Why does my Point of Sale app 'close' when my iPad sleeps?

[Paulyester]

In the past week, something has changed:  When my iPad 'sleeps' between customers, it now 'closes' the Point of Sale app... when 'waking up' the iPad, it is now on the home screen and I must tap the icon and 're-boot' the app... it didn't do that before (previously, when 'awakened,' my iPad went right back to the POS app, right were I left off..

What happened, and how do I get that function back?

[VanKalkerFarms]

sounds like somehow the app is crashing when the iPad goes to sleep.  that isn't something they changed to do that.

I would suggest trying deleting the app and reinstalling in case something got messed up.  you won't lose your information in Square it is all saved in the cloud, you'll just need to sign in with your email address and password and you will be back up and running (not sure if the printer settings will stay though so you may have to set them up again).

[Paulyester]

Deleted and reinstalled the app: no difference.  it's almost like the iOS is closing it upon sleeping...  I also found this, so we'll see:

https://www.sellercommunity.com/t5/Questions-How-To/Known-Issue-With-Square-Stand-and-iOS-12-1/m-p/1...

[EJ_]

Thanks for flagging this to us @Paulyester

This definitely matches what we've heard thus far from Apple, so I'm glad you were able to find the ongoing thread. 

We're working with them directly to get a fix in place, so thank you for being patient with us thus far. 

Keep an eye on that thread for updates!

[spmuseumtn]

I have been having the same issue, but I am on IOS 10. Started about a month ago. Reinstalled the app, no difference, It is VERY annoying, since it takes a while for everything to restart (including checking for updates) and reconnect the readers and barcode scanner.

It is not instantly after the ipad goes to sleep - it seems to take about 10 minutes. If I wake the ipad before then, the app is still there. (the ipad goes to sleep after 5 minutes)

Any help greatly appreciated!

p.s. After I wrote this, I turned off sleep mode on the iPad to see what would happen. The square app did not go away. So it's not crashing.

[Helen]

Hi @spmuseumtn, I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing this issue on your iPad. We haven't heard other reports of this recently and I can see how it would impact sales having to set everything up again. 😞

It would be great if you could call our CS team and let them know this is happening. They can escalate this to our Engineering team to investigate. 

[spmuseumtn]

Hello Helen,

Thank you for your reply. I did call it in about two weeks ago, and was told it would be escalated and I should hear back from them, but I haven't heard yet. How long does it take them to respond?

Thanks!

Alex

[Helen]

Hi again @spmuseumtn, you should have had an update by now, I'm sorry you haven't yet.

I've just asked our CS team to check on this for you and a team member will email you as soon as they can. They might need to confirm details about your iPad/Stand and the troubleshooting steps you've already completed to share with the Engineering team. Keep an eye out for their message! 

[spmuseumtn]

FWIW, my workaround for now is to turn off sleep mode (set to Never in settings) during work hours, and turn it back on at night.

The app hasn't gone away a single time.

[Paulyester]

The only problem with this 'workaround' is when you use an ipad as a mobile register: if you can't keep it plugged in, it burns up the battery if it can't sleep when not being actively used... 😕

[spmuseumtn]

True, that is why I'm hoping that this will be fixed soon! Hopefully, if we keep posting messages in this thread, Square will take notice and do something about it 😉

[Paulyester]

@Helen, still having that issue with my system... every time the ipad goes to sleep, upon reboot, we have to wait for the printer and card reader to reconnect....

[Tom]

Sorry to hear that you're still encountering trouble with this, @Paulyester. I went to check for updates and it looks like Apple is still working on rolling out their fix. If you haven't had the chance already, I would suggest touching base with our Customer Success Team as well—they'll be able to take a deeper dive into your account and rule out any other possible causes for the connection issues. Please don't hesitate to let us know if anything else comes up.

[Chvz]

I'm also having the same exact problem I call support center like 20 times. All they do is give you their classic run around excuses saying " our engineers are working hard to solve this issue" but at the end of the day the problem has not been fix for over two months now and they can't do anything to help you. It is really fustrating having to open the app and wait for everything to reconect for every single transaction not to mention a waste of time when you are real busy having customers waiting to pay. This is very very fustrating!! All of us going through this issue should be getting a credit or discount on the square fees for the agravation we are dealing with until they fix this problem.

[Chad]

Hello @Chvz, we're still waiting on Apple to resolve this issue in the next iOS update.

In the meantime I recommend trying @spmuseumtn work around. It sounds like they've had success by turning off sleep mode on their iPad.

[Chvz]

I have tried that but it doesn't work because we have two other apps in the ipad. We have an appointment app and the pandora app therefore everytime we go to those apps (which we already know that is not the problem) and go back to the square app the square app is closed again. everything was working fine for a couple of years and we have not change anything but one day the square app just starting doing this. It is very fustrating!!!!

I guess there is no point to even being here writing about it because you can't help and you dont have a solution to this problem, Support center does not have a solution to this problem. It seems like no one does and I'm just wasting my time.  If this problem continuos Im planning to change to a better company.

[spmuseumtn]

Well, if nobody says anything, Square won't know how big of an issue this is, and won't allocate any resources to fixing it. I encourage anyone reading this post who is also having this problem to post it here.

[Helen]

Hi again @spmuseumtn, you're right there is another similar issue and affects sellers on iOS 12. I've asked our CS team to email you (very sorry for the delay) so we can escalate to our engineers, or you could call our CS team directly. 

[puka]

Hey all - We definitely hear you on how frustrating the issue is which is why a fix has already been developed, but as stated by Tom and Chad above, we're waiting for Apple to release the new iOS update which will include the fix. We haven't received an exact ETA on our end for when that will be at this time, but we'll update the thread once we hear of any news. Thank you for your patience.

[spmuseumtn]

Thanks Puka, however I am not sure if that would help. The message talks about a problem on IOS 12 and a fix for IOS 12.

I am on IOS 10.3.3 and my tablet cannot be upgraded to IOS 12 (it says software is up to date).

This seems to be a Square app problem, due to a recent upgrade of the app.

Will the fix you are talking about also apply to me?

[DocRoc]

I've had the same problem. I use an old ipad3 and two ipad minis. After a square app update this issue started happening. I'm sure it's not apple since I can't update iOS to anything newer. It is the most frustrating thing I've dealt with in square and I've used square for about 8 years now. It really disrupts my patient flow and sadly it has made me wonder if it's time to consider my options.