m254dw firmware upgrade blocked my toner cartridges - printer unusable

[Canon_fan]

Thank you ThierryB68.  Your instructions worked on my printer.
Needless to say, HP just lost me as a customer after decades of buying from them.

[Steve_Kemp]

For me the installer worked over WiFi, it is not in the same room as this PC.  I got the smiley face on the app (after selecting the printer) but found the printer was still stuck on the 'supply problem' screen. When I was looking through the the update settings (in anticipation of having to move it nearer to use USB) it rebooted and displayed 'Programming...'.  Another reboot confirmed the firmware had reverted to 20200612 datecode.  Cartridges recognised fine now.

[Mr_Snrub19]

I also had this issue. I found that the firmware downgrade only worked after I had taken out the non-HP cartridges (I didn't have any HP cartridges, but it works with the printer empty).

It's one of the most anti-consumer practices I've experienced, and has ensured that I will never buy another HP product again. HP's toner cartridges are not noticably better than 3rd party cartridges, but they cost so much more. Much better to make them competitively priced than to try to brick people's printers in order to make them buy overpriced products. Shameful tactics.

Thanks to all the people who have saved the old firmware and kept printers working!

[ThierryB68]

Interesting. I did the downgrade with the 3rd party toners inside and had no issues, but nice that it worked for you in the end.

[Howie411]

So I'm not a lawyer but I I think this is illegal.  Wasn't there a supreme court case vs Lexmark or Epson where they tried to do this and they lost?   Also they are fundamentally changing a feature after purchase which I'm pretty sure isn't legal either.

[Mash-Patel]

WOULD ANYONE KNOW HOW I CAN GET THE FIRMWARE DOWNGRADE FILE FOR MAC OS?

[AdrianLavery]

Hi there, if you look up above in the posts there is link.  I would go to the printer settings and reset to default factory settings, then download the file above and run it.  It will downgrade your printer to the last firmware version.

[popeye28]

i need the firmware downgrade for mac os x where would i get this from i've been up all night long no sleep trying to sort this out to no avail

email [Personal Information Removed]

thanks..

[BobMyers]

This worked for me.  Thanks!

[BrianI]

Using my Win10 PC, I found that I had to combine several tricks that I saw in other posts before I could get ThierryB68's instructions to work (from 11-05-2020 02:30 pm post on this board). By the way, they were very similar to the ones available on YouTube here (https://youtu.be/eobQtL5xTs0) by Ghost White Toner.

After a lot of trial, error, and reading other posts, I determined that I also needed to:

- Connect via USB instead of via my network.

- Share my printer as a resource.

- Remove the non-HP cartridges. (I actually still had my original ones waiting to go for recycling, so I reinstalled them.)

I downloaded the file from:

[content removed]

I also noticed that the firmware file appeared in the print queue list if you have it open.

Thanks to:

- ThierryB68

- David at Ghost White Toner

- Many others who provided help along the way.

I love this printer, but I'm annoyed at HP for this. I would like to see some improvement in the laws protecting consumers in situations like this.

Brian