QR code paused or archived

A QR code paused or archived can look identical on the wall and behave opposite on the phone. Pause is a separate flag that can stop the hop. User-archived rows still hop. Confirm with a test scan: a paused card should not open your live page; an archived card still should.

What QR code paused or archived actually means on a scan

Hosted URL and landing-page types encode a SmartQRCode path. The dashboard can pause that path or archive the row. Archive does not mean "delete from the physical world." User-archived codes keep scanning. Pause is the lever that takes a live poster offline without a reprint.

Static Wi-Fi has neither pause nor archive in the hop sense. The payload is in the modules. Taking Wi-Fi down means collecting cards.

If you needed a poster that dies when you throw away a login, you wanted a hosted hop on purpose. If you needed a poster that outlives any account, you wanted a Canva one-off or another free static file.

Scan totals still measure scans, not people, and they cannot name the scanner.

Pause is a separate flag that stops the hop

Cause: the campaign is "off" in someone's head but the code is only archived, or the reverse: it is paused and staff think the printer failed. Guests report a dead QR. The vinyl is fine.

Fix: read both states. If guests should reach the site, the code must not be paused. If guests should not, pause it. Do not use archive as a mute button.

Confirm: scan the same physical card before and after you flip pause. You should see a paused page, then the live destination. A second phone should match. If pause does nothing, you are holding a static print or a screenshot of /qr-preview.

User-archived rows keep resolving by design

Cause: a cleanup pass archived old retail codes. Packs still scan. That is specified behaviour, not a bug. People then "fix" it by reprinting.

Fix: leave archive for house-keeping. Use pause to stop hops. If the destination must change, edit the hosted target; the ink can stay.

Confirm: archive a test code, print it, scan it. It should still open. Then pause a different test code and scan that. It should not open the live page. Those two results are how you know the states apart.

Confirming pause with a test scan that should hit a paused page

Cause: someone toggled pause on the wrong row, or the app they scanned still holds a 301 from another vendor. The dashboard looks paused; one phone still opens last week's site.

Fix: test on a handset that has never scanned the old hop. This product uses 302 on redirects so edits and pause can land. Mixed-vendor history still poisons individual devices.

Confirm: private Safari, fresh phone, scan. If you land on a paused page, pause worked. Resume and scan again. If both scans open the same live site, you did not pause the row that this print encodes. Check the short code in the dashboard against the download you plated.

Archive is not a substitute for a static file

Cause: teams archive everything at season end and assume the world went dark. Hosted prints keep working. Meanwhile a static Canva file from the same season also keeps working, for a different reason: there is no server to ask.

Fix: pick the encoding on purpose. Hosted means you must operate pause and live with provider resolution. Static means you must collect paper. Dynamic URL and tracked URL are hosted. Wi-Fi is static.

Confirm: write the rule on the brief: "season end = pause these short codes" or "season end = bin the posters." Test-scan one leftover piece on day two.

A paused page after a scan is the success signal for mute. If you expected silence and got the live offer, you paused a different row than this print encodes. Match the short code on the download filename to the row you toggled. Bulk actions make this mistake easy.

Archive is not a static kill. Static kills require collecting paper or encoding a payload that never asks a server. If the goal was "this cling must die when we close the popup shop," pause while you still have the dashboard, or print static and bin the clings. Mixing those intents is how leftover windows keep selling a closed offer.

Teams and owners can both toggle pause. Write who is allowed to mute a live window. Confirm with a test scan after the named person toggles, not after a Slack claim that someone did.

If a custom scan hostname is in play, a paused code should still show a paused page on that hostname, not a generic 404. Confirm on the hostname guests actually scan. A mismatch here is DNS or routing, not archive.

Write the short code on the back of the physical card in pencil. When a guest reports a dead window, you can match pencil to row without guessing. Confirm pause on that row, then scan. If pencil and row disagree, the download was the wrong file.

When Canva is enough because you wanted the code gone from ink

If the job is a single party poster you will never pause, never count, and never edit, a one-off static generator is the honest tool. There is no pause state to misunderstand.

If the job is a window cling you will mute on Tuesday, print a hosted code and practise the pause test before the cling ships. Provider resolution remains the trade: an unpaid invoice or a pause can stop a physically perfect print. Archive will not.