USB Cash Drawer opens after slight delay

[sammyg]

The title of this thread has been edited by a Square Moderator from the original: "USB Cash Drawer opens with a 4-5 second delay all of a sudden??"

As of yesterday, for some reason, there is a delay opening the drawer by 4-5 seconds after cash transactions. There must have been a new update that pushed this new behavior through (there's also a new alert that says "transaction recorded.").

4-5 seconds doesn't sound like a lot, but this is majorly slowing us down. We crush through cash orders in a rush. Can we please go back to the old behavior where you hit the cash button and BAM the drawer opens right up?

Hitting "open drawer" still happens immediately. It's only when you input a cash transaction that there's a 4-5 second delay.

[#2]

Hello,

I finally do have an update for you guys. Our team is issuing a fix, 6.31 and that should be available on 12/15/23. If for some reason anything changes with the release date we will make sure to let you guys know. I know this is not ideal with the holiday season coming up and apologize for the huge inconvenience.  I cannot thank you guys enough for your tenacity and continued patience while we address this. 🙏

[justsportsmans]

Just a thought -- is everyone who's having these issues, using Square for Restaurants? What about vanilla Square POS, is it suffering from the same problems? I wonder if it would be possible to forego a little functionality to regain workflow speed until the problems are resolved?

[SWCMD]

we are Square for Retail. 

[MAXSDELI]

We’re using Square Retail, the OG, no problems here. 

[MayaP]

Hello @SWCMD @justsportsmans @Brooklynotto - I appreciate you flagging this issue back to us! I am disappointed to hear the fix our team issued earlier did not resolve this matter. I know you guys are busy and this is the last thing you want to worry about. I want to make sure our team gets eyes on this again! I do see the videos you provided above which are very helpful.

Can you confirm what Square hardware you are using, the Square app and the app version you are on? From what I am seeing this does seems to be happening on different apps like Square Point of Sale, Retail and Restaurants correct? This is the cash drawer you are using? I just want to make sure all of our bases our covered before filing this ticket again, thank you for your cooperation! I look forward to getting this fixed once and for all! 🙏

[justsportsmans]

I'm using Square Stand v1 with an Epson TM-20iii and a white label RJ12 cash drawer. iPad is iOS 17.4.1 and Square for Restaurants v6.42 (6420032) and still suffering the lag. 

[MayaP]

I do not see your cash drawer on our compatibility list page. Is this a printer-driven cash drawer?  @justsportsmans 

[justsportsmans]

It's printer-driven. The brand is technically "EOM-POS" but it's a generic drawer and would be included in the "other" group.

[Alan22]

I am using Original square stand with first gen reader - iPad air 2 - Socket S700 Scanner - Star TSP100iii Printer - Star Micronics CB2002 printer driven cash drawer.

IOS v 15.8.2

Square POS v 6.42.1 (this just got pushed through this morning but no change)

I still experience this delay and slow scanning and slow card processing. As mentioned earlier on my other till station i am using a square stand also but running iOS 13.51 and square 6.2 and have no issues whatever. fast cash drawer, faster scanning and faster card payments

[MayaP]

Hey @MAXSDELI , I appreciate the update, and glad to hear you are not having any issues!  👍👏

[MAXSDELI]

Here’s something that I can’t figure out though, when we run a charge or take cash on our secondary Square Register (the less used register) it’ll pop the drawer to our main main register in tandem with the other however, the reverse doesn’t happen, any clue why?

I’m  guessing it’s a Register setting or has something to do with WiFi. I’m pretty savvy when it comes to these things and I’ve never been able to figure it out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated…

[Candlestore]

@MAXSDELI ;

Check your settings both in the POS app and the Square Dashboard.  I remeber seeing this setting when I setup my devices.  I have 2 Square Stands and one network printer that opens the Printer driven cash drawer.  Mine does not open on the less used Stand when I run a CC but does open when I do a cash sale.  I upgraded my in house network and gave the Receipt Printer a static address and accidentally found this setting.... but in Square fashion it is buried somewhere.  Not sure if it was in the App or the Dashboard or even if it is in the Printer settings as since I use a Printer driven cash drawer, Square tells me I have no USB Cash Drawer installed.  My cash drawer now does work as I expect it to tho.  

[MAXSDELI]

Thanks Keith, I’ll look into it over the next day or so and reply here! 🙏

[MayaP]

Hey @MAXSDELI 

Hmm, that is odd. I am sure you tried this but just want to confirm. You have disconnected and reconnected the drawer and made sure the app and device register are up to date as outlined in our troubleshooting steps.  Also, are you using the printer-driven cash drawer from Square? 

I am happy to look into this further but do you mind making a separate post for this? I want to keep everything organized and make sure this thread is strictly for the delay in cash drawer opening. Feel free to tag me with the information I asked above on the new post and we can go from there working on this! Thank you! 

[MAXSDELI]

Thanks Maya, I’ll troubleshoot some of these steps and reply here. 

To your question, yes, one of our cash drawers is printer driven, the printer is our og TSP143. 

[MayaP]

Hey  @Alan22  @justsportsmans , thanks for bearing with me! I know this has been time-consuming and apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this is causing.

I did escalate this and got confirmation that since the third-party cash drawers are not listed on the compatibility page we cannot move forward with filing a ticket 😞. While the drawer might be able to connect these models have not been tested therefore we cannot guarantee they will work as expected. I would try contacting the manufacturer support team and see if there are any workarounds they can offer on their end. For Eompos reach out to 224-EOM-POS1 (224-366-7671). And Star Micronics Support at (848) 216-3304, Monday-Friday 9:00AM to 5:00PM EST. 

I appreciate your understanding! 

[justsportsmans]

The trigger protocol for white label cash drawers absolutely cannot be the issue. The printer doesn't know what brand of cash drawer it's triggering, and I will bet my entire POS setup a "supported model" will suffer the exact same issue. It's obvious the software/app itself is causing the workflow delay.

What about all the folks with supported cash drawers, are they being pigeon-holed as well?

[Candlestore]

@MayaP ;

I have been having this issue with Cash Drawers being slow since Last June of 2023.  It was fixed in November of 2023 but has returned after an update.  I posted a video of this before and counting to I believe 6 before the drawer opened.  Today this was happening again as I was at the register taking a Cash payment.  I joked with the customer ...... any day now you can open.... snapped my fingers 3 times then it opened.   When my other half showed up today I asked her if this has been happening?  She said it has been for about the last month or two.  I am starting to thing this is expected behavior of the Square programmers so the Drawer does not open instantly.  We prefer it to open immediately and not delayed.  This is the reason I installed the drawer to the side so we do not get hit by the drawer.  The Drawer worked fine until June 2023, and now its unknown if this issue will ever be fully resolved and I can not go back to a previos version of Square to test this out.

I am using Square for Retail on a Square Stand and purchased my Stand and Drawer from Square so this is not a 3rd party cash drawer.  My cash Drawer is Receipt Printer Driven through my network, also purchased from Square Hardware site.  

[DinisIceCream1]

Lol. Wow. Trying to now blame third party?  It's not the cash drawers. It's the software spinning and doing some sort of approval before releasing the cash drawer. I've had the same cash drawer for almost 5 years and it worked fine up until updates last year.

[SWCMD]

this is definitely a programming issue, when we do a "cash draw no sale open", it opens instantly and and when we do a "Test cash draw" via the settings page, it opens immediately too! 

But when processing a cash sale, there is a significant delay, 

I hope users keep reporting back, so that Square can keep investigating this. 

[MayaP]

Let me try to escalate this again on my end! I have escalated this twice but I agree this isn't normal. 

If you can share a video of the software spinning before releasing the cash drawer, that'd be great @DinisIceCream1!

@Candlestore I know you've shared a video previously but if you could share a more recent video, it'll definitely help me when escalating it to the team.It might also be worthwhile to contact our Support team on the phone, as they can run through troubleshooting steps in real time and might be able to resolve the issue before I hear back from my escalation!

[Candlestore]

@MayaP ;

Here are 2 videos 1 using a Square Stand Gen 1 and .01 cent cash payment and 1 with a No Sale to show the speed comparison.

What I believe is happening is when a Cash sale is made the Engineers placed a time delay in it for opening the cash drawer.  This delay is Too long for most of us.  I prefer my old cash drawer that opens like a rocket ship leaving the earth when I press Tender over the delay.  I tested this when I first got my items, and because of how quick the drawer opened I placed it to the side of my Square Stand so employees will not be hit by the drawer.  Now we say how slow Square is and crack jokes waiting for it to open.  Some of my regulars actually ask 'Will it open today?'.

Slow cash sale :

Speed of a No Sale: