Barcode Scan Error / Inability to Scan

Barcode scanning is done by using the camera on your device. For it to work, users need to allow IPDb to use the camera; the browser needs to approve it, and the Operating System need to approve it. 

This is done in different ways, but the common, main thing is that there will be, a dialogue popping up from the browser to ask for your permission for IPDb to use the camera. 

First, you will see this:

Note: Currently, Firefox will not display the dialogue below, but go straight to the system dialogue, but rumour has it, that this will soon change for the better.

But, this is only to warn you that an important system dialogue is about to appear, where you need to allow access to the camera, in order, to do any barcode scanning.

The system dialogue will look different depending on your system, but they all ask the very same question and will look something like this:

However, some devices such as iPhones and iPads, are also dependent on several system settings that can be enabled disabled by you, or the system administrator of your device. 

To make things even more interesting, these settings differ from one version of iOS to the next. Therefore, the best advice is to search the internet in case camera access is not granted after allowing the app to do so, but in most cases should, have done so.

Once IPDb is allowed to use the camera, it uses a standard tool which reports barcodes back to IPDb if it finds one. 

Focus, light and a steady hand are all good for this process, as for any other use of, a camera.

For any common scanning issues - see below:

This error usually appears, when the IPDb app has 2 or more instances open, at once.   

You may have opened the app in a browser window (Chrome, Safari, Edge, etc,), but then opened it again, via the app shortcut. Or maybe you opened the app again via the shortcut without closing the previous session (and this may be running in the background)?

Having multiple instances, trying to gain access may confuse the camera, resulting in it not functioning properly and creating errors like the above.

The easiest way to fix this error is therefore the following:

1. Close down all your app shortcut sessions  
   PC - make sure you close all separate app windows if you accidentally opened several (X  at the top right of the window)
   
   Android - press the 3-vertical line icon at the bottom left of your screen, then swipe up on any app windows to close them
   
   iPhone/iPad - swipe from the bottom to minimise the app, then swipe again to display apps running in the background and close them
   
   
2. Close down ALL your browser window tabs
   

   PC - check out any browser session tabs and make sure to close any IPDb app tabs that are open

   
   Android - check your browser window (Chrome or any other Android browser), then click/tap on the 3-vertical line icon at the bottom left of your screen, and swipe away from your browser window to close it

   
   iPhone/iPad - the Safari browser allows you to have multiple windows open (and you may not even realise this), so you have to ensure to close any window/tab that has IPDb showing
   To close ALL browser tabs: Select and hold the icon in the bottom right with 2 overlapping squares, then select "Close all ## tabs"
   To close specific browser tabs: Tap on the icon in the bottom right with 2 overlapping squares. This will show ALL open browser windows. Use the X button at the top right of each window you wish to close; in particular any IPDb windows
   

   
   

3. Once you know there are no further IPDb app sessions open, you can then open the app again
4. Apply any updates if necessary (if prompted to "Reload"). This should rarely happen unless the app was changed/fixes have been applied recently

After that, as long as you ensure to only ever have 1 copy of the app open at any 1 time on the SAME device, you should be fine.

You might have used the web browser on your Android device, and scanning the barcode worked fine. However, after installing and using the IPDb shortcut, you established that you can't use it in the app shortcut.

This may be due to either not having seen the camera access prompt when first accessing the app shortcut, or having accidentally denied access to the use of the camera. As camera access is needed for barcode scanning, you will therefore need to, activate/allow this.

To check/allow the camera to be used in your Android IPDb app:

1. Close the IPDb app
2. Press and hold the IPDb shortcut icon
3. A pop-up window should appear

4.  Click/tap on site settings - the settings window will appear

5. Make sure the Camera setting is set to "Allowed"

6. Close the settings window and go back to the IPDb app to try again