square reader won't connect to my Samsung S21 phone

[boatharbourfarm]

I only use the Square reader for a few days a year. It worked with this phone last year.

It says Reader unavailable: secure session denial. Also Device not supported - rooted devices are not supported. Please try another device or remove Root from this device.

However, the device is not rooted - I've checked Phone Status, which says Official, which apparently means the device is not rooted.

If I go Try tap to pay (my phone is enabled for this), it processes the payment, gives me a happy face, and then says payment declined. I'm just doing a test $1 transaction. Since I know I have lots of credit available, this isn't the problem. The Square support agent says it would be for the same reason as the reader not connecting. 

I've had a problem with the phone 2x, where it for some reason changes the time to 3 hours ahead, so I'm wondering if this is a problem with the mobile network and the location settings. I'm baffled.

The App info shows the permissions as location, nearby devices, notifications, and phone.

I've chatted with someone at Square and they say the Samsung S series tend to fail with their hardware. The 2nd support agent indicated that the problem

is definitely that there is an application that is affecting the functionality of the Square app, it may be an application that records the screen or has access to the microphone while the Square app is open.  I have gone through all apps and turned off microphone access for everything except Square, and that doesn't help.

[boatharbourfarm · Accepted solution]

In searching how to do a factory reset, I saw I could also reset the WIFI, Bluetooth and Network settings. I did this. Problem solved!

[boatharbourfarm]

Well, it worked last night but not this morning. Last night we had 3 devices working - 2 Samsung phones and a Samsung tablet (very slow). This morning none of the devices worked.

This morning the reader connected to my phone without any problem. However, when I tried tap to pay on the phone for our first customer of the day, it timed out. I then tried tap using the reader, and got the same error message as yesterday.

My Square connects through WiFi - I don't have data on my cell phone, never have, so the cellular network is not the problem.

I tried resetting the WiFi, Bluetooth and Network settings again, but this didn't fix anything.

Tonight:

• I reset my bluetooth, WIFI and network settings again, and got the same message.
• I got the phone to "forget" the reader, and when I connected again it said "Reader unavilable: secure session denial", as well as the message about the phone being rooted.
• Next step - I uninstalled the Square app, rebooted my phone, and reinstalled the app, allowed ALL permissions.
• Tried tap to pay before connecting a reader, and it timed out. I then connected the reader, and completed a transaction by tapping the reader, no problem.

So again the problem is solved, but I'm guessing that this will again be a temporary solution.

We heard that a nearby gas station couldn't process credit/debit payments today. Was there a problem with processing these transactions due to Cyber Monday?

[Breffni]

Hi @boatharbourfarm 👋 

Thank you so much for looping back and letting us know that you were able to resolve this issue! 

If anything else comes up, please let me know!