POS card reader not connecting

[skuntz24]

I am trying to connect the Tap & Chip card reader to our iPad running Shopify POS. Everything is brand new...the reader and iPad. It sees the reader (after some difficulty), then finally does, we select it, confirm the bluetooth connect pop-up by hitting the "Pair" button, then it says "Connecting to Tap & Chip 3345", but then it says "Tap & Chip 3345 unavailable. An unstable connection may affect card reader functionality". The iPad connects to other bluetooth hardware from the Shopify app, like the scanner and label printer. The card reader DOES connect to my android phone when I install Shopify POS there. Yet it will not connect to the shopify app on the iPad, which is where we need it.

[7Rock]

We have this same issue with a client as well. Tap/chip reader not connecting to iPad. It’s ridiculous the amount of hours we’ve spent with Shopify to get a replacement. From all the threads about this issue, I’m not hopeful a new replacement will fix this for our client. 

but I may want to test with an android tablet next. See if that’s more stable. 

[skuntz24 · Accepted solution]

I believe I found the answer. I read somewhere in the documentation that the card reader will not connect if your shopify POS payment is set to test mode. It was, of course...I was just setting it up. And I can't remember where to change that, I had to google it. But once I clicked it off test mode, I was able to connect.

Of course, it doesn't make sense that I was able to connect the reader to my wife's iPhone. I downloaded shopify POS to her phone and that worked fine. Maybe the "test payments" option can be set per user, and I was logged in my wife's phone with a different user? I don't know...all I know is we are up and running now. But I would definitely check on this.

I'm amazed that the software doesn't realize that you are in test mode and tell you that. I'm a software developer...it's not hard to do. And I'm amazed that shopify support had me try several different things, and did not know this. Not trying to be mean...shopify support has been great and very quick. But I think this could be improved.