Unused and Unopened on a replaced printer

[1crazyladyscare]

I have several unopened instant ink cartridges for a printer that I have replaced.  I am giving the printer to an employee and was wondering if she can still use the cartridges that are paid for and unopened?

[NonSequitur777]

@1crazyladyscare,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

No, she will not be able to use those specific cartridges under normal circumstances, even though they are paid for and completely unopened.

Reason being is that HP Instant Ink cartridges are fundamentally different from regular store-bought ink -if that is what you got. They are embedded with microchips that are digitally locked to your specific HP account and your original printer's serial number. If you cancel your subscription or remove that printer from your account, those cartridges will be instantly blocked by HP's servers and will display an "Incompatible Cartridge" error if your employee tries to use them.

However, since you are handing the actual hardware over to her, you can bypass this restriction by using one of the following methods:

Option 1: Hand Over the Entire HP Account (Recommended):

Because the cartridges are tied to the printer hardware and your current account, the easiest fix is to completely hand over the login credentials to your employee.

1. Log into your account on the HP Instant Ink Portal.
2. Change the email address and password to your employee's credentials.
3. Update the payment information to her credit card.

• The Result: The subscription stays alive on that specific printer, meaning all of those unopened cartridges will remain perfectly valid and fully functional for her!

Option 2: Contact HP to Request an Ownership Transfer:

If you use your current HP account for other active devices and cannot hand over the credentials, you will have to request a manual hardware release from HP support. Btw, this is an option I would personally avoid because of the challenge to find someone to talk to -just being honest. Then again, you may get lucky -experiences varies.

1. Contact HP Customer Support directly (8 5 5 - 7 8 5 - 2 7 7 7)
2. Explain that you are gifting the printer to an employee and want to transfer the printer registration and its pending ink allotments to her separate new HP account.
3. An HP agent can occasionally push a firmware command to re-assign the serial codes of those specific unopened cartridges to her new account profile.

Option 3: Recycle and Start Fresh:

If you choose to simply cancel your plan without a formal account or printer transfer, the cartridges become entirely useless plastic.

• The Action: Your employee will need to buy standard retail cartridges from a store to use the printer.
• The Return: You should use the prepaid mailing envelope provided by HP to ship the unopened cartridges back to them for free recycling, as they technically remain property of HP.

Question: Are you currently using this same HP account for another printer in your office, or was this the only device attached to that specific subscription?

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777