Help fixing a pairing issue with a reader and a Pixel 8 Pro phone?

[ibm5319]

My first gen readers have worked great for years. My readers worked fine with my new Pixel 8 Pro phone up until about a month ago. All of a sudden my readers would disconnect if square app sat idle for 5 minutes. but readers stayed connected if after they were paired I closed the square app. My next sale I'd need to open the app again for payment, readers worked. Slower process continually so after a hour or so phone call to tech service they decided I needed second gen readers. Set that all up, received new readers. These would not pair at all. After about another 3 hour tech support call, trying every trouble shooting step they could think of they then decided I needed new readers a second time. A week later I received those. These would also not pair with my phone. So has anyone had this problem? Is there any kind of fix or pairing method I've not tried? The tap to phone does work with my phone. Although not though the phone case. My tap to pay only works from the backside of phone not when you try to tap pay on screen side. My fast paced sales occur where ocean waters are present. The case is needed for protection. Not using readers will slow my sales down too, which means less daily sales because the process has slowed down. See sales are faster with two people taking the payment, one setting an amount in the app while the other is with the customer with a reader doing the other part of the sale. The faster I can sell the more money I make. I need the readers to work. I've been with square for years and never had any kind of issues but I need readers. They make me more money I feel. Anyone know of a solution to this problem? tia

[Candlestore]

@ibm5319 ;

I have seen where users have been having their Readers disconnect from their Phones or Tablets.  The common solutions to this were to check their Devices Battery settings and Timeout settings.  These were turning Bluetooth off to save the Battery on their Cell or Tablets, when they were not in use.  Since this seems to happen after 5 min, I am wondering if your phone turns this off after 5 minutes.  The Reader itself does also do this to save its battery, but it is longer than 5 minutes.  

Ways to avoid this that worked have been keeping Cell plugged in and Reader plugged in, at the beach these are not an option, so look at your Pixels Battery management and timeout settings.  Not sure if there is also one for when Bluetooth timesout too.

Since I use a Square Stand and a Bluetooth Readers Dock that is always plugged in at my store I do not run into this issue.  I do have one Reader connected by Bluetooth and disconnects when it is not plugged in.    Since your at the beach you may want to try a Battery pack that can keep the Bluetooth reader 'plugged in' so it does not turn off to save its battery.  These are about the size of a cell phone and have a usb port on them.  Price varies depending on the storage capacity of the battery.  1 hour compared to 10 hours for example.  Wife picked one up at 5 Below, and I bought a $10 one at Walmart that had 2 USB posrt to charge items through a USB connection.  Have you partner strap the Bluetooth reader to that using zip ties or rubber bands and you use the pixel to process the sale, and partner can hold the charger and reader for Tap payments.  Those are my only ideas for you to try.

[ibm5319]

That might work if I was able to even get the square 2nd gen readers to pair in the first place! The 1st gen readers were sent back so am unable to try your solution now. Before I bought this phone I checked with Square for compatibility and they said no problem. So purchased the $800+ phone and now I am unable to take credit card payments! Square needs to revise the software update from about a month ago when all this started I feel. I am not buying another costly phone. Will need to find another company to take my CC payments I guess. Not happy about now after years with Square and thousands of dollars ran through them!