How do I change where a QR code points?

Why the printed code cannot be edited

A QR code is a picture of some text. The squares spell out a web address, and ink on paper cannot be rewritten, so the address inside a printed code is fixed for as long as the paper exists. Everything that looks like “editing a QR code” is really changing what happens at the address it already holds.

The three cases

It holds a page on your own website

Edit that page and every scan sees the change. If the page has to move, ask whoever runs the website to forward the old address to the new one; until they do, the printed code opens “page not found”. You own the address, so nobody can switch the code off, but you also get no count of the scans.

It holds a short link run by a QR code service

This is a dynamic code. Every code is a dynamic code: a short go.qrvane.com link, or a hosted page behind one, that you can point somewhere new after printing. The service forwards each scan to wherever you have pointed the code, so changing the destination is a form field, and it takes effect on the next scan. The trade is that the code works only while the service forwards it: when a dynamic code stops sets out exactly when.

It holds the destination itself

A code made by one of the many one-off QR generators usually holds your address directly, with nothing in between. Nothing can be changed and nothing is counted. If the address has to change, make a new code and reprint.

Changing a QRVane code

1. Sign in at qrvane.com with the email address the code was made with. There is no password: we email a 4-digit code.
2. Open the code in your dashboard and edit where it goes, or the menu or card page behind it.
3. Save. The next scan opens the new destination; every printed copy follows.

The pattern never changes, so there is nothing to reprint, and the scans you already have stay with the code. Design a code, give an email address, and type the 4-digit code we send to it. There is no password and nothing to set up. The code belongs to that address, so only someone who can read that inbox can change it, see its scans or buy a plan that keeps it live.

What a plan costs

Every code works for 14 days from the moment it is made. After that, unless its workspace has a plan with room for it, people who scan it see a QRVane page instead of the destination. While the workspace subscribes, its plan keeps codes live past their first 14 days: Starter 10, Pro 50 and Business 250. The prices, and what a scanner sees in every state a code can be in, are on the pricing page.

Before you print

1. Decide whether this code has to change later. If it does, it has to be a dynamic code.
2. Read the service’s written rule for what happens when you stop paying, and work out the running cost: a dynamic code is a subscription, not a one-off.
3. Point the code at its real destination and scan the printed proof before the batch, not after.
4. Keep the account’s email address somewhere the business can reach, not one person’s private inbox: with QRVane, whoever can read that inbox is whoever can change the code.
5. If nothing about the destination will ever change, a code that holds it directly is simpler, and free of anyone else’s service. The first 14 days of a QRVane code are enough to decide which you need.