Troubleshoot Your Autofire Device

Tickets Aren’t Autofiring to the Kitchen
Your Autofire Device is Offline Due to an Internet Outage
Specific Printer Instructions Depending on Outage Type
Negative Fire Time for Online Orders
Autofire Best Practices
Set Up Your Autofire Device
- On the POS
- In Toast Web
Troubleshoot Your Autofire Device
Additional Resources

Tickets Aren’t Autofiring to the Kitchen

If tickets are not auto firing to the kitchen properly, you may see this Autofiring unavailable message:

Try the following steps to troubleshoot your autofire device:

Verify you have only one POS (Point of Sale) terminal assigned to Autofire (if you need a refresher, check out this article Set Up Order Autofiring).
- If you have a device other than the recommended device set up for autofiring in Toast Web, consider changing the selected device. The recommended device is prompted based on the device that has the best wired connection for online orders to enter the system. See this section below for instructions.
- Note: To determine which device is the Autofire device, check the Device Setup settings on the POS terminal under Order Auto-Firing.
If none of your devices are set to Autofire, enable one and only one device as Autofire.
Check if the device is powered on. If not, power on the device. Ensure the cables are connected and plugged into a working electrical outlet.
Check the Ethernet connection and ensure it is connected. Try to power on the autofire-assigned device.
Verify that the device is on and that you have logged into Toast.
Verify that there are no network connectivity errors in the Orders Hub on the autofire device. Your ISP or network may be having issues, affecting order autofiring.

Your Autofire Device is Offline Due to an Internet Outage

If you are experiencing an ISP or network outage, you may see a banner like this:

Note the following during an ISP or network outage:

Firing times for scheduled orders may appear to be inaccurate for non-autofire devices (see Schedule Future Orders to learn more).
Only place and manage scheduled orders on the autofire-assigned device. Do not place new scheduled orders on a non-autofire device. Scheduled orders can only be fired from the autofire device.
- You may see negative fire times indicating that an order is overdue from firing. This may be inaccurate, please check the autofire device to see if orders are being fired appropriately.
Scheduled and existing orders still fire from the autofire-assigned device. Once the internet service provider connection is restored, scheduled orders on non-autofire devices will move to the appropriate Orders Hub status (video).
Toast Online Ordering may be turned off when the autofire assigned device has stopped approving and autofiring online orders for five minutes. This indicates an internet issue or other technical problems at the restaurant.

Specific Printer Instructions Depending on Outage Type

If you're having an ISP outage:

If a printer has been set up properly for prep stations and the expediter and there is a local network connection -- the autofire assigned device still fires and prints kitchen tickets.

Check your printer settings.
- Learn more about Configure and Assign Prep Stations here and learn how to Set Up an Expediter here.
Check your prep station settings:
- In Toast Web, navigate to Kitchen > Kitchen stations > Prep stations.
Check your kitchen setup/expediter settings:
- In Toast Web, navigate to Kitchen > Printers, tickets, & KDS devices > Kitchen.

If you're having a local network outage:

Your autofire device will not be able to print kitchen tickets.
Orders that are fired on the autofire device will not update on other terminals or a Kitchen Display System (KDS) until the network has been restored.

Want to learn more about the differences between a network, ISP, and a Toast outage? Check out our Service Disruption Resource Center.

Negative Fire Time for Online Orders

Firing in time refers to when an online order should be sent to the kitchen for preparation. If an order has a firing in time and doesn't automatically send to the kitchen when the countdown reaches zero, there might be a problem with your order Autofire device.

To resolve this, we need to check the settings.

Navigate and check the auto-fire device settings.
Disable Wi-Fi and ensure an Ethernet connection.
Toggle the Auto Fire off and on in Device Setup.
Check the Online Order settings for the Approval settings.

For more thorough troubleshooting steps, check the Troubleshoot Your Autofire Device article.

Autofire Best Practices

Check the approval rules config to make sure approve automatically is selected.
Make sure you have an autofire device set up in the device settings on the POS.
Make sure only 1 device is set to Autofire.
Having multiple devices set to autofire will cause duplicate tickets to print to the kitchen and can cause other issues.
The autofire device should be a hardwired terminal that is likely to remain logged into the Toast POS app throughout the entirety of your online ordering hours.
Handheld devices should not be assigned as the autofiring device.
The autofire device should not be in a device group. If the autofire device is in a device group, it will not receive online orders.
Conduct test orders periodically to ensure the data flow between Toast, the POS, and third-party integrations works seamlessly.
Regularly review device lists within Toast backend settings to ensure proper device registration and assignments are maintained.

Note: Many strange behaviors with OO (Online Ordering) and 3PO (3rd Party Ordering), such as orders being auto-canceled, can be resolved by using the recommended autofire device!

Set Up Your Autofire Device

On the POS

For more detailed information, visit Set Up Order Autofiring.

To configure a device to autofire in the Toast POS, follow these steps:

On a POS device, navigate to the main menu.
Scroll to the Setup section and select Device Setup.
Select Order Auto-Firing.
Select Assign and tap Save.

In Toast Web

To configure a device to autofire in the Toast web, follow these steps:

Navigate to Takeout & delivery > Availability > Online ordering.
Scroll to the Approval section.
Make sure Approval Mode is set to Send orders directly to kitchen.
Look at the current selection for Auto-fire Device.
Select Change device to switch which device is set to autofire. Choosing a device other than the recommended device may cause issues with online orders auto-firing. The recommend device is prompted based on the device that has the best wired connection for online orders to enter the system.