QuickBooks Point of Sale is Unable to Open

Sometimes, when users try to open the QuickBooks Point of Sale application on their workstation, they might get an error instead that says “QuickBooks Point of Sale is Unable to Open”.

There are several things that could cause this error, but fixing it is not a difficult task and is rather a very straightforward process that any user can do in order to resolve the issue themselves.

Reasons Why QuickBooks Point Of Sale Might Not Open

QuickBooks Point of Sale is an application that is not known to have many flaws in it. But sometimes an application might have some runtime issues that could be so edge-case that the developers might miss it. This is one of those issues. Some of the things that can cause this issue from occurring are listed below.

• The workstation on which the user is trying to run the QuickBooks Point of Sale application might not meet the minimum system requirements. 
• It is possible that the QuickBooks Point of Sale Database Manager might not be in a running state.
• It is also possible that the Microsoft .NET framework might be damaged or it is also possible that it might have gone through an improper installation. 

These issues are issues that can be caused by both human error or some internal glitch that the workstation faces while the application tries to run itself. It is not advised that the user jumps straight away to the troubleshooting process, and there are a few things that the user must do before they proceed with the troubleshooting process since the issue can be potentially fixed by doing the following things:

• The simplest thing that sometimes fixes a lot of issues that users working with QuickBooks Point of Sale face is restarting their workstation.
• The second thing that the user needs to ensure is that they need to make sure that the QuickBooks Point of Sale Database Manager XXXX (where ‘XX’ denotes the highest version number that the user is seeing) application is up and running on their workstation. To run the application on their workstation, the user can:
  • Go to the Start menu, then type ‘services.msc’ and then press the Enter key on their keyboard.
  • The workstation will open the Services window and then right-click on the ‘QuickBooks Point of Sale Database Manager vXX’ title, and just needs to press ‘Start’.
  • If the ‘Start’ button appears to be unable to the user, then, in that case, they can simply select the ‘Restart’ option. 
• There are various requirements that the workstation must meet if the user wishes to run the QuickBooks Desktop Point of Sale application. Here are the requirements that the workstation is required to meet for a smooth run of the application:

If the error still prevails even after the user has tried all the methods that are mentioned above, they need not worry.

Steps to Fix the QuickBooks Point of Sale is Unable to Open Error

There are multiple fixes for this issue, and the user can follow any one of the solutions that have been explained in detail in order to be able to fix the issue.

Solution 1: Trying a new Windows user

• First clicking on the Windows Start button, and then type ‘User Account’ and then press the Enter key.
• Press the ‘Manage User Accounts, and click on the ‘Manage Another Account’ option.
• To create a new account, the user must click on the ‘Create a new account option. For the user type, the user must choose ‘Administrator’.
• Log off Windows and then sign in using the credentials of the newly created user. The user must now try to open Point of Sale once again. If the issue still prevails, the user must edit their UAC settings.

Solution 2: Closing and Restarting QBPOSShell and Troubleshooting Compatibility

• Open the Task Manager (press Ctrl + Alt + Del).
• Go to the ‘Processes’ tab, and then click on the column title ‘Image Name’ to sort it.
• Then the user must right-click on the ‘QBPOSShell.exe’ application, and hit ‘End Process.
• If the user sees more than one QBPOSShell, then they must troubleshoot compatibility with Windows. To troubleshoot compatibility:
  • Right-click on the Point of Sale icon on their desktop and click on the ‘Troubleshoot compatibility option’.
  • Select ‘Try recommended settings and then they must follow the onscreen instructions.
  • Restart their computer and open Point of Sale.
• Now the user can close the Task Manager and reopen the Point of Sale application.

Solution 3: Uninstalling and reinstalling the .NET framework and QuickBooks Point of Sale

• First, the user must uninstall Point of Sale. The steps to uninstall Point of Sale have been explained at the end of this article.
• Then, the user must uninstall the .NET Framework 4.0 and 4.5. To do so:
  • On the Programs & Features window, the user must select the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 (or 4.5) option. 
  • Then the user can press on ‘Uninstall’, and then they can click ‘Next’.
  • Now the user must only follow the onscreen instructions to uninstall the application.
• After that, the user needs to reinstall the .NET Framework 4.0 and 4.5. To do so:
  • The user must first download .NET Framework 4.5 from Microsoft’s website.
  • The user must save the file to their desktop, and then they must double-click the file and follow the instructions on the screen to install it.
  • After the installation, the user needs to reboot their workstation.
• The last step that is left for the user to do is to reinstall Point of Sale.

Solution 4: Ensuring all Point of Sale updates are installed

To do so, the user only needs to visit the Product Updates Page, select Point of Sale as the product of interest, and then they must follow the onscreen instructions to perform a manual update QuickBooks POS installation of their application. After the process is done, the user needs to restart their workstation.

How to Uninstall QuickBooks Point of Sale

• The first thing press Windows + R keys Run command then enter the ‘Control Panel and hit OK.
• The user needs to now select the ‘View by’ option and then select ‘Small icons. Then the user must choose the ‘Programs and Features‘ option.
• After that, the user must right-click on the QuickBooks Point of Sale XX (where ‘XX’ represents the version of QuickBooks Point of Sale that the user currently has) and then select ‘Uninstall’.
• If the user sees a ‘User Account Control’ window, then they must press ‘Continue’ and proceed with the uninstallation process.
• Once complete, rename the QuickBooks Point of Sale XX folder. The default location is C:\Program Files\Intuit\QuickBooks Point of Sale XX. They must also change the name of the folder QBPOSDBSrvUser folder which is located at C:\Users.
• The user must also delete the QBPOSDBSrvUser Windows login. To do so:
  • Open the Run command prompt (press Windows + R)
  • Now the user needs to select ‘User Accounts.
  • After that the user needs to select ‘Manage another account, and then they must select ‘Continue’ on the User Account Control window.
  • Now the user can simply select ‘QBPOSDBSrvUser’ and press ‘Delete the account’ to delete it.
• Finally, the user needs to restart their workstation, and the uninstallation would have been done successfully.