Help · Updated 22 October 2026
Scanning barcodes
Mobile Inventory reads EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A and Code 128, using the phone camera or a keyboard-wedge scanner. A known code opens its item, an unknown code opens the New item form with the code filled in, and a repeat scan within two seconds is ignored.
Scanning is the fastest path through almost every job in the product: finding an item to receive, filling a line during a count, checking a price. It is also the place where a small misunderstanding causes the most damage, because a scanner that types the same code twice looks exactly like a person who scanned two items.
This article covers the formats that work, what happens on a known and an unknown code, why a double read is safe, and which hardware the product actually supports.
Which barcodes work
| Format | Where you usually meet it | Length |
|---|---|---|
| EAN-13 | Retail goods, most grocery and general merchandise | 13 digits |
| EAN-8 | Small packages where a full-size symbol will not fit | 8 digits |
| UPC-A | Retail goods, common on North American packaging | 12 digits |
| Code 128 | Internal labels, cartons, and the sheets this product prints | Variable |
That is the whole supported list. A symbol outside it — a QR code, a two-dimensional code, a format used by one supplier's own system — will not be read. If a label refuses to scan and it is not one of these four, the format is the likely reason, not the camera.
The item stores one barcode. If the same product arrives with a different supplier code, decide which one you scan in the shop and store that; the other is a note for the supplier, not a second field to maintain.
Camera scanning is a phone-app action
The camera scanner lives in the Android app. The web app cannot use the phone camera as a scanner, so on the web you type the code or use a hardware scanner instead. This is a limit of the browser surface, not a setting you have missed.
Hold the phone steady, fill about half the frame with the barcode, and give it a moment to focus. Shiny packaging and curved bottles are the usual failures: tilt the item slightly to move the reflection off the code rather than moving the phone closer.
A known code opens its item
Scan a code the shop already knows and the item opens. From there you can receive, count, adjust or check it. This is the intended loop on the shop floor: scan, act, done, without searching a list or spelling a product name with one thumb.
An unknown code opens the New item form
Scan a code the shop has never seen and the New item form opens with the barcode already filled in. That turns a moment of confusion into a two-field job: add the name and the SKU, and the item exists with the code you just scanned. You do not have to remember the digits or type them from the packaging.
The code is not looked up anywhere. The app does not ask a product database what the barcode means, so an unknown code is not enriched with a name, a brand or a category. You supply the name; the code is just the key.
A repeat scan within two seconds is ignored
Cameras double-read. A barcode held in front of a phone is often decoded twice before the first result has finished opening a screen, and at a till a scanner can fire on the same symbol as it passes. If both reads were accepted, a delivery of one case could become two.
So the product ignores a repeat scan of the same code within two seconds. The second read does nothing: no second item, no second movement, no second line in a count. You do not need to pause between items or move the phone away theatrically — two seconds covers the normal handling of a box.
If you genuinely need to scan the same code twice in quick succession — two identical boxes, one after the other — wait for the guard to clear. The wait is short, and it is the price of never double-counting a single physical item.
Bluetooth and USB scanners
A Bluetooth scanner works in keyboard-wedge mode, and so does a USB scanner on the web app. Keyboard-wedge means the scanner behaves like a very fast keyboard: it types the digits and sends a line ending. There is no driver to install and no mode to switch in the product.
- Pair the scanner with the phone or computer in the operating system's Bluetooth settings, or plug a USB scanner into the computer running the web app. It should appear as an input device.
- Open the screen where you want the scan to land — a search field, a count line, the New item form.
- Tap the field once so the cursor is in it, then scan.
The one thing that goes wrong with keyboard-wedge scanners is focus. The scanner types wherever the cursor is, so if a field is not focused the digits go nowhere useful, or into the wrong field. Tap the field first and the rest is reliable.
A Code 128 label printed by the shop scans exactly like a supplier's barcode, because it is the item's own code. That makes a printed sheet a practical way to label loose goods, bins and shelf edges.
When a code will not scan
- Check the format. If it is not EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A or Code 128, it is not in the supported list.
- Clean the label. A scuffed or partially covered bar is unreadable; a damaged label is a reprint, not a scanning problem.
- Change the distance, then the angle. Too close is as bad as too far, and a reflection can hide the bars from the camera.
- Type the digits instead. A code can always be typed as well as scanned, so a stubborn label never blocks the job.
What it does not do yet
- No GTIN or product-name lookup. An unknown barcode is not enriched from a database. You type the name yourself.
- No camera scanning on the web. Scanning with the phone camera is a phone-app action; the web app relies on typed codes and hardware scanners.
- One barcode per item. There is no list of alternative supplier codes for the same product.
- No QR or 2D formats. The four formats in the table are the supported set.