Why is my POS app lagging during checkout?

[Uuser]

We went live in our first Shopify POS location and have found out that Shopify POS app has lot of lag when initiating the checkout process, sometimes it takes up to a minute to load the payment options section. The workaround is to restart Shopify POS app, then it works ok for few times. And then the issue comes back again.

iPad's are used, latest iPadOS version and Shopify POS app version are used. Reset of Shopify POS app and restarting the iPad and router does not help. Shopify Support has been contacted but issue is not yet solved. 

Just wondering if other merchants have this issue and is there a solution?

[EricWong]

Same issue here. We will need to go offline for the payment option screen to appear. Seems like this is a software issue rather than a hardware problem as I notice other people are also experiencing the same issue.

[Uuser]

I have noticed that we do not have the issue when external payment terminal is used. When Wisepad3 is used as an integrated payment terminal, then we have the issues.

[mamnord]

We have that problem with our pos too.
Trying to isolate the problem.
For us it happens on LTE and we need to restart the app about every 3 clients.

[Shopera]

We are a large business, using Shopify within our shop and over several floors of the building with a standard iPad and Wisepad setup. We see over up to 5,000 customers in a short period of time on our busiest days. What we encounter mainly is delay on loading the checkout with a long lag and buffer which says "trying to connect to internet. Please check your connection and try again". We have tried a number of troubleshooting steps as follows:

Updating devices

Updating shopify

Stalling updates to see if the updates are having a negative effect

Changing location of devices

Upgrading AP points to highest spec possible

Whitelisting devices on the internet to ensure they won't get kicked off if system overloaded

Buying new 2024 10th gen iPads

Buying Samsung Tablets

Docking POS Go as a PDQ to see if the connection between WisePad and iPad was the issue

Reconfiguring ethernet ports to connect iPads via ethernet to the system.

None of the above has worked to change our fortunes. It appears no matter the hardware, internet, location, updates, connection method, the lagging checkout and "trying to connect to the internet. Please check your connection and try again" persists.

I've spoken to Shopify about a solution, but they haven't been able to help, running me through all troubleshooting options (which have already been tried) before suggesting I report a bug on the devices, which I've done over the past 2 weeks, but has yielded no contact from them. I've since been back in touch to reopen the ticket, but it all points to issues with the software itself. I'd suggest not investing in troubleshooting until pressing shopify to fix it on their end.

Alternatively, has anyone had any help?

[Mamarmite]

Recently it got better for us.
The only thing that I changed is to add the permission for the third-party cookies to the POS app.
As suggested for ios 14 (https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/sell-in-person/shopify-pos/troubleshooting#ios-14-permission-requ...) even if we wasn't on ios14.
But it's weird. The issues wasn't 100% fixed after that. But now it's more stable.
So I assume it's a mix of problems from the POS app and Shopify. Maybe with third-party apps and the new POS features.

It wasn't the network (we almost always use the POS on cell data, on wifi it was working). And our LTE connection was always good (tested).

[Shopera]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. This has always been activated on ours and hasn't been a solution to the problems unfortunately.

[Uuser]

Hi,

something must have changed at Shopify's end because we have not lately experienced the issue anymore. Unfortunately I cannot say what the root cause was.

Here is one thing our network team did, but I do remember that it did not initially seem to fix the issue: disable QUIC-protocol when communicating to Shopify.

[Uuser]

Here is the QUIC-protocol change we did in more detail, it is a rule in the store's firewall for outgoing traffic, destination is the Shopify store address:

One column is missing in the right, it says "Security profiles" and the value is: "SSL no-inspection". 

We tried several things when we were facing the issue and this was one of them.

[CR-IT-DEPT]

Makes sense. We have the same and no ssl-inspection. 

[RobertCo]

Hi, we've got 5 stores with about 40 POS devices currently experiencing our busiest period of the year and this issue seems to be happening to us on a very frequent basis. Likewise we're going through troubleshooting with Shopify (we've followed all the same steps as you have) as well as moving some of our devices onto a mobile network, having some devices without a card reader connected etc. and seem to not be getting anywhere very fast. Did you manage to make any progress with Shopify on this / made any developments in understanding what's going on?

Thanks.

[RobertCo]

Just giving the thread a bump to see if anyone else is still experiencing these issues? Would love to hear feedback from other retailers, so I can provide it Shopify in the pursuit of getting this completely resolved. 

[mamnord]

I think I found another hypothesis to confirm.
It seem to be related to our paiement wisepad that goes on "sleep" mode. If we force it up before paiement it goes "ok"-ish.

Anyone can test that ?

[Uuser]

You can remove Wisepad3 from Shopify POS setup and do few test sales without it. If issues go away I think that would be a good way to put pressure to Shopify to fix the issue.

[RobertCo]

We've done some testing with devices not connected to a Wisepad and experienced the same issue at roughly the same frequency. We also have a few devices connected up to a POS Go + Docking Station being using a card reader for Shopify POS and they're also having the same problems.

[CR-IT-DEPT]

We are an I.T. Department that deals with a couple of Shopify POS terminals. Been experiencing this issue on and off for months, extremely frustrating for the Terminal Staff. We have followed all the Steps:

-Latest updates for IOS and Shopify Apps always installed
-Used both Shopify GO or WisePad payment terminal
-Setting up independent Wifi environments without any other devices (on independent ISP separate from the corporate network)
-Prioritizing iPad and Payment Terminal traffic and guaranteeing highest levels of bandwidth at every point in the network
-iPad always getting 400Mbps+ down and 75Mbps up on SpeedTests on independent WiFi networks
-Tried cellular modems and connections for POS setups (again, independent of the corporate network)
-No geoblocks or other firewall rules interfering. Again highest priority in/out for the Shopify POS System IP's

-Item list on the POS app is relatively small with only a few buttons/choices and slow/crashing transactions happen with 1 item in the cart

All signs are pointing to Shopify being the problem, wanted to make sure we tried everything before engaging them but at this point I don't have much confidence in them being able to resolve this since they can't pass a few kilobytes of traffic efficiently to confirm a transaction without the app glitching and Staff having to force close/reopen and redo the transaction, it works fine for 1-2 transactions then glitches again. Extremely frustrating as it's a coffee shop doing a lot of transactions per hour.

Will keep everyone posted with what Shopify says...

[RobertCo]

When you say you've used 'Shopify Go' during your testing do you mean you've used them as a payment terminal connected to an iPad running Shopify POS?

If you've got the unlocked Shopify GO devices that can be used as a standalone Shopify POS it would be worth trying these - we've experienced no issues using the POS Go devices.

[CR-IT-DEPT]

We have it connected to an iPad running Shopify POS, Yes. 

We haven't tried using it as a standalone device since the screen is a bit small and Staff are used to their ipad. I suspect moving the Go Terminal back and forth between the Staff punching in their order and then showing it to the customer would get a bit annoying but at this point we're willing to try anything to alleviate some of these headaches.

When you say you haven't experienced any issues with Shopify Go devices are you just referring to using them as standalone devices or having them connected to an iPad running Shopify POS? You mentioned in your other reply that switching between hardware like WisePad or Go doesn't solve the problem.

Just to clarify. We prefer iPad and IOS because we have the ipads remotely managed so we can update apps, push updates, remotely manage our tablets and mobile devices. We use IOS exclusively for our phones and tablets. I know you can do similar things with Android but it's just another system to setup and we'd rather not for 1 devices..

[RobertCo]

The issue *seems* to purely be with the iOS version of Shopify POS and so if you're using the iOS version of Shopify POS and are experiencing the problems then regardless of what hardware / network setup / connected payment device etc. that you have you'll experience the issue. The POS GO (when used as a standalone device) is using the android (or a version of the android) Shopify POS. As a result Shopify Go shouldn't experience the issue. 

We felt that the experience that our customers were having to deal with, with the issues of the payment connections was worse than having to switch to using POS Go devices until Shopify is able to resolve the problem.

[CR-IT-DEPT]

Good to know, thank you. That makes sense regarding the POS Go being Android based. We'll set it up and try it, just want to eliminate the headaches for everyone involved at this point.

[RobertCo]

I think it's unrelated as we also have experienced issues with Cellular data - however we have had instances this year with DNSFilter blocking Shopify generated cloudflare addresses - do you guys use DNSFilter or something similar?

[CR-IT-DEPT]

No, those IP addresses are able to talk to everywhere in the outside world without anything stopping or filtering them. The generated cloudflare addresses seem interesting, do you happen to have more info on those, or documentation, couldn't really find anything online and haven't done a firewall trace on the traffic in a bit.

Edit: Do you mean the shopify store's address? my-store.shopify.com

[RobertCo]

During app development when you want to preview an app on a store, shopify generates a cloudflare address (https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/scaffold-app) - occasionally DNSFilter is blocking these URLs as malicious.  Issue started occurring for us roughly around the same time as the issues with Shopify POS - but as mentioned we have experienced these same POS issues on cellular data which isn't effected by DNSFilter so I think a red herring.

[ACQUIREandCo]

Just got off the phone with Shopify POS Support.

We've had this problem for about the duration of this thread.  Followed all the steps like the rest of us; even upgraded to hopped up iPad Pro to eliminate doubt of 3 year old iPad.  

Heavier volume is where our issues show up.  

Shared this thread with the agent who took note and promised to send along for review.

We're running Chipper 2X BT for payment capture.  Was informed these have been discontinued.  Now going to order new capture hardware to see if that helps.  Any suggestions are welcomed.

We hate shotgunning hardware at this, but we've tried everything else.  

We will allegedly receive a follow up email regarding this thread, so stay tuned...

[RobertCo]

We've been liaising with Shopify consistently for about 3 months now and although they haven't yet found a solution, they seem to be taking the problem seriously. I can confirm from our own testing that a hardware change re the payment capture (e.g. switching to wisepad or the POS terminal) will not solve this problem. However we're under the theory that this issue does not occur on Android devices (only iPad / iOS) - although we haven't personally tested this on android tablets. 

[Mamarmite]

We have tested on android phone, and the wisepad and checkout correctly.
Indeed that target to a problem with ios POS version.

[Shopera]

We've been using POS Gos as stand alone devices along with trialling with an android tablet. 

Unfortunately, we haven't seen this resolve issues completely. There still seems to be problems with lag and disconnection. I wouldn't recommend anyone to completely switch over to android thinking all the issues will go. Seems to be better but still not a complete fix.

[CR-IT-DEPT]

Is it at least better? We have a camera on the POS terminal and the staff exit the app and go back in every 2-3 transactions, the transaction seems to work right after they re-open the app, then the next transaction is super laggy but goes through, then the next transaction lags again and they have to exit. I have an Android tablet in my cart 😕

[RobertCo]

Can you let me know what sort of issues you're experiencing on the POS Go - are they the exact same experience as you were seeing on an iPad or different?

[CR-IT-DEPT]

We have the POS Go connected to an IOS ipad and Shopify stand. We use the Go as a customer facing terminal only, it shows their order, their total, then displays a thank you message when they finish the transaction. We haven't used it as standalone store terminal since the screen is small.

[RobertCo]

No worries - I was more responding to @Shopera to understand what they're seeing their end. Over the last couple of days we've experienced an issue with the POS Go going to white screen during the payment process requiring a device restart but this is happening at a much much reduced rate but otherwise not seen the same issues as the iPad version. 

[Wandaharland]

I'm having this exact same issue, so just joining the thread in the hopes that something gets solved and I'm notified! It's been about 4 months now and I've tried all the same steps as everyone above (and as advised by Shopify) and basically most customers are just having to leave before their receipt is printed.

[tim_gordon]

We have the same config: POS Go connected to IOS iPad, both connected via Wifi. As others have reported we have checked our network carefully and this is not a local network issue, we see the lagging issue and often timeout every day but sometimes it works fine. We have a spare POS Go and have been using that in standalone mode, that works perfectly. So I agree that this seems to be an issue specific to the IOS Shopify App.

[RetailStore1999]

Joining the thread, we're in Ontario, Canada dealing with the same issue. We have 4 stores in 4 different cities, however only 1 location is experiencing this problem. We currently run the same Ipad Pro's 12.9 with the latest IOS and using the Shopify POS app at all 4 locations. The newest location is experiencing this issue. We opened 2 weeks ago. The other locations haven't had a single problem. Internet is a Telus mobile hot spot hub with a sim card for all locations. And we use a separate Debit/credit terminal for all as well. Just keeps loading at after the checkout screen, mainly on the page after you pick cash or debit. If you close the app and restart it, it works again. With xmas time coming, I'm worried for when it gets busy. I've updated the IOS and the shopify app. I have also enabled the 3rd party portion in the shopify settings. 

[PLP2025]

Hi, wondering how your setup has been? Still only one location affected? Was it worse during the holidays?

[RetailStore1999]

Hi! Thanks for asking! It’s still just the one location. During the holidays it was horrible. Taking up to 10mins to process certain orders. On Boxing Day, we couldn’t even use the system. We did everything old school on paper. Had to punch it all in after words. Not sure what else to do.

Thanks
Karim

[tim_gordon]

Here in Australia we are still seeing this issue using iPad in combination with POS Go as the terminal. Today I noticed that there was an update for the IOS app so have updated that and will monitor over the next few days.

I am interested if others are still seeing this issue? It is ruining what is otherwise a great setup and other than this issue we are happy with Shopify but can't continue with such flaky payment terminal. From this thread and others it seems that Android tablets do not suffer with this so I am considering swapping the iPad. Can anyone comment on if that is still true and Android is reliable? 

[CR-IT-DEPT]

Hopefully the ios update works for you but I have my doubts. I too saw it working better and thought it was finally solved but the problem always re-emerged couple of days later, this happened several times. It is quite sad, all our mobile devices are ios and we use an MDM to manage them, we too had a great ipad setup and were sad to see it go.

We finally gave up and I got a Samsung Android tablet and set that up and haven't had any complaints since. I know others have said it happens with Android sometimes too but I haven't heard a word since we swapped out the ipad.

Happy it worked since next step would have been to move away from Shopify. Not sure what the problem could be and why they cannot fix it. It might work for retail where there are a few transactions per hour but we're a pretty busy Cafe and couldn't be opening/closing the app every 2nd transaction.

[CR-IT-DEPT]

We ended up replacing the ipad with a Samsung Android tablet and haven't heard any complaints since. 

Not sure what the problem is and why Shopify can't fix it. It was a no brainer to spend the $350CAD to get a Samsung tablet vs all the time were were spending spinning our wheels troubleshooting

[tim_gordon]

I came within days of throwing out the iPad but was reluctant since I had also bought an iPad specific mount. But from around Feb onwards this issue seems to have been fixed.