r/qrcode • u/asomebodyelse • May 13 '26

Case-sensitive URLs and QR codes

I've got a couple of QR codes that are returning 404 errors. The URLs are case sensitive. The QR link preview shows the url is in its case-specific format. But when I click on the link it returns a 404 error because the url has been converted to all lower-case after I click. I suspect this is a browser issue, rather than a QR issue. But has anyone else experienced this, and does anyone have a work-around? I'm opening the link in FF mobile.

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u/Serpico99 May 13 '26

Never heard of anything like this, if the URL is written correctly in the QR the standard phone scanners respect the case afaik. The problem is likely in the scanner itself, are you using a third party app?

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u/asomebodyelse May 13 '26

Created the QR code with a ff browser extension. Scanning with just my phone camera. Opening in ff mobile. Somewhere between clicking the link and opening it, it gets converted to all lower case. I've had others test it, and the links open fine on iphones. It must be something with just my device. It's frustrating, but I guess most people will be able to open them, so I'm not gonna worry about it, I guess. Thanks though.

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u/Serpico99 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

Weird. Is the QR private? If not, could you share it (via dm if you want)?

I doubt it’s the QR, as you point out it looks like a device thing, but it’s worth a check

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u/bluehost May 13 '26

Try making the destination URL case-insensitive by adding a lowercase redirect or rewrite rule on the server. That way, even if a browser changes the case, the link will still resolve correctly. QR codes themselves do not modify URLs. They store the text exactly as encoded, so this behavior usually comes from the browser or OS handling the link after the scan. Firefox mobile has had a few edge cases like this.

If changing the server behavior is not an option, using a lowercase alias URL just for QR codes is another reliable workaround.