The barcode already printed on a wine bottle — the UPC or EAN a shop scans at the till — is not something InVintory can read. Photograph the text on the label instead, which is what the camera is built for and works on far more bottles.
🏷️ One kind of barcode does work: ours. If you print InVintory barcode labels, the same camera reads them and opens that exact bottle straight away. Nothing to switch on — just point it at one.
Why shop barcodes are no use here
An InVintory barcode is exactly ten characters long, so anything longer or shorter is not one of ours and cannot be looked up. A UPC has twelve digits and an EAN thirteen, which is why pointing the camera at one brings up Trying to scan a barcode? rather than a wine.
Even if we could read them, they would not get you far. Plenty of wine is bottled without a barcode at all, and the ones that have one are often covered by a retailer's own sticker — so the code on the bottle in front of you frequently belongs to the shop, not the producer.
The label is the opposite: every bottle has one, and it names the producer, the wine and usually the vintage.
What to do instead
Barcode on the bottle | What to do |
A shop's UPC or EAN | Ignore it — photograph the front or the back label. Back labels carry the importer and appellation, which pin down an awkward wine |
An InVintory label you printed | Point the camera at it. The bottle opens on its own |
A CellarSticker | Not a barcode at all — hold your iPhone against it |
Scan front or back of label or InVintory barcode
That line under the viewfinder is the rule in one sentence: label text, or our own barcode.
Next steps
How to add wines by scanning a label — the whole scanning flow, from photo to confirmed bottle
How to print barcode labels — how to get the barcodes that do work
How to use CellarStickers — the tap-to-open alternative