Troubleshooting

Fixes for the problems merchants hit most — sign-in, orders not refreshing, printing, menu changes not appearing.

By Help Desk

• 7 articles

I cannot sign in to the merchant portal

"Invalid username or password" Check the obvious things first: - The first box is Username, not your email address. If you have been typing an email, that is likely the problem. - Check for a trailing space from a copy and paste. - Check caps lock. If the credentials are right and it still fails, your user may have been set to Inactive, or the store itself may be inactive. Either way the message is the same, so an admin at your store should open Users and check your row, and contact us if it looks fine. "Maximum login attempts reached. Try again later." Too many failed attempts in a row. Wait, then try again with a password you are confident about — repeated guessing extends the block. If you are not sure of the password, get it reset first rather than guessing again. There is no "forgotten password" link The merchant login screen has no self-service reset. Your options are: 1. Ask a colleague who is an Admin. They can open Users, select Edit on your row, and set a new password — see Add a staff login to the merchant portal. 2. Contact support, if nobody at your store can get in. The Forgot password link your customers use is on the diner sign-in, not the merchant one — it will not help you. "You are already logged in!" Not an error. A session is still open. Select Dashboard to carry on, or Logout to sign in as someone else. Half the portal is missing after you sign in You are signed in as a non-admin user. Settings, Users, Billing, POS Integration, printer settings and the Transactions report are removed from the page entirely for Admin: No users. See Find your way around the merchant portal.

Last updated on Aug 27, 2026

The Orders screen says it cannot check for new orders

The red banner The application was unable to check for new orders and will automatically try again every N seconds. Last successful update: HH:MM The portal has lost contact with us. It keeps retrying on its own, so you do not need to restart anything — but until the banner clears, the list on screen is stale and new orders may already be waiting. Check, in this order: 1. Your internet. Load any other website on the same machine. 2. Reload the page. A tab that has been open for days is the most common cause. 3. Your router or Wi-Fi, if other devices are also struggling. 4. A second device — a phone on mobile data. If orders come through there, the problem is your shop's connection rather than us. Watch Last successful update. Once it starts moving again, the connection is back. While the banner is up, run the shop from a phone on mobile data, or from your POS if orders route there. The blue banner is not an error There are currently no orders awaiting fulfilment. Last updated: HH:MM This is the normal idle state — the portal is talking to us fine and there is simply nothing waiting. Orders never arrive at all If the screen is refreshing happily and orders are genuinely not coming: - Check the badge at the top of the screen says OPEN. See Open or close your store for online orders. - Check today is ticked in the Trading Hours grid, and that a Special Date has not closed you. See Change your trading hours. - Check your menu is published — the Dashboard setup checklist shows Publish your menu with a Not live yet chip if it is not. Never miss one again Turn on Order Notifications so a new order reaches you by email or SMS regardless of what the Orders screen is doing — see Get an email or SMS on every order.

Last updated on Aug 27, 2026

Menu changes are not reaching your customers

If your store is connected to a POS Look at the top of Menu Builder → Menu. On a POS-linked store there is a blue banner naming your system: Use this area only to deactivate menu items that you do not want customers to order online, or to change the order in which they appear to your customers. Kounta is the master of your menu, so all other product, modifier, optionset and price changes should be performed in Kounta and then sync'd to mypreorder (Settings > POS Integration). The same banner exists for Square, Vend and Tyro Connect. Safe to do in the portal - Deactivate an item or mark it sold out — see Mark a menu item sold out. - Reorder items with the up and down arrows. Do in your POS instead, then sync - Prices - New products, groups or modifiers — the New Menu Item, New Menu Group and New Modifier buttons are hidden on these stores for exactly this reason - Optionsets and modifier changes Run the sync from Settings → POS Integration — see Sync your menu from your POS. It can take several minutes on a large catalogue. If you are not on a POS Work through these: - Are you editing the right menu? The Preorder Menu and Catering Menu buttons at the top right of Menu Builder switch between two entirely separate menus, each with its own items and settings. - Is the item Active? Select its Status label and check. - Is the fulfilment type ticked? An item with Available for set to pickup only will not show to a customer ordering delivery. The Available for column in the menu list shows TA, DI, DY, SO, ALL or N/A — select Key below the list for the legend. - Is it time-restricted? The Available section of the item editor limits it to certain days or hours. - Is it VIP, Wholesale or Staff only? Those statuses hide it from ordinary customers. Photos are not appearing Product photos only show to customers if Display Images is ticked in Menu Builder → Menu Settings. It is also a row in the Dashboard setup checklist, Show your product photos. The Save buttons are missing Some stores are set so only Admin users can change the menu. A non-admin sees the screens but not the New or Save buttons.

Last updated on Aug 27, 2026

Order dockets are not printing

First: reprint by hand Open Orders and find the order. - Android Quick Printer stores have a Print button in the order's main button row. - Epson ePOS stores have Print Order in the order's More menu. If the manual reprint works, the printer is fine and something upstream did not trigger it. If it does not, work through the checks below. Which printer do you have? Look at Settings. Only the printer types enabled for your store are listed. You may see Star Cloud Printer, Epson ePOS Printer, Android Printer, or none at all. The settings tabs are admin-only. Star CloudPRNT The commonest causes, in order: 1. The printer is on USB. CloudPRNT needs ethernet — Star does not support it over USB. 2. The Server URL is wrong. In the Star Intelligent Network Utility it must be exactly https://merchant.mypreorder.com.au/services/s/starprint.php 3. CloudPRNT Service is not enabled on the printer. 4. The MAC Address in the portal does not match the printer, character for character. 5. An IP Address has been entered in the portal. That disables CloudPRNT — the field's own help text says so. Clear it. 6. Polling time is too aggressive or too slow. No less than 30 seconds, or 10 seconds for a kiosk printer. See Set up a Star CloudPRNT receipt printer. Epson ePOS 1. Use Test Connection on Settings → Epson ePOS Printer. It tells you immediately whether the printer is reachable. 2. Check the Printer IP Address is still correct. A printer on DHCP can be given a new address after a power cut — set a static address or a DHCP reservation. 3. Check ePOS-Print is enabled in EpsonNet Config, and that the Device/Printer ID there matches the portal. The Epson default is usually local_printer. 4. Check the Printer Port. Common ports are 8008, 8043 and 9001. See Set up an Epson ePOS receipt printer. Android Quick Printer 1. Check the Printer Name in Settings → Android Printer matches the name in the Android Quick Printer app exactly. The default is receipt. 2. Check the app is still running on the device — Android battery saving closes it. 3. Check the device is awake and on the network. Still nothing Note which printer type you have, what the settings screen shows, and whether Test Connection passes, then contact support with those details.

Last updated on Aug 27, 2026

My QR codes have stopped working

If a printed QR code no longer opens your menu, the link behind it has almost certainly expired. The QR Codes screen states it: Google no longer supports Dynamic Links as of 25 August 2025. After this date your existing Links and QR codes will no longer work. Use the Regenerate button next to your existing links to generate replacement QR codes. Fix it 1. Open QR Codes from the Dashboard. 2. Find the affected row in Generated QR Codes. 3. Select Regenerate. 4. Select Download. 5. Reprint the code and replace the one on the table, poster or flyer. Do this for every code showing a Regenerate button. Each table has its own code, so every table's printed card needs replacing. Codes already printed and in the wild will not start working again on their own — the image encodes the old link. While you are there Check anywhere else the old link was used: your website, social posts, printed flyers, table talkers. The QR image and the link are the same thing, so anything carrying the old one is dead too. See Create a QR code for a table or a promotion.

Last updated on Aug 27, 2026

I cannot tick the SMS or email option on an announcement

Both channels run through your own provider account, not ours. Until yours is connected and switched on, the controls stay visible but disabled with the reason beside them in red. Email is missing or disabled The Email (optional) block is hidden entirely unless your store has its own verified email gateway. Go to Settings → Email Settings and look at the Configuration Status box at the bottom: - Verified: No — you saved settings but never proved them. Select Send Test Email. - Verified: Yes, Active: No — the test passed but you never finished. Select Activate Service. Saving alone never enables sending. The Dashboard checklist calls this out as Finish setting up your email service — "Your settings are saved but not switched on yet. Send a test email to activate them." See Send email from your own business address. SMS is disabled Go to Settings → SMS Settings. The banner at the top tells you which state you are in: - No SMS provider configured for your store yet. — set one up. - Inactive: Configuration exists but is not active. Activate it (after an optional test) to start using your gateway. — select Activate. - Active: Your SMS provider is active and used for your store's SMS. — the gateway is fine, so read the next section. "Can send promotional SMS: No" The Configuration Status box on the SMS settings page names the cause on the same line: - — activate this gateway first. Select Activate. - — clear the Sender Name to enable. You have set a Sender Name. Customers cannot reply STOP to a name, so a name turns promotional SMS off. Empty the Sender Name box and save. Your messages then send from a number customers can reply to. Note that a Sender Name overrides a Sender Number, so having a dedicated number does not rescue it — the name has to go. See Connect your own SMS provider. The whole Announcements form is replaced by a notice The Customer Announcements module is not enabled on your store. The screen offers a contact us link. The SMS count looks wrong The SMS (optional) label changes meaning with your other choices. With Push Notification also ticked, SMS goes only to customers not registered for push. With push off, it goes to every targeted customer who has a mobile — so the estimate beside it jumps.

Last updated on Aug 27, 2026

I cannot find a setting somebody told me about

It may not be under Settings Several of the most-asked-about settings live in Menu Builder, not Settings: | What you want | Where it is | |---|---| | Trading hours | Menu Builder → Menu Settings | | Public holidays | Menu Builder → Special Dates | | Online / cash payments | Menu Builder → Menu Settings → Preferences | | Surcharges | Menu Builder → Menu Settings | | Pickup, dine-in, delivery on or off | Menu Builder → Menu Settings → Modules | | Show product photos | Menu Builder → Menu Settings → Preferences | | Guest checkout | Menu Builder → Menu Settings → Preferences | | Promotion codes | Menu Builder → Promotion Codes | | Loyalty rewards | Menu Builder → Loyalty Rewards | | Order alert colours | Settings → Orders Screen | | Lead times | The + and − counters on the Orders screen | | Bank details | Settings → Billing | | Logo and banner | Settings → Brand | | Your own email provider | Settings → Email Settings | | Your own SMS provider | Settings → SMS Settings | | Mailchimp / MailerLite | Settings → Mailchimp Integration / MailerLite Integration | | POS menu sync | Settings → POS Integration | Reason one: you are not an Admin A user with Admin set to No cannot reach Settings, Users, Billing, POS Integration, printer settings, email and SMS settings, the Transactions report or the setup checklist. Those controls are removed from the page rather than greyed out, so there is nothing to click and no message explaining why. Ask an admin at your store to open Users and check your row, or to make the change for you. Reason two: the module is off for your store Catering, delivery areas, delivery slots, delivery stops, pickup locations, stock control, wholesale ordering, standing orders, customer import and export, QR codes, promotion codes, loyalty schemes, surcharges, kiosk ordering, EFTPOS integration, POS integration, Mailchimp, MailerLite and each printer type are enabled per store. When one is off you usually get a note rather than silence, along the lines of "The Customer Import module is not enabled on your account. For more details or to enable this feature please contact us." A surcharge dropdown showing only Not available on your plan is the same thing. Reason three: your menu is the wrong one If you run both a Preorder Menu and a Catering Menu, each has its own settings, its own trading hours and its own special dates. The buttons at the top right of Menu Builder switch between them. Still stuck Help → Contact Support at the top right of the portal. Include the version number from the footer next to Merchant Portal V.

Last updated on Aug 27, 2026