"The feature has been locked by your administrator..." message -- I AM the administrator!

[Charla43]

HAVE BEEN TRYING TO RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM FOR MOST OF A WEEK. Sorry for the all-caps but I'm frustrated!!  

I subscribe to Instant Ink. I've been receiving "reminders" that instant ink can't monitor my ink usage if the printer isn't connected to the Web.  After two calls to HP instant ink support and one call to my ISP's tech support person, I've narrowed the causes of this problem down to needing to update the network password on my printer.  But when I try to do that on the printer, I get the message, "This feature has been locked by your administrator..." BUT I AM the Administrator!  When I go to the HP Support community, I see how many people have had the same confounding problem...and the answer is always, "I'll send you a private message on how to reset your printer" but I can't access that private message, and the HP support chat has been disabled all week, and when I use the "virtual agent" I can't figure out how to get to a useful answer.  And nobody's sending me a private message on how to fix this even though I've posted in the Support Community and I've clicked on "I have the same question" on, maybe, six other customers' support-community posts about having the same problem. 

Beyond merely solving my immediate problem, can I respectfully request that HP consider getting rid of this irksome and largely unnecessary barrier to being my own tech-support person?  Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to be told that something has been locked by the person who set up this printer - who was YOU, yourself?  There will never be anyone but our family using this printer and I'm only family member who's the least bit willing to fix any of our network problems, so it's ridiculous that our printer would need to be "protected" by what I'm sure HP regards as a  "precaution."   GRRRR....

[asmita6658]

Hi @Charla43

Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

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