Troubleshooting

The handful of things in Shelf that genuinely confuse people, gathered in one place. Most pages in this guide carry their own troubleshooting table for problems specific to that feature — this page is for the ones worth finding without already knowing which page they belong to, plus the failure modes that cross more than one area.

"I can't sign in"

Shelf has three separate ways in, and mixing them up is the most common cause of "I can't get in":

You're trying	What's actually happening	Fix
Continue with Google	Works only for Artefact staff on the Google directory, and only once someone's granted you the shelf app in admin.artgrp.au	If you get "No Shelf access grant," the sign-in itself is fine — ask an admin to grant you the app
Email + password	Works for anyone invited by email, once they've set a password	If you accepted an invite but never chose a password, "Incorrect email or password" is expected — use Reset password first
Email one-time code	Works for anyone invited by email, no password needed	The code is six digits, emailed, and expires after ten minutes — request a fresh one if it's timed out, don't keep retrying the old one

A Google account can't use password reset or a one-time code — Shelf will say so rather than pretending it might work. That's not a bug, it's the point: there's no second, weaker way into a Google-backed account.

Full detail, including every error message Shelf shows and what each one means: Signing in.

"A label prints but won't scan"

Almost always one of two things, in order of likelihood:

1. The quiet zone is invaded. A QR code needs genuinely clear space around it — no logo, no border, no adjacent text — for a scanner to find its edges. The smaller the tape, the easier this is to get wrong by accident, which is exactly why Shelf's label presets are fixed layouts rather than a freeform designer: it's the thing stopping you from dragging the found-portal text a few millimetres too close to the code. If you're seeing this on a custom print path or a heavily cropped label, that's the first thing to check.
2. The printer isn't printing at the resolution Shelf assumes. This is what the calibration print catches — a ruler against the printed ticks and the 10mm square tells you in under a minute whether every label from that printer is subtly the wrong size. Do this once per printer; it's the difference between a drawer of good labels and a drawer that all fail the same way.

If a single label fails and the rest from the same run are fine, it's more likely a physical print defect (a scuffed head, low tape) than either of the above — reprint that one label and move on.

"Print jobs are queuing but nothing comes out"

This is a relay problem, not a printer problem, almost every time. The browser never talks to the printer directly — a small program called the print relay does, and if it's not running or can't reach Shelf, jobs sit at Queued forever with no error, because there's nothing to error: nobody's watching the queue on that end. Check Settings → Printers for the relay's "last seen" time. If it's not recent, the relay program has stopped and needs restarting on its host machine.

The full breakdown of every status a print job can show, and what each one means, is in Printing labels.

"This QR code doesn't go anywhere" / "I printed a label before the asset existed"

Two different symptoms of the same underlying trap. Shelf's fast add-gear path is print a blank label first, scan it second — the scan is what creates the asset and links the two together. If you break that order (print a batch of blank labels, stick them on cases, then create the assets separately through the ordinary "New asset" form instead of scanning), you end up with a printed label that's still unlinked and an asset that got a different QR code minted for it that was never printed.

The fix doesn't involve reprinting anything. Scan the orphaned label while signed in — you'll land on a panel with two options: Quick add (create a brand-new asset from this code), or Link to existing asset/kit (search for the asset you already created and attach this code to it instead). Pick the second one, find the asset, and the label on the case now points at the right record.

The same "Link to existing asset/kit" option is also the fix if you ever find a label on a physical case that predates your Shelf workspace and want to attach it to a record you're creating properly today, rather than letting a scan of it default to creating a new, empty asset.

"I added a photo when quick-adding an asset, and it's not there"

This is a known gap, not something you're doing wrong. The Quick add panel (the one you land on scanning a fresh blank label) has a title field and a photo picker — but only the title is currently saved to the asset. The photo doesn't get attached. If you want a photo on the asset, add one afterward from its edit page; it takes a few extra seconds and it actually works.

"Shelf won't let me check this out" / "I assigned custody and now I can't check out on the day"

This is custody blocking a booking, and it's the single most common "gear went missing on paper" story. An asset held in someone's custody can't be checked out on a booking — Shelf warns you about this the moment you assign the custody if the asset's already reserved on an upcoming job, but it doesn't stop you, because sometimes that really is what you meant. The bill comes due on load-in morning: release the custody first, then check out.

If you're on the load-in floor right now and this has just happened, the fastest way through it is the asset's own page → release custody → back to the booking → check out. No need to touch the booking itself.

"Shelf flagged something as a conflict when I tried to add it to a booking"

Working as intended — an individual asset already reserved on another booking with an overlapping date range can't be double-booked silently. Follow the link Shelf shows you to the conflicting booking to see who has it and when, and either pick a different date range or a different piece of gear. Quantity-tracked assets show the same warning when you ask for more units than are actually free across the window. See Bookings & the calendar.

"An audit says things are missing and I don't think they are"

Missing is a finding, not an accusation, and definitely not an action. Shelf hasn't changed anything about that asset's record — its location, status and custody are exactly what they were before the audit. Work the missing list in order: check whether it's legitimately out on a booking or in someone's custody first (the audit's scope was probably drawn too narrow), then whether it's in a kit that lives somewhere else, then whether it's simply mis-shelved a bay over. Genuinely gone is the last conclusion, not the first assumption.

"The Audits page shows an unlock screen instead of a list"

Audits aren't switched on for your workspace yet. An Owner can turn them on from that same screen — it's a one-click flip, not a support request.

Related

• Signing in — the full sign-in reference, including every error message
• Printing labels — printers, the relay, and the complete "nothing comes out" table
• Kits & custody — why custody blocks check-out, and how it's meant to work
• Audits — reading missing and unexpected results properly
• Glossary — when the problem is which word means what, not a feature misbehaving