QR code wont scan

A QR code wont scan when the camera cannot lock the three nested squares, or when modules are too small, smeared, or low-contrast. Start with the printed file. Finder pattern occlusion, a missing four-module quiet zone, and a screenshot plated as art cause most failures. Confirm every fix with a test scan on the real stock.

Why a QR code wont scan at the camera

Phones locate a symbol by the finder squares in three corners. If those nested squares are cropped, covered by a sticker, or drawn over a logo, the rest of the pattern can look sharp and still return nothing. That is finder pattern occlusion, not a broken destination.

Current iOS Camera and Android Camera decode a well-formed symbol from the viewfinder. A guest who "cannot scan" may still have a dirty lens, a frame that also contains a second tent card, or a camera skin that hides auto-detect behind a mode toggle. None of those are generator bugs.

Fix the geometry first. Keep all three finders fully inside the trim. Keep type, foil, and round corners out of the four-module quiet zone. Export SVG or PDF for press rather than a phone screenshot. Then test-scan the reprint at the distance you expect, on the stock you will ship, not on a glowing laptop.

If the pattern decodes but the page is wrong, leave this article and open the destination checks. Ink problems and hop problems share a symptom at the table.

Cropped finder squares hide the symbol from the lens

Cause: a designer treated the nested squares as decoration and ran a bleed, a circular crop, or a large mark over one corner. The spec uses those three finders so the camera can locate the symbol in a messy scene. Cover one and many readers never start decoding.

Fix: rebuild the export with the full square, including the light modules that surround each finder. If you need a logo in the centre, keep it off the finders and inside what error correction H can restore. Do not raise correction and then grow the mark until it eats a corner.

Confirm: print at the final millimetre size. Hold the phone about 30 cm away. If the camera banner appears only after you rotate to show a previously cropped corner, the finder was the fault. A second phone should repeat the same pass.

Trim that eats the four-module quiet zone

Cause: the pattern is butted to a headline, a box stroke, or the trim edge. The spec-minimum quiet zone is four empty modules on every side. Die-cuts and round business-card corners steal that run and look like a "small code" problem when the modules themselves are large enough.

Fix: inset the symbol so the quiet zone sits inside the card or label edge, not on it. On logistics labels, keep the code off fold lines and away from barcodes that share the same camera frame.

Confirm: scan a trimmed sample, not the untrimmed proof. If the untrimmed sheet scans and the cut piece does not, the quiet zone went in the bin. Reprint with inset; do not "sharpen" the file.

A screenshot plated as art

Cause: someone captured the dashboard preview and dropped that raster into the layout. The on-screen preview encodes /qr-preview, not the live payload. Even when you later pay, that screenshot is RGB pixels, often with UI chrome, scaled until grey fills the modules.

Fix: download PNG, JPG, SVG, or PDF from the generator and send vector or a 300 dpi raster of the final millimetre size. Do not plate the preview.

Confirm: scan the press proof. If the phone opens a preview path instead of your site, you printed the mock. Replace the art and scan again. A dynamic URL code should hop through a 302 to the current target, not freeze a screenshot.

Pause on a hosted URL versus a dead payload

Cause: the modules are fine. The hosted hop is paused, the provider is no longer resolving, or the destination URL itself is down. Pause is not archive: user-archived codes keep scanning. A paused hosted code can look identical to a print failure at the table.

A static Wi-Fi symbol has no server hop. If that payload is wrong, the print is the payload. Hosted URL and landing-page types encode a SmartQRCode URL, so the ink can stay while the target moves, for as long as the provider resolves it.

Fix: open the destination in a browser without scanning. If the site is down, repair the site. If the dashboard shows pause, resume it. If you needed a code that outlives any provider, the honest tool was a free static generator such as Canva, not a hosted hop.

Confirm: test-scan after the hop is live. The same physical card should now open the page. If it still fails, you are back in the print causes above.

The phrase hosted pause versus dead ink is the fork after a successful decode. If the camera banners and Safari shows a paused page, the modules are innocent. If the camera never banners, stop debugging the dashboard. Mixed staff reports collapse those two failures into one ticket.

Confirm by covering the code and typing the destination. Typed success plus scan failure is print. Typed failure plus scan failure is the site. Scan success plus paused page is the flag. Write which of those three you saw before you order another box of labels.

When the camera still refuses after those fixes

Change phones. Low light and motion blur fail more often than "wrong app." If two current cameras fail at 30 cm on a 2 cm symbol with intact finders and quiet zone, the file is still the suspect: invert on a dark ground, a logo larger than correction can restore, or modules interpolated from a tiny PNG.

A one-off poster that will never be edited or counted is a Canva or in-app iOS static job. Hosting that throwaway costs a subscription for no scan record you will read. Hosting a menu you reprice weekly is the opposite waste: static ink forces a reprint every time the PDF changes.

If none of the print tests pass, send the printer the vector file at final size, reprint once, and scan the new piece on the real substrate. Do not keep rescuing a screenshot.