What are the terminal action buttons functionality?

Terminal actions is an important tool that helps to troubleshoot and potentially resolve issues that your merchants might have with their terminals. 

Each action has a specific function intended to address issues such as card reader, EMV config, internet connection, declines, OS update, firmware, etc.

Step 1: In the reseller portal page, go to Terminals.

 

Step 2: Enter in the search criteria. You can search by terminal ID, business name, business status, device model, current OS version, etc.

Step 3: Under actions, click on Manage. In this section you will see a summary of what the main command of each action button is.  These are divided into the following categories:

• Monitor
• Manage
• Message
• Reinitialize
• Advanced Actions

Monitor: This allows you to observe and check the current status and progress of a device over a period of time. 

• Force Check -in:  allows you to determine if the terminal is online and connected. This should be the first step in trouble-shooting a terminal.

 

• Heavy Check-in: checks to see if terminal is online and grabs data. This includes logcats for more detailed analysis.  A logcat file contains information or events that help engineering debug errors on the terminal.  This file can be found in the terminal timeline.

 

• Data Sync:  Clicking on Data Sync forces the device to sync with any updates made on Poynt.net. This can include changes in business/store settings, catalogs, transactions, etc. 

• Grab Screen:  This will grab a screenshot of what the merchant sees on their end.  The screenshot link will be available to view in the terminal timeline.  Note that the terminal needs to be on and connected in order to grab the screenshot.

• Grab video:  This will grab a video from the device. You can choose the recording time based on what type of issue needs to be resolved (10 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, 5 min).  The video link will be available to view in the terminal timeline.  Note that the terminal needs to be on and connected in order to grab the video.

• Ping Terminal: Force the terminal to make a series of ping sounds. The ping sound tells you the terminal is connected to internet.

• Bugreport:  Fetches a bugreport from the device. This sends back detailed log data from the terminal to Poynt.net and can take a while.  The bugrepot file can be found in the terminal timeline.

 

 

Manage: Allows you to manage apps for your merchant.

• Installed Apps:  Displays the list of apps installed on a terminal.

• Close All Apps:  Closes all apps, whether in use or not, and launches the home screen on the terminal.

• Launch App: Forces the device to launch a specific app.

• Install App: Creates a job to install an app, either now or during the next maintenance window. This will be used to update behind the scenes apps (Poynt Services, Store, Accessory, etc.).

1. Job type (whether is a single device or multiple ones)
2. Expiry( whether 1 day, week or month)
3. Description (not required)
4. First select install application on Function
5. Choose the app to update from the options under “Package
   Name”
6. Select the version code.

As a general rule, choose either Force or Maintenance install options.  Force install will install the app immediately.  Maintenance install will wait until the maintenance window is triggered, and then install the app. 

• Uninstall App:  Sends a command to the terminal to uninstall a particular app on the next check-in.

 

• Edit Groups: Configure device groups for a specific terminal.

Message: Communicate with your merchant while troubleshooting.

• Send Message:  Send notes/instructions to your merchant while troubleshooting.

Customer Screen

• Push Photo: Upload an image on the terminal's customer facing screen. 

• Push Video: Upload a video on the terminal's customer facing screen.  

Merchant Screen

• Push Photo: Upload an image to show up on the terminal's merchant facing screen. 

 

Reinitialize: additional trouble-shooting tools to restart and reset the terminal

• Reboot: Forces the terminal to reboot. This is useful if terminal is frozen or not responding.  This will also force the terminal to update.

• Reenable OOBE: Force the device to go through the OOBE process again. OOBE is "Out of the Box Experience."  This is essentially resetting the device to factory setting and will ask the merchant to go through the setup process again.  The device will be unusable until the merchant reconnects to WiFi and activates the terminal.  

• Reset Configs: Reset configs would do a Wipe without a Delete. A wipe without delete would erase the account information from the terminal, but would not disconnect (Delete) the terminal from the account. The Merchant should just be able to turn on the terminal and connect it to the internet. This is useful to use if a merchant is having issues with the card reader.

• Edit Mnt. Window:  Updates the maintenance window time on this terminal. Choose a time when the business isn't operating, but when the terminal will be on and connected to the internet.

• Trigger Mnt. Window: Triggers the maintenance window on the device, regardless of what the default is. This will cause the device to restart and update any changes made to the terminal.

Advanced Actions

• Remote Wipe: This will  wipe the device of all information and deactivate it from the business. You will be required to fill in the inspection checklist prior any deactivation.  This can be used if there was an issue during onboarding the device, or when disassociating the terminal from an existing business.

• Reset Card reader:  If the merchant is not able to process transactions due to card reader errors, this command will reset the card reader and captures log files to help troubleshoot.  The merchant will not be able to process transactions for up to 5 minutes.

• Force Install FW:   This should be sent when a terminal does not have firmware installed.  Typically when an OS is updated, firmware is automatically installed along with it.  This can cause error message such as "initializing card reader" and render the terminal unusable.  You can confirm if firmware is installed by reviewing the terminal timeline.