Check in this order
- Paper and lid. Is there a roll, and is the lid fully closed?
- Power. Is the printer's light on?
- Cable. For USB, reseat the cable at both ends. For a network printer, check it still has the IP address the POS expects — see the network section below.
- Permission prompt. After a tablet restart, the tablet may ask for permission to use the printer. If a dialog is waiting on screen, accept it.
- Test Print from Settings → Printer. That tells you whether it's the printer or the order flow.
- Restart the POS app, then the tablet.
If it prints nonsense rather than nothing
The Command language doesn't match the printer. Open the printer in Settings → Printer and check ESC/POS against StarPRNT — it has to match the emulation set on the printer itself.
What the USB messages mean
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| No USB device is selected | Pick the printer from the dropdown, then try again |
| The printer didn't grant USB permission | Unplug the USB cable, plug it back in, and accept the permission prompt |
| Could not open the USB connection | Unplug the printer, wait a few seconds, plug it back in |
| Another app is using this USB printer | Close any other printer app on the tablet |
| The selected USB device is not a printer this app can drive | Wrong device selected — check the dropdown. A hub or adapter can appear here |
If it's a network printer
A network printer doesn't appear in a device list — the POS prints to the IP address you typed, and stops when that address stops being right.
- Confirm the IP. Hold Feed while powering the printer on: it prints a self-test sheet with its IP. Compare that to the one in Settings → Printer.
- Same network. The printer's and the POS's IP addresses should share the first three numbers. A tablet on guest Wi-Fi and a printer on the back-of-house network is the classic split.
- Check the port. Almost always 9100; some models use 9101 or 6101.
- Stop the IP moving. If the router reassigned the address, printing fails until the POS is updated. Give the printer a fixed IP, or reserve its address in your router.
- Ping the printer's IP from a laptop or phone on the same network. If the ping fails, the problem is in the network, not the POS.
- Power-cycle the printer. Wait for a solid status light, then Test Print again.
If a kitchen category isn't printing
Not a hardware fault. Check your printer routing instead.
Catching up after an outage
Tickets that failed while the printer was down aren't lost. Settings → Printer shows a Failed Jobs count; open Failed Kitchen Prints and choose Print All to retry, or Delete All if the food already went out.
Fix the connection before retrying, or they'll fail again.
If the printer is far from the tablet
Long cable runs use an extender. If printing stopped after someone moved furniture or unplugged something, check the extender has power at both ends.
Still not working
Contact support with the printer model, which device it's connected to, the exact message on screen, and when it last worked.