Pairing a Bluetooth receipt printer
Symptom: Find a Bluetooth printer opens the chooser and your printer isn't in the list — or it was there yesterday and isn't today.
Turn the printer off and on
This is the first thing to try and it fixes most cases. A printer that dropped a connection often stops advertising itself until it restarts.
Only one device at a time
A Bluetooth printer talks to one host at a time. If it is still connected to a phone, a tablet or a laptop somewhere in the shop, it stops advertising and no other device can see it — including this one. Disconnect it there (or switch that device's Bluetooth off), then scan again.
Classic or Low Energy
There are two kinds of Bluetooth printer, and they don't reach the same apps:
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) — most small 58 mm printers. These appear in the browser's and desktop app's choosers. Do not pair them in your computer's or phone's Bluetooth settings; pick them in the app's chooser instead.
- Bluetooth Classic — most Epson and Star models, and many cheap 58 mm printers on Android. Pair these in the operating system first (Settings → Bluetooth / Connected devices), then add them in the app. On iPhone and iPad this works for Epson and Star printers only.
On Android, pair it first
The Android app lists the Bluetooth Classic printers your phone has already paired; it cannot pair one itself. Open Settings → Connected devices → Pair new device, pick the printer (the PIN is usually 0000 or 1234), then come back and scan again. The Open Bluetooth settings button on the "No printer found" screen takes you straight there. A printer that is paired but switched off still shows up as a card; turn it on before the test page.
If the printer also speaks Bluetooth Low Energy, the app shows it once, as the Low Energy card, and no pairing is needed.
Find its Bluetooth name
Print the printer's status sheet — hold the Feed button (on an Epson, with the roll cover open) — and read the Bluetooth name and address off it. That tells you which entry in the chooser is yours when several look alike.
Still stuck?
Use Copy setup report on the trouble screen and paste it into your message.