My QR code stopped working
If a code you printed suddenly leads to an error page, an ad or a “this code is inactive” notice, it is almost certainly not broken. It has been switched off.
Why it happens
Most online QR generators give you a dynamic code by default. It does not contain your link. It contains a short link to the generator’s own server, which forwards people to you. That lets you change the link later — and it lets the company stop forwarding whenever it wants.
When the free trial ends, a card payment fails or you cancel the plan, the forwarding stops. Every menu, flyer, sign and package with that code is now dead. Some companies ask for a reactivation fee or a yearly plan to switch it back on.
How to check your code
- Scan it and look at the address the phone shows before it opens. If it is not your own website but the generator’s short domain, it is a dynamic code.
- If the code opens a page asking you to log in, upgrade or reactivate, it has been switched off by the provider.
- If the address is yours and the page fails to load, the problem is your website, not the code.
What to do now
- If you still have the account, you can pay to switch it back on — fastest when thousands of codes are already printed.
- Ask the provider to forward the short link to your website. Some do it on request; it costs nothing to ask.
- Replace the code with a static one: it holds your link directly, so nobody can switch it off. Make one here, free.
- Next time, point the code at a page you own — your website’s menu page, for example. You can change that page whenever you like, and the printed code never needs to change.
Never again
A static code is the black and white squares and nothing else: no server, no account, nothing to expire. This site makes only static codes, free, with no sign-up. Your link never reaches us — the code is made in your browser.