Printing from photo tray produces blank page

[patriot1123]

When I try to print a photo, I check every setting I can think of - 4x6 size paper, photo quality, print from photo tray.  The printer makes printing "sounds," but then spits out a blank piece of 4x6 photo paper from the photo tray, with nothing printed on it.

[sandytechy20]

@patriot1123

Welcome to HP forums, I see that your printer is printing blank pages?

• Did you try to print from a different tray and check if that prints fine?
• Did you make a copy and check if that comes out fine?

Meanwhile:  perform a power reset

1. Turn on the printer, if it is not already on.
2. Wait until the printer is idle and silent before you continue.
3. With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer.
4. Wait at least 30 seconds.
5. Plug back the power cable straight to a wall outlet without any surge protector and printer.
6. Turn on the printer.

Check the estimated ink levels

On the printer control panel, touch the Ink icon  to display the current estimated ink levels.

If the ink level is good, Print a Print Quality Diagnostic report

1. Load U.S. letter or A4 size, unused, plain white paper into the input tray.

2. On the printer control panel, swipe the display to the left, and then touch Setup.

   The Setup menu displays.

3. Touch Reports, and then touch Print Quality Report.

   A Print Quality Diagnostic page prints.

Example of a Print Quality Diagnostic report without defects

Example of a Print Quality Diagnostic report with defects

You can refer to this HP document for more assistance:- Click here

Let me know how it goes.

If this helps, please mark my post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others

Cheers.

[patriot1123]

Printing from the main tray works fine as does the "copy" function, and there is nothing wrong with the ink levels.  The problem is solely with the photo tray.

I tried the power reset in your message, and accidentally loaded the paper upside down into the paper tray.  Oddly, the photo printed correctly, but of course on the wrong side of the paper.  So I turned the paper over and tried again - and got another blank page!  So I tried the power reset again, and printed -- and got a blank page, except for just a VERY small portion of my photo in the lower right corner.  So it looks like the printer for some reason is directing the print to be centered somewhere other than where the 4x6 paper is coming out of the photo tray.  I have tried this with two different photo programs with the same result, so I don't think it's the photo problems.

I also get the same result when printing directly from media inserted into the printer.

Finally, I tried putting a piece of 4x6 paper in the main tray, and printing from there (with the appropriate tray and paper size and quality selected), and the photo printed but off center.

It seems like the printer isn't properly centering 4x6 documents for printing, especially with the photo tray.

BUT I also tried printing the same photo in 4x6 size but to plain letter sized paper in the main tray and it printed perfectly centered.

I don't know what all this means.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled the printer drivers already (and it took forever) and I don't want to try that again.

[sandytechy20]

@patriot1123

Thanks for the reply.

I appreciate your time and effort.

I understood the issue better now.

Update the printer firmware

Refer this HP document to update the printer firmware:- Click here

Place the Glossy or print side facing down in the photo tray.

You can follow the steps mentioned in this HP document for more assistance on printing photos:- Click here

Let me know if that helps.

If this helps, please mark my post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others.

Cheers.

[patriot1123]

I already had the most recent updates.  As far as the link to how to print photos, I know how to do that and double checked every setting.  The problem persists.  Again, printing a 4x6 photo from the photo tray (in 2 separate applications and from a SD card inserted into the printer) produces a blank sheet.  Printing letter-sized from the main tray is fine.  Printing a 4x6 photo from the main tray is off center.

[sandytechy20]

@patriot1123

Thanks for writing back to us.

• Make a copy from the photo tray and check if that comes out fine.
• Follow the below steps:
• Place a photo on the scanner glass.
• From the Home screen, touch Copy.
• Touch (Settings) and change the paper size, paper type, and select photo tray.
• Touch (Back) to return to the Copy screen.
• Touch Black or Color to start the copy job.

Let me know how that comes out.

Cheers.

[patriot1123]

I am so sorry to be so long getting back to you on this - I was out of pocket for the last week

I tried this (making a copy from the photo tray using the suggested steps), and the photo printed fine.  Does that help you diagnose the problem?

[sandytechy20]

@patriot1123

Thanks for the response.

Update the printer firmware

Refer this HP document to update the printer firmware:- Click here

Cheers.

[patriot1123]

As mentioned previously in this thread, the firmware is already up to date.  I tried to update it anyway and the option was greyed out because it's up to date.

[DavidSMP]

@patriot1123,

I thank you for your response. I have reviewed the post completely. Great efforts and it is awesome to have you back. Your patience is greatly appreciated. As a lot of troubleshooting has been done and the issue persists, there is more to it than meets the eye. As @sandytechy20 is out for the day, I am responding on his behalf.

I will send you a private message to assist you with the next course of action. Check your forum private message box in the upper right corner next to the bell icon. 

Thanks and have a great week ahead.