Camera Scanning

Camera scanning

Point your device's camera at a barcode or QR code and Gubbins finds the item — no typing. It's the fastest way to look something up, check it out, or move it.

Where to find it: the Scan button on the Inventory screen, once the Live camera scanning capability is enabled (Modular UI).

How it works

Gubbins reads codes using your browser's built-in barcode detector where available, and falls back to an off-thread software decoder (WASM) where it isn't — so scanning works across a wide range of devices, including older ones. It reads QR codes, the full family of common retail barcodes — EAN‑13, EAN‑8, UPC‑A, UPC‑E — and the usual 1‑D part labels and 2‑D codes (Code 128, Code 39, Code 93, Codabar, ITF, Data Matrix, Aztec and PDF417), skipping frames adaptively to stay smooth. Where your camera supports it, Gubbins keeps the picture in focus automatically so a code held at reading distance stays sharp.

Scan a code and Gubbins matches it to an item by its barcode, then lets you act on it — view it, adjust stock, check it out, or move it. That match is on whatever the item's Barcode field holds, so a workshop's own Code 128 part label or a supplier's Code 39 asset tag finds its item exactly as a shop's EAN does — anything you scanned or typed into that field is scannable again.

💡 Tip Scanning every kind of code at once is convenient, but if you only ever scan one type — say EAN‑13 for retail products — choosing just that under [[Settings → Scanning & labels|Camera-Scanning]] makes each read faster and more reliable. Leave it on all supported codes if you scan a mix.

While the camera is live you'll see a large framing box with a moving sweep line and a Scanning… indicator, so it's always clear the camera is working and looking for a code. Gubbins reads the picture inside that box, so a barcode framed in it is read on its own terms — you don't have to fill the whole screen with it, whether you're on a phone or a larger screen. Hold the code inside the box; good light and a steady hand still help most.

💡 Tip If a code won't read, centre it in the framing box and move it a little nearer so it fills the box, steady your hand for a moment, and make sure it's well lit. You can always type or paste the code into the box at the bottom instead.

Torch and choosing a camera

Two controls sit just below the framing box while the camera is live. Each appears only when your camera actually offers it, so you'll never see a switch that does nothing.

• Torch — turns on the camera's own light. Inventory tends to live exactly where the light isn't: garages, cupboards, under-stair storage, the back of a deep shelf. Tap it again to turn it off. It's offered on most phones and tablets, and almost never on a laptop.
• Choose a camera — picks which camera to scan with, when your device has more than one. Your choice is remembered for next time, and it's shared with the Scan button on an item's Barcode field, so you only pick once.

💡 Tip On a phone with two or three rear lenses, the one your browser picks by default is often the ultra-wide — and an ultra-wide can't focus at the distance you hold a barcode. If codes stubbornly stay blurry no matter how steady you are, that's the usual culprit: open Choose a camera and try another rear camera. Names come from your device, so they read like Back Camera or Back Dual Wide Camera.

ℹ️ Note Camera names only become available after you've allowed camera access — before that a browser deliberately withholds them. If a camera is listed without a name it's shown as Camera 2, and so on.

ℹ️ Note A camera you chose can stop being available — a webcam unplugged, or a browser that reset its permissions. Gubbins falls back to the usual camera and tells you it's done so, rather than refusing to start.

💡 Tip Add a product's barcode to its Details (there's a Scan button right on the field) so future scans jump straight to it. A barcode Gubbins doesn't recognise can also trigger a product lookup.

💡 Tip Typing a barcode by hand instead? Gubbins checks it as you move on. Retail barcodes carry a built-in check digit, so a mistyped or swapped digit is spotted and flagged under the field — which matters, because a barcode that's a digit out will never be found by a future scan. It's only a warning: your entry still saves, and codes that aren't retail barcodes (an internal shelf code, say) are left alone.

💡 Tip If the code you enter is already recorded against another item, the field says which one — and how many, when it's more than one. It's only a warning, because sharing a barcode is often deliberate; it saves normally. It's there so you know in advance why a later scan of that code will stop and ask which item you meant.

ℹ️ Note Small packaging — batteries, fasteners, cosmetics — often carries a short UPC‑E barcode of eight digits. It's a squeezed-down version of the full twelve-digit UPC‑A, and Gubbins records the full form, so the short code on the pack and the long one on the outer box are one barcode rather than two — which is also the form a product lookup is indexed by. Type the eight digits and you'll see them become twelve when you leave the field. Anything recorded before Gubbins knew this still scans: the printed eight digits are checked as well.

ℹ️ Note Some packaging carries a marketing QR code (a website link) next to the real barcode. If you scan one into the Barcode field, Gubbins spots that it's a link rather than a barcode and offers to open it — it's never quietly saved as the item's barcode. Point at the product's own barcode to record that instead.

ℹ️ Note The camera is only used while you're actively scanning, on your device — no image ever leaves it. Live scanning is separate from printed labels: turning the camera capability off doesn't affect your printed QR codes. See Privacy & security.

Tap-to-scan with NFC

On a supported phone, the scanner can also read NFC tags — no camera, no line-of-sight. When the NFC tags capability is on and your device supports it, a Ready — tap an NFC tag indicator appears at the top of the scanner. Hold a tag you've written from an item's label flat against the back of your phone and Gubbins opens that item straight away, just like scanning its QR code. It works right alongside the camera, so you can tap a tag or point at a code — whichever is handier.

💡 Tip NFC is perfect for a closed or crammed bin: stick a tag inside the lid, and a tap on the outside opens the item without opening the box or hunting for a label. See writing NFC tags to set them up.

ℹ️ Note Tapping to scan needs a device with Web NFC — currently Android phones using a Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Samsung Internet, Opera). On other devices the indicator simply doesn't appear and camera scanning works as normal. The first tap asks your permission to use NFC.

When the camera won't start

If Gubbins can't get the camera going — permission was refused, the device has no camera, or the browser blocks the live picture from playing — the scanner says so plainly and points you at the manual box, rather than sitting on a blank viewfinder. Grant camera access in your browser's site settings and tap Scan again, or type the code in by hand in the meantime.

ℹ️ Note On iPhone and iPad, a browser may refuse to start a live picture in some situations — for example inside another app's in-app browser. Opening Gubbins in Safari itself usually clears it.

Very occasionally the reader behind the camera stops working part-way through — most often when Gubbins has been updated in the background while a tab was left open. The picture stays live but nothing is ever read from it, so Gubbins says live scanning has stopped working under the viewfinder rather than leaving you waving a barcode at a camera that isn't listening. Reload Gubbins and it comes back; in the meantime, the box at the bottom still takes a typed code.

When the code itself is damaged

A scuffed QR or a smudged barcode is nobody's fault, and it doesn't leave you stuck. Every label Gubbins prints also carries a short code — eight characters such as A1B2C3D4 on its last line. Type that into the box at the bottom of the scanner and it opens the item, or jumps to the location, exactly as scanning would have. See QR codes & label printing.

ℹ️ Note Very occasionally two records start with the same eight characters. Gubbins says so rather than opening one of them and hoping — reach for the QR code, or search by name, in that case.

When two items share a barcode

Nothing stops two items carrying the same barcode, and often it's deliberate — an opened tub and a sealed one kept as separate items, a multipack that shares its unit's code, or two copies of a product stored in different places. When you scan a code more than one item carries, Gubbins lists the items that have it and asks which one you meant, rather than picking one for you. Each row names the item's location and its short code, so two variants with the same name are still easy to tell apart. Tap the one you meant and the scan carries on exactly as usual — the result card in a single scan, or straight back to the viewfinder with it added to a continuous scan.

ℹ️ Note The list shows up to ten items. If a code is somehow shared by more than that, Gubbins says so — at least that many carry it — and you can search for the code itself to see every one of them.

⚠️ Heads-up This is why it matters: adjusting stock by scanning is the quickest way to keep counts right, and if Gubbins quietly chose one of two items every time, the other one's count would drift further from reality with every scan.

The Barcode field also warns you before it comes to that: enter a code another item already has and it says so, without stopping you saving it. See How it works, above.

When a code isn't found

A barcode with no matching item isn't an error — it just means nothing's linked to it yet. For a retail barcode, Gubbins offers to add an item with the barcode already saved to it, and — right there in the scanner — to look the product up so its name and brand are filled in for you before you add it. That lookup is optional: it happens only when you tap Look up, and you're asked once before the first time (see Barcode → product lookup).

Any other code — a part label, an asset tag, a code you made up yourself — gets a plainer answer: Gubbins says nothing in your inventory has it. There's no product to look up for a code only you use, so link it yourself: open the item it belongs to, put the code in its Barcode field (the Scan button beside the field reads it straight off the label), and every later scan finds that item.

Keyboard and screen readers

While the scanner is open it takes the whole screen and the whole keyboard. Tab moves between the scanner's own controls and stays there — it can't step onto the screen behind, which the camera view is covering. Keyboard shortcuts are off for the same reason: they would act on a screen you can't see. A screen reader announces the scanner when it opens, and reads it as a dialog rather than as part of the page underneath.

Leaving the scanner

Three ways out, all the same: the ✕ at the top of the screen, the Escape key, or your device's Back button or edge swipe. On an installed app Back is usually the easiest of the three one-handed, and it returns you to the screen you opened the scanner from rather than navigating anywhere else. However you leave, the cursor goes back to wherever you opened the scanner from, so you can carry on by keyboard.

⚠️ Heads-up Leaving clears anything queued in a continuous scan that you haven't applied yet. Apply the batch first if you want to keep it.

Related pages

• Continuous scan & batch actions — scan many items in a row and act on them together.
• QR codes & label printing — the labels you scan, and writing NFC tags.
• Receipt & label OCR — reading text, not just codes.