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Freestyle Libre 'Scan timeout'

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M

mosman

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi,

I wonder if anyone could help? Yesterday I received my shiny new Freestyle Libre starter pack. I set it up this morning and it's proving very disappointing!! I had assumed I could literally just sweep the reader past the sensor and I'd get a result (at least that's what I've seen in videos online). But in reality, I keep getting a 'Scan timeout' message on my reader, which tells me 'The sensor was not found. Scan the sensor again.' I'm having to scan it three or four times before I can get a result, which is not what I expected and it doesn't feel right to me.

Am I missing something?! Amy tips or hints gratefully received!

Thanks so much.
 
Hi @mosman
What you’ve seen in online videos is what you should expect generally.
Persevere in case it ‘settles’ and improves but if these messages are persistent then give Abbott a call on Monday and they should be able to troubleshoot over the phone with you and if necessary are usually pretty good at getting a replacement out.
 
Thanks so much for replying. I was thinking it might need time to get into the swing of it, but also wondered if that was me clutching at straws! Good to know Abbott are good at responding to things like this, will see how I get on tomorrow and take it from there!
 
mosman said:
I was thinking it might need time to get into the swing of it, but also wondered if that was me clutching at straws!
Click to expand...

No, "Scan Timeout" is the kind of thing I get sometimes with my phone (have to hold it at just the right place for a second or two). With the FreeStyle Reader it happens much less often; the right place is roughly the centre of the screen so that's much easier to get right.

Likely it's just a faulty sensor (or maybe a faulty reader; I think someone here reported a whole sequence of sensors not working and it turned out the reader was faulty).
 
We very occasionally get that message, it's rare though, yes normally you should be able to just scan and get the reading. It does sound like either your sensor or reader are faulty, give it 24 hours and if no improvement then ring Abbott. They will probably ask you loads of questions, but if there's any chance that it's faulty they will send you a replacement, they are pretty good at that, they will probably want the faulty one back though so hang onto it and they will send a prepaid envelope to return it.

Some people find that it takes the sensors 24 hours to settle, usually then though you'd get readings, it would just be telling you that you are low when you aren’t! You can get round that problem by attaching the sensor to your arm 24 hours before starting it up. Although we find that most of them work straight away for us.
 
Phones are much twitchier than the reader I find, but once you have worked out (more or less) where the NFC antenna is on your phone it should be easier. Mine is right at the end it seems!

If it’s the reader/handset, contact abbott for some troubleshooting? They will probably replace it.
 
mosman said:
Hi,

I wonder if anyone could help? Yesterday I received my shiny new Freestyle Libre starter pack. I set it up this morning and it's proving very disappointing!! I had assumed I could literally just sweep the reader past the sensor and I'd get a result (at least that's what I've seen in videos online). But in reality, I keep getting a 'Scan timeout' message on my reader, which tells me 'The sensor was not found. Scan the sensor again.' I'm having to scan it three or four times before I can get a result, which is not what I expected and it doesn't feel right to me.

Am I missing something?! Amy tips or hints gratefully received!

Thanks so much.
Click to expand...
I find with the phone, it is generally not too 'iffy' with a bare arm or just a shirt, but if I'm wearing a sweater and/or a jacket, finding the 'sweet spot' for the phone is challenging, whereas the reader will almost always scan through several layers, from a few centimetres away. The phone gives so much more data, the reader is so much easier.
 
I am trying to stick to using my phone just to reduce what I have to carry. However as @Squirrel768 has said it can be a bit iffy, and I often get the error message a couple of times on the phone, whereas the reader works all the time.

If you want to use both don’t forget to activate your sensor with the reader first and then the phone. If you use the phone first you then can’t use the reader.
 
There was a recent thread where someone’s iphone was having trouble scanning using a new version of the app. Mine still seems to be doing OK. (LibreLink2.3.1.1361 on ios 14)
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
There was a recent thread where someone’s iphone was having trouble scanning using a new version of the app. Mine still seems to be doing OK. (LibreLink2.3.1.1361 on ios 14)
Click to expand...
I read elsewhere some are thinking it is older models of IPHONE that have are having a problem.
 
grovesy said:
I read elsewhere some are thinking it is older models of IPHONE that have are having a problem.
Click to expand...

Mine is the iphone 7, which is the oldest model that Librelink works on. 🙂
 
I am not an iPhone user so I can't remember which model they were referring to just that it was an older one.
 
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