A barcode scanner not scanning is usually not a scanner problem at all. It is a cursor in the wrong place, a scanner in the wrong mode, or a product that never had a barcode saved against it in the first place.

Work through these in order. Most of the time you will be done inside five minutes.

First: does the scanner work at all?

Before touching AgroPOS, test the scanner somewhere neutral.

Open Notepad, click inside it so the cursor is blinking, and scan any product.

  • Numbers appear in Notepad → the scanner is fine. Skip to "It works in Notepad but not in AgroPOS".
  • Nothing appears → the problem is the scanner or the cable, and the section below is for you.

This one test saves more time than anything else on this page, because it tells you which half of the problem you are looking at.

Nothing appears in Notepad

Check the obvious two

Is the red light coming on when you pull the trigger? If not, the scanner has no power — try a different USB port, directly on the PC rather than through a hub or a keyboard.

If the light comes on but nothing types, the scanner is probably in the wrong mode.

Reset the scanner to keyboard mode

Almost every USB barcode scanner works by pretending to be a keyboard. If it has been switched to another mode — serial, or a point-of-sale mode — it will light up and read the barcode but type nothing anywhere.

Every scanner ships with a small setup sheet of barcodes. Find the one labelled "USB HID Keyboard", "USB-KBW", or "Restore factory defaults", and scan it. That single scan fixes a surprising share of dead scanners.

If the sheet has been lost, search the model number plus "keyboard mode barcode" — the manufacturer's sheets are online as PDFs.

Still nothing

Try the scanner on another computer. If it fails there too, it is the scanner. If it works there, the USB ports or drivers on the shop PC need attention.

It works in Notepad but not in AgroPOS

This is the commonest form of a barcode scanner not scanning, and the hardware is fine.

Good — the hardware is fine. Now it is one of three things.

1. The cursor is not in the barcode box

A scanner types wherever the cursor is. If the cursor is in the customer box, or nowhere at all, the numbers go somewhere invisible.

In AgroPOS the POS screen has a barcode field at the top. Click into it once before scanning. If you scan a lot, get into the habit of clicking there after every completed sale.

2. The product has no barcode saved

This is the most common cause by far, and it does not look like a scanner problem at all.

The scanner reads the number off the packet correctly, AgroPOS looks for a product with that barcode, finds none, and shows nothing. It looks broken. It is doing exactly what it should.

To fix it: open the product in Products, and put the barcode in the barcode field — either scan it into the box while editing, or type it. Save. Now the scan will find it.

Every product needs this done once. New stock from a new company needs it again.

3. The scan is going in too fast

Some cheap scanners send characters faster than the software can take them, which shows up as a barcode that is missing its first two digits, or one that scans correctly sometimes.

Look for a transmission speed or inter-character delay barcode on the setup sheet and set it to slow or medium.

The scan reads the wrong number

If the number that appears is close but not the same as the one printed under the barcode, the scanner is set to add or trim characters — a prefix, a suffix, or a check digit setting.

Scan the factory reset barcode on the setup sheet. Do not try to fix this setting by setting.

Do you actually need a scanner?

Worth asking, because a lot of agri-input shops buy one and stop using it inside a month.

Pesticide and fertilizer packs are not reliably barcoded the way grocery items are. Local packing, repacked material and loose sales have no barcode at all, so the scanner sits idle while the counter types anyway.

AgroPOS is built for typing to be fast: search by brand name, company, or technical name. Type "chlorpyrifos" and every brand of it in your stock comes up — not just the one whose label you remembered. For most dealers that is quicker than reaching for a scanner.

Keep the scanner if your stock is properly barcoded. If it is not, you are not missing much.