LJ M227: duplex print comes out single sided, out of order, and every second page upside down

[JoeWUK]

After two years of no issues my LJ M227fdw recently stopped responding to any device. As one does I uninstalled and reinstalled the device drivers, and all seemed well...

... until I went to print duplex.

Duplex printing is available in apps and a duplex print job is accepted by the apps, the print queue, and the printer itself. But it does not print duplex. It prints single-sided only. The pages are out of order, and every second page is printed upside down.

The printer is set to print duplex by default, flip on long side. That's how I have it set in Adobe Acrobat also.

I have now more than once fully uninstalled, cleaned up all traces of HP software and drivers, and reinstalled. I've installed the Full Software as well as HP Smart only. I've had Win11 handle the install after asking it to detect my printer, and I've downloaded the drivers directly and installed that way.

No errors at any point. The printer agrees the duplex unit is installed, and accepts duplex print jobs. It just won't actually print duplex. That's bad enough, but forcing a resort of every page and rotation of every second page... that normally says to me that the printer driver is corrupt, but how can that be when multiple drivers from multiple sources all produce the same result?

Single-sided printing is fine BTW.

[Repairatrooper]

Based on what I have seen recently I suggest that you download the Smart Universal Printer Driver and try that. 

[Andr-1611]

Or try

A) Printer settings Duplexer:
Search Windows for 'devices', and then click the Devices and Printers control panel setting in the results.

Right-click the icon for your printer model, and then
click Device Settings tab
Installable Options > Duplexer: installed

If not, change to installed.

B) Automatic Two-Sided Duplex Accessory:

Enter the Control Panel > Devices and Printers.
Right click the printer icon, then click Printer Properties.
Click the Device Settings tab.
Set the Automatic Two-Sided Duplex Accessory as installed and click OK to save the change.

Now Automatic Duplexing should become available.

Kind Regards
Andr-1611

If my post resolved your problem please mark this post as an "Accepted Solution".
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[JoeWUK · Accepted solution]

The Smart Universal Printer Driver removed all duplex ability. I guess I had pages coming in the correct order and orientation... but I could already do that if I printed single-sided.

I uninstalled the Smart Universal Print Driver, and ignored the Full driver and asked Windows11 to add the printer again, using only HP Smart from the Windows store. I'm not sure why I tried that again because the previous attempt didn't work... but this time it did.

So the trick was to ignore everything HP-supplied and only the Microsoft-supplied driver. Duplex printing works correctly now. Lesson learned.

[JoeWUK]

Per my original post I was able to select print on both sides, it just didn't work when I chose that.

If duplexing was not available in Device Settings or Printer Properties, it wouldn't be an option to print. So even when duplexing isn't working correctly, if it can be selected as an option the issue is not with the device settings but with the driver.

See above comment - the trick was to uninstall all software provided by HP and instead use the driver provided by Microsoft.