Haven't seen this discussed here, so I thought I'd post about it.
When Apple Pay was first released, it was pretty hit or miss for me. Often (75% of the time) I'd hold the phone up to the reader, touch ID, and I'd see "hold near reader" on the screen. Sometimes it would get past this, sometimes it wouldn't...I usually ended up having to get out my credit card. And some other times, the cards wouldn't even show on the screen when I'd hold the phone to the reader.
And before you ask, yes, I was holding it near the reader. Either touching it, or within 2cm or so.
Finally out of frustration I went to the Apple genius bar, and explained what was happening. He tested my phone against the demo scanner app they have, and confirmed it wasn't working well. We wiped the phone and set it up as a new phone, and it all appeared to be working ok after that...so, I went home and finished setting up the phone as new.
Over the next couple of days, though, the problem kept coming back. It just wasn't working well.
Another trip to the genius bar, again confirmed it wasn't working well with their demo scanner app, and they replaced the phone. I set that one up as a new phone as well. And since then, it's been working perfectly - not a single issue yet.
TL;DR - if you're seeing a lot of "hold near reader" errors, and you're holding near the reader, then go the apple store and get it fixed/replaced.
When Apple Pay was first released, it was pretty hit or miss for me. Often (75% of the time) I'd hold the phone up to the reader, touch ID, and I'd see "hold near reader" on the screen. Sometimes it would get past this, sometimes it wouldn't...I usually ended up having to get out my credit card. And some other times, the cards wouldn't even show on the screen when I'd hold the phone to the reader.
And before you ask, yes, I was holding it near the reader. Either touching it, or within 2cm or so.
Finally out of frustration I went to the Apple genius bar, and explained what was happening. He tested my phone against the demo scanner app they have, and confirmed it wasn't working well. We wiped the phone and set it up as a new phone, and it all appeared to be working ok after that...so, I went home and finished setting up the phone as new.
Over the next couple of days, though, the problem kept coming back. It just wasn't working well.
Another trip to the genius bar, again confirmed it wasn't working well with their demo scanner app, and they replaced the phone. I set that one up as a new phone as well. And since then, it's been working perfectly - not a single issue yet.
TL;DR - if you're seeing a lot of "hold near reader" errors, and you're holding near the reader, then go the apple store and get it fixed/replaced.
