# Set up a barcode scanner Connect a barcode scanner to a register, and understand what the scanner row in the status menu can and cannot tell you Source: https://getolet.com/resources/help/hardware/barcode-scanners/ Updated: 2026-10-15 Most barcode scanners need no setup in OLET at all. Pair the scanner to the tablet, point it at a barcode, and the product lands in the cart. ## A keyboard-style scanner Nearly every scanner sold, Bluetooth or USB, works this way. To the tablet it is a keyboard, so it does not appear anywhere in OLET's settings. 1. Pair the scanner to the iPad or iPhone the way you would pair a keyboard, in the iOS **Settings** app under **Bluetooth**. A USB scanner just needs plugging in. 2. Open the sell screen and scan a product. You do not need to tap into the search field first. Scan with the search field focused or not, either works. OLET tells a scan from typing by how fast the characters arrive, and it only treats a burst as a barcode if it is at least six characters long. A very short custom barcode may not register unless your scanner is set to send Enter at the end of a scan. Most are, out of the box. ## A Socket Mobile scanner A Socket Mobile scanner talks to OLET directly instead of pretending to be a keyboard, which is what lets OLET name it on screen. Supported on iPad, iPhone, and Android. Pair it to the tablet, then switch it on. It announces itself to OLET by itself, and there is no button to press in the app. Once it has, the **Scanner** row in the status menu shows the scanner's own name. If it never appears, close and reopen the app: a scanner system that failed to start cannot recover while the app is running, which is why there is no reconnect button for it. **On Android, install Socket Mobile Companion first.** Android needs the separate Socket Mobile Companion app installed, with the scanner added to it, before OLET can see it. iOS needs neither. Without Companion the **Scanner** row says the scanner app is not installed rather than naming a scanner; installing Companion and adding the scanner to it is the fix. This is a one-time, per-register setup step, not something any update to OLET removes. ## What the status row does and does not mean Open the status menu in the app header and you get a **Scanner** row. The row names a scanner only when a Socket Mobile scanner has announced itself. It cannot see a keyboard-style scanner at all, because a keyboard-style scanner is indistinguishable from a keyboard until somebody scans something. So read it this way: - **A scanner named here** means that scanner is connected. - **No scanner connected** is not a fault, and it is not proof that nothing is attached. On a counter with a keyboard-style scanner this is the normal, healthy message. **The only test that means anything is scanning a product.** Do not use the status row to work out whether the gun on your counter is switched on. Scan something and watch the cart. ## Diagnose a scanner over the phone If our support team asks, there is a hidden diagnostics screen. Tap your store logo four times in the app drawer to reach **Support tools**, then select **Scanner diagnostics**. It runs a short list of checks (four on an iPad or iPhone, three on Android) and has a **Copy all results** button, so you can paste the report into an email. On Android the checks cover whether Socket Mobile Companion is installed, whether its capture service started, and whether the connection opened and how many scanners announced themselves. The same screen has a **Send test report** row under **Crash reporting**, which sends a test event to confirm crash reporting works. It is a support surface, not a setting. Nothing on it changes how the register behaves. ## If it goes wrong - **Nothing happens when you scan.** Check the scanner is charged and paired in the iOS **Settings** app. Try scanning into a note or a search field elsewhere on the tablet: if characters appear there and not in OLET, tell us. If they appear nowhere, the problem is the pairing. - **Scanner inactive. Restart the app to connect.** The scanner system failed to start. Close the app fully and reopen it. Nothing else recovers it. - **A product scans but is not found.** The barcode is not on any product yet. Add it to the product in the back office. ## Where to go next - [Scan with the camera](/resources/help/hardware/scan-with-the-camera/), when there is no scanner - [Supported hardware](/resources/help/hardware/supported-hardware/) - [Make a sale](/resources/help/selling/make-a-sale/) - [Create a product](/resources/help/catalog/create-a-product/)