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Square Register Troubleshooting

There are basic checks you can do for issues you may encounter with Square Register. Make sure to walk through the following before going through issue-specific troubleshooting steps:

General Troubleshooting

  • Make sure your device is connected to power. Square Register needs to be powered to function.

  • Make sure your device’s date and time are accurate. If they are wrong, please update them in the settings. Tap ≡ More > Settings > Hardware > General > Date and Time and adjust accordingly.

  • Make sure your device has the latest software. Software updates typically take around 20 minutes to complete, but may take up to one hour. Square Register will update automatically overnight as long as it is powered on and plugged in.

To update your Square Register software:

  1. Tap ≡ More > Settings > Hardware > General > About Square Register > Software Update

  2. Tap Check for Update to see if there is an available software update.

  3. If you see Software Up To Date then you are all set.

Payment Troubleshooting

Customer display doesn’t recognize tap or contactless payment.

  • On Square Register, confirm that you’ve pressed the Charge button to activate the customer display to accept contactless cards and phones. The LED indicators should light up when you tap the Charge button.

  • If the contactless card or NFC-enabled phone is damaged or broken, ask your customer to use a different form of payment.

Chip cards aren’t recognized.

  • Ensure chip cards are inserted with the chip facing towards the buyer when the customer display is both docked and undocked.

  • If magstripe and contactless payments still work, the chip may be damaged. In this case, ask your customer to present a different form of payment.

  • If magstripe cards and contactless payments still work, something may have damaged the chip card slot. If you think this is the case, contact Square Support.

Payments aren’t going through.

  • Check your Wi-Fi and Ethernet connection by following the troubleshooting steps below.

Display Troubleshooting

Connectivity

Is the customer display connected to Register properly?

  • If your device is docked:

    • Make sure that the display is docked completely and evenly on both sides. There should not be any gap between Register and the customer display and you should hear the latch click on both the left and right sides of the customer display.

    • See if undocking and connecting the customer display via USB cable works. This can help Square diagnose whether it is an issue with the docked position only.

  • If undocked and connecting via USB cable:

    • Make sure that the USB cable is plugged in properly into both the customer display and the bottom of the Register.

    • See if docking the customer display works. This can help us diagnose whether it is an issue with the undocked position only (It is possible that there is an issue with the cable that connects to two devices).

Display Issues

Most display issues, such as a few common ones listed below, are resolved by undocking/docking or unplugging/plugging in the customer display. You can also reboot the system by using the power on the bottom edge of Square Register.

  • Customer display not responding to touch.

  • Customer display frozen on one screen.

  • Customer display stuck on the Square logo.

If you’re still having trouble after you’ve tried these troubleshooting steps, please contact our Support Team.

Bosstab Countertop Mount Troubleshooting

If your customer display is connected to a Bosstab Countertop Mount for Square Register and you are experiencing issues, please see our Bosstab Countertop Mount FAQ.

Hub Connectivity Troubleshooting

Test another accessory

  • To determine whether there is an issue with the Hub or with the USB hardware accessory (printer, barcode scanner, cash drawer), try connecting a different USB hardware accessory to the Hub.

Test USB ports

  • Try plugging the USB hardware accessory into a different port. The issue may be isolated to one port.

Wi-Fi Troubleshooting

Confirm Square Register is connected to Wi-Fi
Toggle Wi-Fi off and on in Settings > Hardware > Network and check to make sure that you see a checkmark next to the network to which you are trying to connect. Confirm that you see the Wi-Fi status indicator on the top right corner of the status bar.

Keep in mind, you won’t be able to connect your Square Register to a captive portal network. 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) on your network near the location of your Square Register. The Wi-Fi status indicator in the upper right corner of the status bar should have 3-4 white bars to indicate a strong signal. Depending on the position of your router, you may need to move your Square Register closer to your router. If it does not, consider contacting your network professional.

Switch to Ethernet
If you have an Ethernet connection available, switch to Ethernet by plugging in a cable to the port on the Hub.

Ethernet Troubleshooting

Confirm Square Register 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 Hub and from the router 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 Ethernet connection over Wi-Fi if both are available.

Offline Mode Troubleshooting

If Offline Mode is enabled in your settings, Square Register will automatically activate Offline Mode if your internet connection is disrupted or lost. If your device goes into Offline Mode without losing a network connection, try the following troubleshooting steps:

  1. Forget the network you are connected to on your device.

  2. Reconnect to the same network.

  3. Reboot the system by pressing the power button on the bottom edge of Square Register.

Note: Do not factory reset your Square Register. Doing so will delete any Offline payments you have not uploaded.

Learn more about accepting payments in Offline Mode.

Reset your Register

On rare occasions, you may need to perform a factory reset. Don’t worry: resetting your device will not erase important account settings like items, transaction histories, customer lists, or team permissions. It will all be there when you sign back in.

Before resetting your Register, please have the following information on hand since you’ll need it to log back in afterwards:

  • Wi-Fi network name and password.

  • Account login information (email and password) or device code.

  • Location name, if applicable.

  • Accessory settings: printer stations, drawers, and any other accessories. Recommendation is to take a picture of the configuration of each 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 Register:

  1. From the navigation bar at the bottom of your screen, tap More > Support.

  2. Under Troubleshooting, tap Upload Support Ledger 

  3. Tap Send Diagnostic Report.

  4. Once you tap Send Diagnostic Report, you can leave the screen and continue using your Register normally while the report is sent in the background.

Note: Diagnostic reports can take between 2-7 minutes to upload—please ensure you have a strong internet connection and your device is powered on during this time.

To factory reset your Square Register:

  1. If you have taken any offline transactions, be sure to reconnect to the internet and process them before proceeding. Pending offline payments will be permanently lost and the funds won’t be captured when you reset your device.

  2. Tap the down arrow on your Register and tap Settings.

  3. Tap Hardware > General > About Register.

  4. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap Factory Reset > Confirm Factory Reset.

  5. Tap Reset one last time. The countdown will begin and your Register will reset.

Important to note: We are experiencing a known issue with Square Registers running on OS version 5.43 after a factory reset is performed. Square Register may start to crash periodically, which may result in your screen going black, showing the Square logo, and reverting back to the previous screen you were on before the crash. 

To resolve and prevent this issue, you’ll need to Restart your Square Register every time after performing a Factory Reset. To do so:

  1. Make sure you are connected to the internet.

  2. Hold the power button down and release as soon as you see the Restart option.

  3. Tap Restart.

Note: If you hold the power button down too long and see a black screen with a count-down timer, immediately release the power button before the timer goes to 0. If you don’t, this will Factory Reset your Square Register instead of restarting it.

Once the reset is complete, you’ll need to reconnect to your internet connection and sign back in.

  1. Go back through basic setup questions like your time zone, date, and time.

  2. Reconnect to the internet and sign back in with your email and password or device code.

  3. Add accessories such as cash drawers, printers, barcode scanners, or scales. Learn more about connecting compatible hardware to Square Register.

  4. Adjust any settings back to your preferences.

Network Requirements

Protocol/Port Allowlist

If you enforce restrictions on what 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 do not 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 also rely on access to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). AWS IP ranges are published here, and Google is AS15169.

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 just 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 (ie. 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 favorite 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 Register

When cleaning the outside of your Register, first shut down your Register and unplug the power adapter. Then use a damp, soft, lint-free cloth to clean the Register’s exterior. Avoid getting moisture in any openings. Do not spray liquid directly on the Register. Don’t use aerosol sprays, solvents, abrasives, or cleaners containing hydrogen peroxide that might damage the finish.

To clean the screen on your Register, first shut down the device and unplug the power adapter. Dampen a soft, lint-free cloth with water only, then use it to clean Register’s screen.