How to replace a damaged label

Use this when a box's QR-code sticker has been torn, smudged, or destroyed, and the system can't read the code anymore. The fix is to take a fresh sticker from the stack, put it on the box, and tell the system that the new label is taking over for the damaged one. After that, scanning either sticker — the new one or any readable remnant of the old one — reaches the box's contents.

Why this is different from a fresh assignment. The damaged box has a history — its items, its name, who's edited it, when. If you instead retired the box and started over with a fresh assignment, that history would be split across two records. The replace-damaged-label flow keeps the box's history intact and just swaps which sticker reaches it.

What you'll need. A fresh QR label from the stack, access to the box itself, and the old box's ID. The old ID is printed under the damaged QR code — if any of the characters are still readable, write them down. If the entire label is unreadable, the recovery path is different (see the bottom of this page).

Step 1: At the box — physically replace the sticker. Take a fresh QR label from the stack and stick it on the box, in the same area as the damaged one. You can either remove the damaged sticker first or simply place the new one over it — both work. What matters is that the new sticker is on the box before you confirm the change in the system. That way the team isn't hunting for a “freshly relabeled” box that still has only the old broken sticker on it.

Step 2: Write down both IDs. The new label's ID is printed under its QR code (something like BOX-A7K9P2). Write that down. Then write down whatever you can still read of the old label's ID — it follows the same BOX-XXXXXX pattern. Even a partial read helps; the IDs are designed to avoid look-alike characters (no I, L, O, or U), so missing letters can be reconstructed.

Step 3: At home — open the editor on a desktop or laptop. Sign in to the Box Tracker. On the home page, use the Find a box by ID form to look up the new label's ID. Since the fresh label hasn't been used yet, you'll land on a page that says the label hasn't been claimed.

Step 4: Start the replace-label flow. On that page, scroll past the assign form to the section labeled Replacing a damaged label? and click the link Replace a damaged label on an existing box →.

Step 5: Identify the old box. Type the old box's ID into the form (any case is fine, and you can leave out the BOX- prefix if you'd rather). Press the lookup button. The next screen shows an old-vs-new summary — the old box's name, location, and item count on the left, the new label's fresh ID on the right. Read it carefully and make sure that's the right box before confirming.

Step 6: Confirm. Press Confirm replacement. The new label now reaches the box's contents. The old label's record stays in the system as a retired entry — if a recovered piece of the damaged sticker ever does manage to scan, the app redirects to the new label automatically. So even partial old labels keep working.

If you can't read any of the old label's ID — the sticker is destroyed beyond recognition, or it's missing entirely — don't use this flow. Treat the box as new and use the assign-a-label walkthrough instead. Add a note in the box explaining what happened, and Wanda Turpin or another editor can later reconcile items if it turns out to be a known box.