Because groove Packer uses the barcode to distinguish between items during verification it's extremely important that the same barcode never be associated with two different items. Any time a barcode is saved and GroovePacker a check is done to ensure that the new barcode is not already associated with another product record.
If you're seeing this message the barcode that you're attempting to add is already saved with another product.
This commonly happens in the following two scenarios:
1- The barcode you're trying to add has been accidentally added to another SKU and before it can be added to the current item it needs to be removed from the other SKU.
2- The barcode you're trying to add has been added to another SKU which is an alias of the SKU you are trying to add it to now. Here the solution is to combine the two product records via aliasing, so both SKUs are listed in one product. There are also some very rare cases where you may want to allow two different items to share the same barcode. For more information on this option please review this article about shared barcodes.
If you're not sure, the easiest way to see which scenario you are facing is to open the Products section and scan the barcode in question. (typing it in works too btw) The search result will be the item currently associated with the barcode.
Click the name of the item in the search result to open and edit it.
If the barcode should not be associated with this item just click the X beside the barcode to remove it. You'll now be able to add it to the other SKU.
If the item is a valid alias that should also be associated with the barcode you can use the alias feature to combine the product records.
Is this happening a lot?
If you're having to go through this process with many of your products it usually means that you have a good number of products with multiple SKUs. You can save time by importing them using a CSV file that associates the additional SKUs with the SKUs you already have in GroovePacker.