@Julie466 Welcome to the community. The IPhone 17 with iOS 26 has advance power saving and Bluetooth protocols that can put some background apps like Square to sleep. Here’s a few things to try and hopefully will fix your problem.
Hidden Bluetooth Permission
1. Go to iPhone Settings > privacy & Security > Bluetooth.
2. Look for Square in the list. Toggle if Off, then back On. This forces connection to refresh.
Turn off Private Relay
1. Go to Settings > (Your Name) > iCloud > Private Relay and turn it off.
Private Relay limits IP address tracking, by bouncing your data through multiple servers to hide your location. Square sees your connection jumping from one IP to another and thinks it is insecure and will give you the No Internet Connection.
Change your phone to always on.
Sometimes when your screen dims, it throttles power to the Bluetooth radio to save battery power and could cause the reader to drop connection. Try this when you are at your next market.
1. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
2 Set the Auto Lock to Never
This keeps your phone active and the reader is less likely to lose connection.
Check for Tap to Pay.
newer iPhones now have Tap to Pay built in (where customers can tap directly to your phone). Sometimes the iPhone can get confused between the physical reader and the built in sensor on your iPhone.
1. Open the Square app go to Settings > Hardware > Tap to Pay.
2. Turn that off, then see if your card reader becomes more stable.
One other thing you may want to try when you are at your market. If it’s really busy and a lot of people are using their phones 5G towers can get congested and stall even if you have full bars. You can switch your phone to LTE which is often much more stable.
1. Go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options.
2. Tap Voice & Data.
3. Switch from 5G to LTE
Hopefully some of these options will fix you connection problem.
