Troubleshooting
PIN and card issues
"PIN required" won't go away
Enter your PIN again on the Status screen. If it was recently verified but the app was restarted, this is expected — the PIN isn't remembered across restarts, for security.
Too many wrong PINs
After a few incorrect attempts, XPOS ESDC requires a Windows administrator to approve the next try, right there on the Device, before it will accept another guess — this protects a lost or stolen card from being brute-forced, and works the same whether the attempt came from the app itself or from your POS calling the local API. If you're confident of the correct PIN, have whoever holds administrator rights on this PC approve the prompt when it appears; it explains what it's approving before you click through. The very last attempt on a card can only ever be made from XPOS ESDC's own window, never from an external POS, as an extra safeguard. Repeated failures beyond that can permanently lock the card — go carefully, and stop if you're not certain of the PIN.
Card not detected
Make sure the card is seated fully in the reader and the reader is connected. XPOS ESDC retries briefly on its own; if it still can't see a card after a few seconds, try reseating it, reconnecting the reader, or picking the right one under Settings → Connection → Reader if more than one is attached.
Licensing
"All seats are in use" when activating
See Free vs Pro & Activating Your License — pick a device to replace from the list shown, or contact support if you don't recognize any of them.
Free-tier sales are paused
You've reached your annual Free-tier cap. Training, copies, and refunds still work regardless. Activate ESDC Pro to remove the cap and resume production sales immediately — there's no waiting period.
My license shows as Free even though I'm sure I activated Pro
Check Settings → License → License expires. If your subscription has genuinely lapsed, or this device's seat was freed from another device (for example, by a seat-replacement elsewhere), the device demotes itself automatically and needs reactivating. Click Check license now first in case it just hasn't checked in recently; if the demotion is genuine, reactivate with Sign in with Your Defy Account or your license key.
Does this device need internet to keep working?
No — XPOS ESDC is offline-first and keeps signing on a cached license status even with zero connectivity. See Understanding Your License Status for exactly how long a device can stay offline before it needs to reconnect, and what happens if it goes past that.
Audits
"Audit in progress" won't clear
This is usually just a normal cycle taking a few minutes — don't power off while it's showing. If it's been unusually long, XPOS ESDC self-heals a stuck Proof-of-Audit automatically after about an hour, with no action needed from you. See Audit & Reset for the full explanation.
Signing fails with an audit-related error
Your card's unaudited amount reached its limit and needs a reset before it can sign again. This normally resolves itself automatically; contact support if it doesn't clear within an hour or two.
Connectivity
"TaxCore" shows as unreachable
Check this PC's internet connection first. If it's fine, the connection between this Device and FRCS's TaxCore servers may be temporarily down on their end — the app will keep retrying and recover on its own. Invoices you sign while offline are queued and submitted once the connection returns.
Tax rates look out of date
Rates sync automatically, but you can force an immediate refresh: Settings → Tax rates → Resync from TaxCore.
Point of sale / other software integration
My POS software can't connect to XPOS ESDC
Confirm XPOS ESDC is running (check the tray icon) and that your POS is pointed at the address shown in Settings → Connection → Local E-SDC API. If your POS runs on a different PC from the one with the card reader, you'll need to turn on network access under Connection — see the warning there about what that exposes before doing so. Developers integrating their own POS should also see Integrating XPOS ESDC with Your POS.
Installation & updates
How do I update XPOS ESDC?
If you installed it from the Microsoft Store, it updates itself automatically — there's nothing to do. You can always confirm your current version under Settings → About.
Still stuck?
Use the "Contact support" link on this site, or reply to any admin-alert email you've received — both reach the same team. Settings → Diagnostics → Export logs is the fastest way to hand over the detail we'll need.