Chip Readers

[NancysWorkshop]

Why did Square stop the ability to use your chip reader unless you were connected to WiFi?  I am a crafter that goes to certain events that do not have WiFi.  Puts my sales in danger of not being a good card. And am not able to confirm until I get home and connect to WiFi. 

[Goldneye]

HI, have you tried purchasing your own hotspot device?  I currently use 2.  

One is Skyroam.  The Skyroam is bulkier in shape.  Skyroam as the name implies, is a roaming service, not locked into a certain brand.  Skyroam is costly one time purchase.  Their website or HSN.

Two is Moxee.  I prefer the Moxee because it is small enough for pocket or purse.  Moxee is locked to Tracfone.  Moxee I purchased on sale at Target.

5 months using both with no problems, no dropped wifi, always on, different plans.  

Why 2?  I purchased Skyroam first, it worked perfectly fine then I saw Moxee on sale at Target, as mentioned before it is a smaller device so I purchased it.  

[WhitneyMaille]

I have a chip reader and use it every single Sunday remotely at my weekly craft show with no WiFi.  I'm not aware there has been any change or restriction on using the chip reader connected to my phone via cell signal.

[JJ_]

Hey there @WhitneyMaille

I was able to confirm that the Square Contactless and Chip reader does not require a WiFi connection to work but it does require a reliable Cellular connection to be able to work. 

If you are having issues processing payments when not on WiFi, I would suggest doing some troubleshooting on theSquare Point of Sale app and on the reader as well. 

If everything looks good there but the problem persists, you'll want to reach out.

If you haven't already, your best bet is to get in touch with us directly, so that a member of our Support team can dig in with you. When you have a moment, please reach out directly by logging into your Square account and heading here.

[WhitneyMaille]

I don't have an issue.  I was responding to the OP's problem.

[rtfulk]

We use a cellular ipad with Square POS and our chip reader works fine, if you don't have a good cellular connection the chip reader will connect and disconnect.

[MudFire_Dex]

@NancysWorkshop How old is your reader? We noticed that with a lot of use and age that the connection started to get iffy (no doubt from abuse by us throwing it in our bags when we do mobile shows). We use the register in our brick and mortar location but replace our readers when they start getting iffy out in the wild. With strong cellular signal we haven't had issues either. If you have your phone set to use WIFI as default sometimes it will stop using cellular to try to connect to a nearby WIFI signal that might be weak - we've seen that too - for shows we just make sure to turn WIFI off unless the show or host location has provided WIFI for us.

[NancysWorkshop]

My reader is pretty new.  Been very careful with it.   I will try a test run and make sure my Wi-Fi is off.  

Thanks for your reply

[GourmetOnWheels]

@NancysWorkshop the chip reader works on Bluetooth. If it does no longer connect do this:

1) Go to Settings on your phone or iPad, then select Hardware, Square Reader click on the reader and click forget this reader.

2) Go into your device Settings and select Bluetooth, when you see the reader click and click Forget this Device

3) Go back to Settings on your phone or iPad, then select Hardware, Square Reader, connect a reader and follow the steps and it should be solved.

René

[NancysWorkshop]

Thanks