Clearing a Paper Jam on an Canon Printer Without Damage

A paper jam on a Canon printer is almost always a five-minute fix at your desk, and you rarely need any tools. The trick is knowing where the sheet is actually stuck and pulling it the right way so no scraps stay behind to trigger the error again.

This guide covers every jam location on Canon inkjet and PIXMA printers, what to do when the screen reports a jam but you can't find any paper, what the support codes mean, and how to stop jams from coming back.

Why Canon Printers Jam

Most jams come down to one of these:

• Paper loaded unevenly or past the fill line. An overfilled tray or a skewed stack feeds crooked and catches.
• Damp, curled, wrinkled, or previously printed paper. Sheets that aren't flat and dry don't feed cleanly.
• Dust or dried ink on the feed rollers. Dirty rollers grip unevenly and pull one edge of the sheet faster than the other.
• A foreign object in the paper path. A paper clip, staple, coin, or a torn scrap from an earlier jam is a common hidden cause.
• The wrong paper size or type in the print settings, so the printer expects a different sheet than the one loaded.
• A worn roller or transport part on an older printer, which usually needs service.

Before You Pull Anything Out