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- HP Community
- Printers
- LaserJet Printing
- Color printer preferences is missing the color mode

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09-09-2026 05:15 PM
Hi, I installed my HP Color Laser Jet Pro MFP 4301 FDW printer to a new computer last night. The printer will not print in color and upon looking at the Preferences, the Color Mode is missing.
Do I need to download another driver? I download the driver from HP last night. Thank you
Solved! Go to Solution.
Accepted Solutions
09-09-2026 09:25 PM
1. First make sure you have a proper HP driver installed and not a Microsoft IPP or Class driver installed.
On your PC go to the control panel app
Right click on Devices and Printers and select "open"
Right click on the icon for your printer and select "printer properties"
Click on the "advanced tab", and check the name of the driver. If it is one of the drivers mentioned above, delete the printer, download the current install package from support.hp.com and reinstall.
2. If you do have the proper HP driver installed do this:
On your PC go to the control panel app
Right click on Devices and Printers and select "open"
Right click on the icon for your printer and select "printer properties"
Click on the "device settings" tab and scroll down until you see "device type" and change to color
I am a volunteer, offering my knowledge to support fellow users, I do not work for HP nor speak for HP.
09-09-2026 09:25 PM
1. First make sure you have a proper HP driver installed and not a Microsoft IPP or Class driver installed.
On your PC go to the control panel app
Right click on Devices and Printers and select "open"
Right click on the icon for your printer and select "printer properties"
Click on the "advanced tab", and check the name of the driver. If it is one of the drivers mentioned above, delete the printer, download the current install package from support.hp.com and reinstall.
2. If you do have the proper HP driver installed do this:
On your PC go to the control panel app
Right click on Devices and Printers and select "open"
Right click on the icon for your printer and select "printer properties"
Click on the "device settings" tab and scroll down until you see "device type" and change to color
I am a volunteer, offering my knowledge to support fellow users, I do not work for HP nor speak for HP.
09-09-2026 10:35 PM
Thank you to Repairatrooper for the great advice and a solution to my problem that I was not able to print in color. Following the expert guidance from Repairatrooper and rebooting the computer and printer and then selecting on Printer Properties for my specific HP printer allowed the color mode to appear and I selected color and was able to print in color! FYI, in my Device Settings, the Device Type was initially set to "Auto" instead of "Color".
Thanks again to Repairatrooper for the expert advice and providing a solution that was clearly stated and easy to follow. Expert indeed 🙂