software is preventing it from running in an unauthorized region.

• • Factory Reset Limit: A factory reset only reverts the device to the last installed, authorized software version, which unfortunately remains the US-region version that is failing to operate correctly in South Korea.

• In short: US-purchased Square hardware is not approved for use in South Korea.

[Telica]

Thanks for letting me know!!!

[Katie_SQ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Telica! Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Community. 👋

As @rtfulk correctly pointed out (thanks for your assistance here!), cross-border card payments with Square are unsupported. This means that if you've purchased a Square Handheld from the United States, the device won't function outside of the US. 

In addition to this, card payment acceptance with Square is currently only available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Ireland, France and Spain. We currently don’t support card payment processing outside of these countries. 

While the Square Dashboard and Square Point of Sale app can be used for free in most countries to record payments, track inventory and access other great Square features, card payment processing (both in-person and online) is limited to the countries listed above.

We're continuously working to expand our services to new markets. For updates on our international availability, please keep an eye on squareup.com.

Unfortunately, your Square Handheld won't function in South Korea due to these regional restrictions, so I recommend returning the device as it won't operate in your location.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions. 😊

[Telica]

Thanks for letting me know!!