Troubleshoot your cash drawer

When a cash drawer is working properly, it will automatically open when you accept a cash payment. You will also be able to manually open your cash drawer at any time.

This article provides troubleshooting for USB and Printer-driven cash drawers. Learn to Connect a cash drawer to your point of sale.

Before you begin

When to troubleshoot

Cash drawer troubleshooting involves steps that include physically adjusting your cash drawer and checking your printer profile. It may also include resetting your Square hardware or point-of-sale device. If at all possible, try to troubleshoot your Square Stand after hours. If you must troubleshoot during the work day, try to avoid peak busy hours so your customers will experience few delays.

If you have pending offline payments, do not do any of the following actions:

Sign out of the Square POS apps

Delete the Square POS apps

Switch modes

Switch locations

Factory reset your device or Square hardware

Pending offline payments will be permanently lost and the funds won’t be captured. Learn how to process offline payments.

You can restart or power off your device or Square hardware, but you need to power it back on to upload any pending offline payments before they expire. Remember to upload offline payments within 72 hours of taking your first payment.

Third-party cash drawer support

Depending on your issue, you may need to contact the manufacturer – APG or Star Micronics. Attempt the troubleshooting steps below and review your situation to determine if you need to contact APG or Star Micronics.

Option 1: Troubleshoot a USB cash drawer

Make sure that your USB cable is properly connected to both your printer and the Square Stand USB accessory hub. If it looks properly connected, try unplugging and reconnecting both sides of the cable.
Check that your USB hub is properly connected to both your Square device and a power point using the power adapter and power cable.
Try updating and restarting the point of sale app.
If you are using a Square Stand, carefully remove your iPad from the Square Stand and fully power down and restart the device before reconnecting it to the Square Stand. For Square Register and Square Terminal, press and hold the power button and select Reboot.

Option 2: Troubleshoot a printer-driven cash drawer

Make sure you have created and enabled a printer profile for your receipt printer. You can enable a printer profile by navigating to ≡ More > Settings > Hardware > Printers > Profiles > Create profile.
If you already have an active printer profile, ensure that you have enabled Receipts under the ‘Use this Printer for’ setting – this will ensure your cash drawer will open automatically.
Ensure that your interface cable is properly connected to both your printer and cash drawer. If it looks properly connected, try unplugging and reconnecting both sides of the cable. If that doesn’t work, try switching which device each side of the interface cable is connected to.
Restart both the point of sale app and the device running the point of sale app.

Contact cash drawer support

Depending on the assistance you need with your cash drawer, you may need to contact Square Support, APG or Star Micronics. Review the situations below to determine who you should contact.