Troubleshooting kitchen display problems

When the kitchen screen or printer isn't doing what you expect, work down the section that matches the symptom. Most KDS problems come down to one of three things: the item isn't routed, the station isn't set up to fire, or the screen link isn't open on the device.

A change to the station didn't take effect

Check the top bar of the station's page. If it still says Unsaved changes, nothing you altered has reached the station — output, mode, ticket layout, pacing alerts and the courses tickbox are all applied by the Save button, not as you click them.

This catches people out most often on the pickers, because they look like they commit on selection. They don't. Click Save, and check the button goes quiet before you walk away from the page.

The exception is the screen links: minting and revoking those happen straight away, so a missing or dead link is never an unsaved-change problem.

No tickets appear at all

Check, in order:

1. Is KDS on? If the KDS section isn't in your sidebar, the feature isn't enabled — ask your account manager.
2. Is there a station? You need at least one station. Create one in Stations.
3. Is the screen link open on the device? Tickets only show on a device that has the station's screen link open. Open it from the station's page (Show URL). See Get and manage kitchen screen links.
4. Is the item routed? With two or more stations, an item with no route (item or category) goes to no station — on purpose, like a pint at a pub. The rest of the order still reaches the kitchen. If the order was only unrouted items, no ticket appears anywhere. Open Menu routing — it (and Stations) lists any item that isn't routed anywhere — and route the ones the kitchen should make. (With a single station this can't be the cause: every item auto-routes to it.)
5. Does the station take this kind of order? On the station's page, Which orders come here can switch off kinds of order — for example a bar printer that only takes QR orders. A station with a kind unticked never gets those orders.

Only some items appear (on this one station's screen)

Two different things cause this, and they're worth telling apart.

Usually it's just how prep stations work. With a single station, skip to the next section: everything goes there automatically. With two or more, a prep station only shows items explicitly routed to it — an item you haven't routed there is supposed to be missing from its screen. Check whether it appeared on a different station instead; Menu routing shows where each item is routed.

If a line is missing from every station, the item isn't routed. On any kind of order the routed items still go through and an unrouted item goes nowhere — so the kitchen gets a ticket without that line. That's right for something like a pint; if the kitchen should be making it, find it in the unrouted-items list and route it.

Or the station doesn't take that kind of order. If a whole order is missing from one station but reached others, check Which orders come here on that station's page.

(If you'd expect everything to show on this station, it may be meant to be an expo station — see Station kinds: prep vs expo.)

Tickets are going to the other site's kitchen

You run more than one site, and food ordered at one venue is appearing on the other venue's screen or printer.

Almost always this is a route set against the wrong site's station — easy to do before the routing page showed which site each station belonged to, when two screens both called "Kitchen" looked identical.

1. Open KDS → Menu routing and pick the affected site in the Location picker at the top. You now see only that site's stations, each labelled with its location.
2. Check the item: it should be lit against that site's station. Tap to fix it — changes here only affect the stations you can see, so your other site's routes stay as they are.
3. Switch the picker to the other site and check the same item there.
4. On Stations, check whether any station has no location set. A station with no location receives orders from every site — give it one if that isn't what you want.

Items show on the wrong station

An item is routed to a station it shouldn't be. Open Menu routing, find the item, turn off the wrong station and turn on the right one. An item can be routed to more than one station, so double-check it isn't routed to both.

The screen is blank

1. Refresh the browser on the kitchen device — reopen the page or pull to refresh.
2. Has the link been revoked? If someone revoked that screen link, the device stops receiving tickets. Open the station's page, Show URL (or mint a fresh link with Add URL), and open it on the device again. See Get and manage kitchen screen links.
3. Is the station archived? An archived station's screens stop loading. Un-archive it from the Stations list.

The printer isn't printing

A printer station needs both a printer and a ticket layout to fire:

1. Both set? Open the station and confirm it has a printer and a Printed ticket layout for each ticket. If either is missing, the station shows a warning and won't print. See Set up printer stations.
2. Items routed to it? Like any station, a printer station only prints items routed to it (in Menu routing).
3. Printer reachable? If the setup is right but nothing prints, the printer itself may be offline or on the wrong network. Work through Printer not responding — checklist.

The layout isn't updating

Layout changes apply on the station's next screen load — there's no restart needed. If a screen is still showing the old design, refresh the browser on that device (or wait for the next ticket). For printers, the new layout applies on the next print.

Amber/red alerts aren't firing

The colour change is driven by the station's pacing thresholds:

1. Open the station and check the ready alert and late alert are set, in minutes.
2. The late alert must be greater than the ready alert — if late is the same or lower, the red stage can't trigger correctly.
3. Check Times per course. If that course has its own amber and red times, they win over the station's — so a course set to 30 minutes stays green long after the station's 10-minute amber would have fired. Empty both of that course's boxes to put it back on the station's times.
4. If a course looks like it turns colour late, remember a held course's clock starts when it's called away, not when the guest ordered.
5. Remember these only apply to stations shown on a screen. See Pacing alerts: ready, late, and recall.

Tickets show on a screen when you only wanted print

The printer station has Also show on a screen turned on. Open the station and turn it off — the station will print only and drop out of the web KDS display. See Printer station: also show on a screen.

"Items aren't routed" — but each site only has one screen

If you run two sites with one kitchen screen each, nothing needs routing: each site's orders go automatically to that site's own station. The unrouted-items banner is counted per site and stays quiet for both.

If you are still being warned, one of your sites has two or more stations eligible for it. On Stations, look for a station with no location set — it counts at every site, so a single unsited station is enough to switch every site to manual routing. Give it a location, or route your items at the site the banner names.

"Nothing ordered there reaches a kitchen"

This message names a site that has no station at all. It is not a routing problem, and nothing on Menu routing will clear it — there is nowhere for that site's orders to go, so the banner names the site instead of listing items.

Two honest answers: if that site has a kitchen, add a station for it on Stations. If it doesn't — a bar, a kiosk, a site that only sells packaged goods — there is nothing to fix, and the message is just telling you what's true.

Still stuck?

If a station is set up correctly and items are routed but tickets still don't appear, send a fresh test order and watch whether it lands. If it doesn't, contact support with the station name and an example order number.