Square Terminal Troubleshooting
There are basic checks you can do for issues you may encounter with Square Terminal.
General Troubleshooting
Walk through the following before going through issue-specific troubleshooting steps:
Make sure your Square Terminal is fully charged. Double-check the battery symbol in the upper right-hand corner to see your battery level. You can fully charge your Square Terminal in under five hours.
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Make sure the date and time on your Square Terminal are accurate.
If they’re incorrect, update them via the Settings section. To do so, select ≡ More > Hardware > General > Date and Time and adjust accordingly.
Make sure your account is activated for card processing. Square Terminal is only available in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Ireland, France and Spain at this time.
Make sure your device has the latest software. Software updates typically take around 15 minutes to one hour to complete. Square Terminal updates automatically overnight as long as it’s powered on and plugged in.
Wi-Fi Troubleshooting
Confirm Square Terminal is connected to Wi-Fi
Toggle Wi-Fi off and on again via ≡More > Settings > Hardware > Network and check to make sure that you see a tick next to the network to which you’re trying to connect. Confirm that you see the Wi-Fi status indicator in the top-right corner of the status bar.
Keep in mind, you won’t be able to connect your Square Terminal to a captive portal network or unsecured networks. A captive portal is a network that requires you to agree to terms or conditions to access the internet connection (these networks are common at coffee shops, airports and other public internet access points).
Confirm Wi-Fi signal strength
Confirm that you have a strong Wi-Fi signal by checking other devices (such as phones, tablets or laptops) connected to your network near the location of your Square Terminal. The Wi-Fi status indicator in the upper-right corner of the status bar should have three or four white bars to indicate a strong signal. Depending on the position of your router, you may need to move your Square Terminal closer to your router.
Switch to Ethernet
If you have an Ethernet connection available and have purchased Hub for Square Terminal, switch to Ethernet by plugging an Ethernet cable into the port on the USB accessory hub.
Ethernet Troubleshooting
Confirm Square Terminal is connected to Ethernet
Confirm that you can see the Ethernet network status indicator in the top-right corner of the status bar. If you don’t see the Ethernet network status indicator, try unplugging and plugging in the cable from the Ethernet port on the USB accessory hub and from the router and/or modem.
Confirm modem/router connectivity
Test your modem and/or router by plugging in other devices (such as a laptop) and seeing if they connect to the internet.
Switch to Wi-Fi
If you have a Wi-Fi network available, unplug the Ethernet cable and switch to Wi-Fi in Settings. Make sure to unplug the Ethernet cable since the device will default to using an Ethernet connection over Wi-Fi if both are available.
Hub for Square Terminal Troubleshooting
Test another accessory
To determine whether there’s an issue with the hub or with the USB hardware accessory (barcode scanner or printer), try connecting a different USB hardware accessory to the Hub for Square Terminal. Note: Square Terminal is not compatible with Bluetooth accessories.
Test USB ports
Try plugging the USB hardware accessory into a different port. It’s possible the issue may be isolated to one port.
Payment Troubleshooting
Tap/contactless payments aren’t recognised
If you have Default to Customer Checkout enabled, confirm that you’ve pressed the ‘Confirm and Pay’ button to activate the customer display to accept contactless cards or devices. When your Square Terminal is ready to accept payments, you’ll see Tap, Insert or Swipe on your screen.
It’s also possible that the contactless card or contactless payment-enabled phone is damaged or broken. In this case, ask your customer to present a different form of payment.
Chip cards aren’t recognised
Ensure chip cards are inserted with the chip facing up.
If swipe/magnetic stripe cards and contactless payments still work, the card chip may be damaged. In this case, ask your customer to present a different form of payment.
It’s also possible that, if swipe/magnetic stripe cards and contactless payments still work, something may have damaged the chip card slot. If you think this is the case, contact Square Support.
Reset your Terminal
On rare occasions, you may need to perform a factory reset. Don’t worry – resetting your device will not erase important account information like items, transaction histories, customer lists or team permissions. It’ll all be there when you sign back in.
Before resetting your Square Terminal, please have the following information on hand since you’ll need it to log back in afterwards:
Wi-Fi network name and password.
Square login information (email address and password) or device code.
Location name, if applicable.
Accessory settings: printer stations, drawers and any other accessories. A recommendation is to take a picture of the configuration of each connected accessory.
It’s also a good idea to send a Diagnostic Report and Support Ledger from your device prior to factory resetting. Diagnostic reports and Support Ledgers contain essential logs that will help us diagnose and resolve issues faster.
To submit a diagnostic report and support ledger from your Square Terminal:
From the navigation bar at the bottom of your screen, tap More > Support.
Under Troubleshooting, tap Upload Support Ledger
Tap Send Diagnostic Report.
Once you tap Send Diagnostic Report, you can leave the screen and continue using your Terminal normally while the report is sent in the background.
Note: Diagnostic reports can take between two and seven minutes to upload – please ensure you have a strong internet connection and your device is powered on during this time.
To reset your Square Terminal:
Tap ≡ More > Settings > Hardware.
Tap General > About Terminal.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap Factory Reset > Confirm Factory Reset.
Tap Reset one last time. From here the countdown will begin and your Terminal will reset.
Note: If you’re unable to access the Square Terminal settings, hold down the power button for 20–30 seconds until you see a black screen with a countdown timer. Keep holding down the power button until the timer gets to 0 and the screen says you can release the power button. Once the reset is complete, you’ll need to:
Go back through basic setup questions like your time zone.
Reconnect to the internet.
Sign back in with your email address and password or device code.
Add accessories such as cash drawers, printers or barcode scanners. Learn more about connecting compatible hardware to Square Terminal.
Adjust any settings back to your preferences.
Network Requirements
Protocol/Port Allowlist
If you enforce restrictions on which protocols and ports that devices on your network can access, Square devices require the following protocols and their corresponding ports to be allowed through your firewall:
NTP. Note: This is critical for ensuring that the device has the correct time. Connectivity may fail due to certificate validity mismatches if the device time is wrong.
HTTPS (only port 443). Note: All traffic to Square servers is made over HTTPS.
The following ports are also used for network printers, but these don’t require access to the internet:
UDP: 22222, 3289
TCP: 9100:9109
Domain Filtering
If you enforce restrictions on what domains can be accessed from within your network, Square devices require the following domains to be allowlisted.
HTTPS traffic
All subdomains of:
squareup.com
issquareup.com
squarecdn.com
cash.me
cash.app
squarecloudservices.com
As well as the following FQDNs:
api.skyhookwireless.com
notify.bugsnag.com
sessions.bugsnag.com
apytiqcuyrsq6-ats.iot.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
square.site
www.weebly.com
api.mapbox.com
mobile-data.onetrust.io
privacyportal.onetrust.com
cdn.cookielaw.org
memfault-prod-east1.s3.amazonaws.com
memfault-prod-ap-south-1.s3.amazonaws.com
files.memfault.com
device.memfault.com
ingress.memfault.com
NTP traffic
NTP requires access to:
time.android.com
IP Addresses
Square’s IP address ranges are:
US: 74.122.184.0/21
Asia/Pacific: 103.31.216.0/22
Europe: 185.57.56.0/22
Square devices rely on access to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). AWS IP ranges are published here, and Google is AS15169, please add these IP ranges as well.
Note: Square devices have an internal firewall and an internal (domain, not IP) allowlist, and perform TLS certificate pinning on all Square endpoints, so you may consider the IP allowlisting on your side redundant depending on your purpose. It could make sense to ensure Square devices can’t access any internal company IP addresses and leave the rest of the internet open for Square’s on-device firewall and domain filter.
MAC Addresses
Square’s MAC OUI: 44:59:25
Merchants should allowlist all MAC addresses that start with the above prefix (i.e. devices with MAC addresses following the pattern 44:59:25:XX:XX:XX). Alternatively, merchants can allowlist each individual device that shows up with that MAC address prefix (this prefix is owned by Square and should not be used by any other device vendors).
If you have older Square hardware, you may need to also allowlist the following MAC prefixes:
Older MAC OUIs: 2C:D1:41:D, 8C:47:6E:5, 1C:59:74:6
DNS
Square devices are compatible with any DNS server sent to the device over DHCP as long as it works. Feel free to use your ISP’s servers, or your favourite public servers (e.g. Level3 at 4.2.2.1/4.2.2.2).
Supported Network Authentication Protocols
Square devices support:
WPA/WPA2 PSK
WEP (US only)
They do not support:
WPA/WPA2 Enterprise
WPA3 PSK/WPA3 Enterprise
Cleaning your Square Terminal
For minor scuffs and marks, you can use any electronic-safe cleaning cloth. To clean the reader on Square Terminal, you can use card reader cleaning cards or a folded paper towel. Slide the cleaning card or paper towel through the card reader slot to clear any spills or debris.
If you’re still having trouble, please contact Square Support and we can help get you back to business.
Printer Troubleshooting
Make sure the printer is configured correctly. To get started from your Square Terminal:
Tap ≡ More > Settings > Hardware > Printer.
In the ‘Use this printer for’ section, ensure at least one option is toggled on.
Tap Print test to make sure the printer works.
Note: Verify that the printer paper is thermal printer paper – Square Terminal won’t print on non-thermal printer paper.
Make sure there is a paper roll in the printer and the printer cover is fully closed. You need to double-check the receipt printer paper orientation. If the receipt paper is loaded incorrectly, receipts won’t print.
Make sure that the printer door is closed.
If you’ve tried all the troubleshooting steps above and you’re unable to use Square Terminal or connected third-party accessories, contact Square Support and we can help.