Check this first: scan it and read what opens
If you land on a page from a QR code service saying the code is inactive, expired or over its limit, the pattern is fine. The service behind it has stopped it.
If your own site opens with a “not found” error, the code is fine and the page has moved. If nothing opens at all, the problem is the print or the phone.
1. The free trial ended
The most common cause. Some generators let you make dynamic codes during a free trial and deactivate them when it ends. QR Code Generator's help center says dynamic codes created in its 14-day trial are “deactivated at the end of the free trial”, and that people who scan one are taken to a service page.
On their side, the fix is to upgrade to a paid plan. Codes you made there as static are not affected.
Sources: QR Code Generator help center: what deactivation at the end of the trial means; QR Code Generator help center: static codes and the free trial. Checked October 2026.
2. It reached a scan limit
Some free plans cap scans. QR TIGER's help center says each dynamic code on its free plan has a 500 scan limit and stops working once that is reached. A code on a busy counter can get through 500 scans quickly.
Source: QR TIGER help center: is using QR TIGER free?. Checked October 2026.
3. The plan lapsed or the account was closed
A dynamic code works while the account behind it is in good standing. A failed card, a cancelled plan or a deleted account can each stop it. Look at the billing page of the service you made it with.
4. The page it points to moved
The code still works. The address inside it does not. A redesigned site, a renamed file or a deleted post all end in a “not found” page.
Put the old address back, or redirect it to the new one. With a dynamic code you can simply change where it points.
5. It was paused, deleted or blocked
Someone with access to the account may have paused or deleted the code. Services also block codes whose destination has been reported as unsafe, so check the page it leads to has not been compromised.
6. The print is the problem
If the code never opens anything, look at the print before you blame the code.
- Too small for the distance: a code should be at least a tenth as wide as the distance it is scanned from
- Too little contrast, or light dots on a dark background
- No white margin left around it
- Glare from gloss lamination or glass
- Creased, scratched or faded
- Stretched or cropped when someone resized the artwork
- A logo in the middle that covers too much of the pattern
7. The phone is the problem
Try a second phone before you reprint. A dirty lens, poor light, or QR scanning switched off in the camera settings of an older Android phone all look like a dead code.
How to stop it happening again
Where the address will not change, use a static code. It has no server behind it, so nobody can switch it off. Use a dynamic code only from a service that says in writing that it will not expire on the plan you are on. And scan the proof before any print run.
You can make a replacement right here. It is static, free, and needs no account.