Why free QR codes stop working, and how to make ones that never expire

Maple Street Bakery put a sign with a QR code at the register in each of its 12 locations. The code led to the menu, and for three months it worked. Then it started to lead to an error page or to someone else's ad. The print was fine, and the phone camera still read the code, but the link inside it had stopped working.

Now the bakery has to print new signs and take one to every location. Once a camera reads a code, the link can fail in two places: at a service between the code and your page, or at the page itself. Check both before you print the next run.

First rule out a printing problem

If the camera does not react to the code at all, the problem is in the print: the code size, the contrast, glare or the print quality. See the article on QR code size for printing and the other print problems in the QR code knowledge base.

At Maple Street Bakery the camera still read the code and showed the address, but the browser opened an error page. Other signs of the same case are a blank page, a request to pay for a plan or a site you did not expect. To rule out the print completely, open the layout file on a screen and scan the same code there. If the screen version leads to the same error, the problem is the link.

The code was dynamic

A dynamic QR code does not contain your address. It contains a short link on the domain of the service that made it, and that service redirects each scan to your page. The service counts scans and lets you change where the code leads without reprinting. It sells this as a subscription.

The link works only while the redirect service does. If the plan runs out, a card payment fails, or the service moves to another domain or closes, every sign in the run stops leading to your page at the same moment, although the print is fine. Some services show their own placeholder page with ads when the plan behind a code has ended.

A generator with a free plan can make dynamic codes too, to offer a subscription later. From the outside such a code looks like any other. Scan it and read the link on the screen before you tap it, because the phone camera shows it first. If the domain is short and not yours, a middleman stands between the code and your page. Check every new code this way before the print run.

The code is static, but the page is gone

A static QR code stores the address itself. A link, a Wi-Fi network and a contact card can all go into a static code. No third party sits between the code and your page, so nobody can switch the code off, and there is no plan to pay for.

A static code stops working only when its page does, for example when:

• the site moved to a new address without redirects
• the page was deleted in a redesign
• a file in cloud storage got a new link
• nobody renewed the domain
• the address of your social media page changed

The domain is the one case that takes down every code at once. If the renewal lapses, all the codes your business has printed lead to an error. Renewal costs less than a reprint, so turn on auto-renewal with your domain registrar.

If you put a shortened link into a static code, a redirect service is back between the code and your page. A short-link service can shut down or delete old links, and the code then leads nowhere. Do not put someone else's short link into a print run.

How to make a code that does not expire

Put a direct link to your own domain into a static code, with no link shortener and no third-party redirect. Keep the page at the same address after a redesign. If you must move it, redirect the old address to the new one.

If you need to change where a code leads after printing, pick an address on your own domain, such as https://example.com/menu, put it into the code and make it redirect to the page you need. The signs stay where they are, and you change only the redirect.

Save what every print run was made from: the list of links with captions and the sheet settings. The pattern depends only on what the code contains, so next year the same list and settings give the same codes, and a reprinted sign matches the ones already up. For keeping a whole run in one list, see the article on printing 100 QR codes from one file.

What the generator puts into the code

Every code you make on the QRsetter home page is static. Its pattern contains your own link, with no redirect through a QRsetter domain. You need no subscription or sign-up, and the PDF, SVG and PNG files stay on your computer. If QRsetter ever closes, the codes you printed keep working.

The generator does not count scans and cannot change where a printed code leads. Both jobs stay on your own site: the redirect on your domain changes the destination, and UTM tags in the link show the visits in your analytics.

FAQ

Next step

Scan a sign that is already up at one of your locations. Before you tap the link, the camera should show your own domain, and after you tap it, the right page should load.

Make static QR codes that contain your own link, with no subscription behind them.