How to change a QR code after it's printed

You can’t change a printed QR code. The pattern on the paper is fixed. What you can often change is where it leads, and whether that’s possible depends on what the code holds.

Scan it first and look at the address it opens. You’ll be in one of three situations.

It opens a short link: a dynamic code

If the code opens a short address that then forwards to a page, it’s a dynamic code. Sign in to the service that made it, find the code and change its destination. The next scan goes to the new page, and the printed code stays as it is.

If you don’t know which service made it, the domain in the short link usually tells you. If the account belonged to a former employee or an agency, get it handed over first. Nobody can change a code they can’t sign in to.

It opens your own website: a static code with an address

This is the usual case for codes made with a free generator. The code holds your actual address, say https://yourshop.com/spring-menu. The code can’t change, but your website can.

Set up a redirect on your site from the old address to the new one. Almost every website builder and hosting panel has a setting for this, usually called redirects, URL redirects or URL mappings. Use a permanent (301) redirect. From then on, every printed copy lands on the new page.

You can plan for this next time. Instead of printing the address of the page itself, print an address whose only job is to forward, like yourshop.com/qr/menu, and point it at this season’s menu. When the menu changes, you change the forward. It costs nothing, and it’s a dynamic code in all but name, minus the scan counts.

It holds the content itself: Wi-Fi, contact cards, text

Wi-Fi codes, contact cards and plain-text codes don’t contain an address, so there is nothing to redirect. A Wi-Fi code made with your old password won’t connect anyone after the password changes, and a contact card code keeps your old phone number for good.

The only fix is a new code. Print it on a sticker and cover the old one completely. Phones read whichever code they see first, and a half-covered code can still scan.

For contact details that change often, the better choice next time is a code that opens a page with your details, which you can edit.

Before the next print run

If there’s any chance the destination will change (a seasonal menu, a campaign page, a product manual), print a code you can redirect later. You have two good options:

• a dynamic code from a service you expect to be around, ideally on your own domain so the printed address is yours;
• a static code that points to a page on your own website that you’re prepared to redirect.

The first gives you scan statistics and keeps the change out of your website settings. The second is free.

Guaranteed QR does the first, paid once, with a monthly exit kit and, from the Pro pack, your own domain. Our free generator does the second.