Officejet Pro 8600 (N911a) will not feed photo paper

[Davbar]

I have found that the photo paper will pick up and jamb into the curved guides that are supposed to force the paper to curve and roll upward during the feeding process.  On my machine, when the photo paper misfeeds, there are tell tail signs on the papers leading edge where it has jambed into these two curved guides and stopped.  I have found that creating a slight upward curve to the lead edge of the paper allows it to get past this spot and thus feed normally.  HP needs to soften the feed guides in this area for the thicker paper.  Hope this helps,

[Sientz]

Rant - First of all this is such bullsheet!   This is the last HP product I will every buy....EVER!   I bought this piece of crap at Costco so I will probably end up taking it back, the only thing keeping me from doing so right now is that I made the mistake of purchasing the second paper tray. 

History - I had this problem in the beginning and eventually I got it work by keeping the tray half full of photo paper and it seemed okay for a while then it recently stopped feeding paper again! 

Fails - Scotch tape didn't feed at all.  Printing 100 blank pages...still didn't feed.  

Jury Rig FIX - This may or may not work for you but it worked for me...I put a number 2 pencil under the photo paper at the mouth of tray as shown in the photo below and now it seems to work every time!!

What bullsheet!

 HP < GARBAGE!

[ki5ka]

Same issue as all.  New machine. Cleaned rollers with plain water. Works now.

[newf_dad]

I had the same problem. I fixed it by starting the "Print" process; when the printer dialogue window appeared I selected "properties"; when the properties dialogue window appeared I select "paper/quality"; in this dialogue I changed the "media type" from "plain paper" to one of the "photo...." choices (I picked "other photo paper". The printer fed the paper just fine after that.

Originally I put my photo paper on top of the existing plain paper that was already in the tray. The feed picked up my photo paper and one sheet of plain paper. So I had to reprint but removed all paper EXCEPT the photo paper first.

[frustrated1000]

Well this was very frustrating and took me an hour, but I got it to work. It cost me a sheet of photo paper, but oh well. I took the feeder tray out, tilted the machine on it's back, and hand fed a sheet into the rollers. It didn't pull it in straight so it would be best to have two people, one to hold the machine, one to use both hands to feed the paper straight. Once I got the first one through I loaded two sheets of photo paper on top of plain paper in the feeder and replaced the tray. It was then able to feed the photo paper. Good luck. I hope it works for you.

[laidbacknate]

DUST IS THE CULPRIT!

As per the HP support page for this specific problem, cleaning the rollerhead (The rubber part of the pick roller), is the solution.  

HP Solution here (with pictures).  

The specifics are found under the heading: 

Solution four: Clean the paper rollers

My printer was able to pick up regular paper, but not photo paper.  I updated all drivers (they automatically update weekly).  I tried every combination of paper in the tray: 1 sheet of photo paper, a large stack of regular paper with 1 photo paper, large stack with 5 sheets of photo paper.  Every combination failed, and the best it got was 1 page of photo paper with the next sheet underneath also coming with it.  

I put the thing on its side, and used RUBBING ALCOHOL, (not water as they suggest... rubbing alcohol is much better for electronics, and pretty much any cleaning application.... evaporates very quickly), with a true lint free cloth.  Went over it several times with the cloth, rotating while cleaning, and used an AIR DUSTER to clean out the internals, and dry off the PICK ROLLER.  

I RESET ROLLER POSITION to the original place, as shown in the HP Photo on support page.  

Lastly, ONE SHEET OF PAPER at a time.  

It took all that, and I'm still not happy with HP for this massive oversight... but it got my photos printing again.  Hopefully it will for you too!!  

[CalvinVA]

I was having the same issue with my brand new 8600 Pro printer.  At one point I have as many as 200 photo paper but the printer still not able to feed the papers.  By accident, I bumped the button at the front of the tray and the front bracket pops up. Looks like this spring board like bracket supposed to pop up when inserted.  So I pop it up, push it back down, repeat couple time to make sure it is not 'sticky' anymore.  I insert the tray into the printer slowly and wait for the 'click' sound indicating the spring loaded bracket is poped up.  Now, I am able to feed photo paper into the printer; I have only few sheets of photo papers and the printer has no problem feeding it now.

Push the button at the front until the spring pushes the bracket up. Note that the paper is tilted upward for easy feeding.

[bulewold]

Thsi is really stupid for sure.  I did find the solution though...  It's not a permanant but it'll get the job done.

If you clean the head, it'll make it worse because the issue here is that HP rollers can't pick up anything that's smoother than normal paper.  So any paper starting with matt and glossy, no luck.  That's why all HP photo papers have werid scratched up back with lines... lol

ANYWAY, the only way to make it work I found is dap a bit of glue (using normal glue stick) where center roller will try to grab the paper.  This will work very well!

However, I say this isn't a permanent solution because this will make your roller dirty over time and start making mark on the paper eventually.

But once this job is done, i'm taking my stupid hp printer back.  I'm not dealing with this BS.  I've been a big fac of HP printers and have two at home and one at office.  And I'm going to test them all with my 'STAPLES MATT PAPER' and if all three fails to print without pasting glue on it, they're all going back to costco.

HP, you should thougth this through... especially with your extra cost which I was willing to pay......

[Stimbot]

I have the same problem with my Officejet Pro 8600 not picking up photo paper.  I jury rigged it by taping a regular sheet of paper to the bottom of the tray and then loading only one piece of photo paper at a time.  The problem appeared to be that the glossy side of the photo paper was too sticky to slide out of an empty tray or would drag a regular sheet along with it if one was loaded underneath.  Now it works most of the time, but still not great.

[mjc22]

My 8600 n911a arrived today!

WHAT a wonderfull machine! A lot of abilities, full pigment, easy to clean / replacable printhead, awesome print costs - very nice high volume cartidges!  ... and this problem!

I am trying to print full A4 copy from 8Mpix original, on

Sigel Ultra-Photo-Paper, 300g glossy (5 star).

A heavy paper. It is also very flimsy/waxy on the other side.

ANY other regular paper works, this high quality is simply NOT picked up.

A combination of heavy weight, resistance and fact that its back side is VERY slippery.

SOLUTION

I found out the problem is the roller. At back of your printer, remove duplexer, you will see a big grey roller.

Maybe they are covered in dust. I dont know.

One COULD clean it with 100% isopropyl alcohol and IMMEDIATELY finish removing alcohol with regular water.

This should make surface rough and at same time not dry up (alcohol effect on resin) if removed immediately.

One COULD add very very few silicone on the roller, making it bigger and non-round.

I did it the following way for now:

1) Cut a 2 cm long piece of sticky paper. So its about 2x3.5 cm size

2) Attach one LOWER END (about 0.5 cm) of tape at reverse side, in the center, on TOP of the paper. Exactly where roller is picking. As if you would use tape to attach this picture to the wall. But..

3) BEND the rest of tape AROUND, so it looks like a top-down U, with other side attached LOWER to the paper.

So, you have tape holding on paper and at same time having glue side on top.

Roller grabs the tape successfully. I was able to print immediately!

And, guys,.. all these trash talks,

all these threats and insults towards HP,

you really have no idea HOW CRAPPY the rest is. You REALLY really dont.

Epson? Oh come on! Waste Ink Counter? Self distructing chips? Permanent print head? Short-cuting printheads due to absence of ANY isolation between it and wiring? What about 2 x cartrige number x number of pins per cartridge (5-9) that are BENT on EVERY cartridge replacement - in fact this Epson sx525wd had broken pin which I repaired, sold for 1$ ? Low build quality (print head is not even on its own dedicated line!) ?!

Canon? Compared costs of printhead? And Waste Ink Counter?

Brother? Whats that ugly print quality of photo paper?

Kodak? Wake me up when they write drivers for Linux 🙂

I really really like this machine, every aspect about it! And finally the print cartridges volume that is WORTH their cost!

Thank you HP!!! Finally a top of the line machine!