Can you pair the card reader with multiple devices at the same time?

[LeapFrog]

[Edit: The title of this post has been updated by a moderator for clarity.]

We are using the square at a trade show to sell fishing trips and t-shirts.  I have the software loaded on my S8 and also on my wife's S7.  The problem we have is knowing which of our phones are paired with the device (occasionaly neither, requiring a wake-up button press).  Without easily knowing which phone is connected, we can't check out the customer quickly and efficiently.  If one of us leaves our booth for a few minutes (Murphy's Law - it's the one that is paired) we have trouble dropping and pairing with the phone in the booth.

I guess I could purchase another device, but we are expanding and will soon be adding a couple other employees to the booth which would double the issue.

Thanks in advance for the help!!!

Bill

[Helen · Accepted solution]

@LeapFrog It's not possible to connect one contactless and chip card reader to multiple devices at the same time so I understand the predicament you're in! A couple of tips that might help:

You can check that the reader is connected to a phone from the settings section of the app. Tap Settings > Card Readers. 

Additionally, when you open the app, if the reader is paired with your device you should see 'Reader Ready' at the top of the screen. (This video shows what 'Reader Ready' looks like.)

The reader shouldn't disconnect from a device unless you move 10 feet or more away from it or if you don't use it for 2 hours (the reader will go into sleep mode).

If you're expanding you could consider sharing a tablet to process sales! 

[Jesshc]

Can more than one person use the contactless and chip reader at the same time?

[Wally]

Can you use the contactless reader with two different phones?

[jules]

I have the same question. I have my phone plus my daughters phone and would like to have both paired to process payments at the same event. Is this possible?

[Sean]

Hi @Wally @jules — It looks like another seller had the same question, and I helped them out. Check out the best answer on this thread. 😀

[VanKalkerFarms]

having 2 chip readers connected to one ipad wouldn't speed up the process as you can only be running one sale at a time and the sale doesn't complete till the card is charged and can be removed.

and you can not hook up 2 via bluetoothLE at the same time.

definetly the solution would be to have a second ipad or iphone so you can do 2 transactions at once simultaneously. we have 3 permenant registers and 3 ipad minis for mobile checkouts for the busiest times.

[Sean]

While you can certainly share the Square Contactless and Chip Card Reader between multiple devices (it's not acccount specific),  if can only connect to one device at a time.

In the case that you need to switch devices, you can unpair your reader from one device and pair it to another. Here is how:

- Visit the Square Register Settings and tap Card Readers

- After you've selected the Square Contactless and Chip Card Reader from the list, tap Forget This Reader. (This will free up the reader to be paired with another smartphone or tablet).

This Support Center article will walk you through the pairing process in case you need a refresher. Hope this helps! 

[jamest]

I have different people who want to use this square chip reader, but only one at a time will be there.

If person A leaves the bluetooth radius, is it automatically disconnected so when person B comes, it'll connect automatically, or do you have to manually go into the setup, logout, then re-pair with other phone?

[Valentina]

The Square Reader for contactless and chip will not pair automatically based on proximity of mobile device to reader, mostly for security purposes. If you're going to have multiple people sharing the same reader to accept payments for one Square account, you'll need to pair the reader to the device you'd like to use each time @jamest.

[Quilter]

I give lectures and then sell products;  lots of sales at one time;  I have help and use two iPads.  Can I connect TWO iPads (running Square) to ONE/SAME contactless reader ?

[Russell]

Hi @Quilter -

Thanks for posting, it looks like another seller asked this question too. @Sean was able to clear this up - take a look at the best answer on this thread. 

[wineguy]

We had three mobile devices on our account last year, but for some reason, only my account works with the contactless reader. How do we add a device? This seems to have started when Square sent me info about setting up teams.

[ashc]

Hey @wineguy and welcome to the Community!

I moved your post to an existing thread that goes over how the Contactless + Chip reader can only be connected to one device at a time.

Check out the Best Answer above for details. 

In the future, don't hesitate to search your question first here or on the Support Center for your quickest answer too!

[Helen · Accepted solution]

@LeapFrog It's not possible to connect one contactless and chip card reader to multiple devices at the same time so I understand the predicament you're in! A couple of tips that might help:

You can check that the reader is connected to a phone from the settings section of the app. Tap Settings > Card Readers. 

Additionally, when you open the app, if the reader is paired with your device you should see 'Reader Ready' at the top of the screen. (This video shows what 'Reader Ready' looks like.)

The reader shouldn't disconnect from a device unless you move 10 feet or more away from it or if you don't use it for 2 hours (the reader will go into sleep mode).

If you're expanding you could consider sharing a tablet to process sales! 

[LeapFrog]

Thanks Helen!  I gave up and purchased a second square last night.  Because we are only using the square a couple times a day, it goes to sleep causing the confusion when it wakes up. 

I really like your idea of using the tablet.  I'll link the new square only to the tablet so anyone in our booth can use it when they need to process a sale.  The original square I'll keep linked to both mine and the wife's cell phones as a backup and will do as suggested...

Thank you again!!!

[Helen]

You're welcome! If anything else comes up let me know or feel free to start a new thread. 😀

[Nikgilbert]

Can I share my device that you have to connect to your phone with a business partner until she gets her own!!

[puka]

Hey @Nikgilbert - Readers can be shared across different Square accounts and different devices at separate times. They just can't be paired to two devices at the same time.

[Nativiet]

I understand that it cannot be connected to 2 phones at the same time, but it is ironic that each time someone else is on shift and logged into the same account on the app, i have to completely unpair, re-pair to my phone to use it on mine again.

[Scouts401]

HI there,

I have volunteers selling Christmas trees and I don't want to have to create an account for each individual person.  I simply want them to be able to process from the app in their phone but when I set a device code on my 2 tap devices it will only pair it with one phone.  Is there a way to do this without making an account for each person?

Thanks!

[JustinC]

Sounds like you have the right idea creating device codes for each device, but unfortunately only one Contactless reader can be paired with one device at time. You'll need multiple readers 

@Scouts401