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Canon PIXMA E-Series Error Codes (E02–E59): Every Code Explained

Canon Printer display showing GUIDE — FixCode Guide error code graphic

The E codes are how PIXMA models with a small LED segment display talk: instead of a four-digit support code on a screen, the display alternates a letter and numbers — E, 0, 4 — and Canon's support page for these models publishes the translation to the support codes underneath. This guide walks every E code Canon documents for the LED platform, grouped the way the printer experiences them: paper, cartridges, ink level, the absorber, covers and scanning. Two rules govern everything below. First, an E code means nothing without its model — Canon's wording shifts slightly between generations, and the variance is flagged where Canon itself shows it. Second, where Canon documents a code as a group, this guide says so rather than inventing per-code detail.

Safety first. Work unplugged. Canon's procedures consistently put 'turn off and unplug' ahead of any internal inspection, and covers should only be opened as far as the model's consumer documentation describes (carriage and tank access); everything deeper is service work, on machines connected to mains electricity. Inside a PIXMA, observe Canon MX922's labelled warning: do not touch the clear encoder film, the white carriage belt or the ink tubes during jam clearing and cleaning — the film is both fragile and a diagnostic component. Treat ink as a chemical consumable: wash skin contact, keep cartridges and MegaTank ink away from eyes, and never defeat the ink-out protection (holding Stop for 5 seconds to disable remaining-ink detection) as a routine — Canon warns that printing under ink-out conditions may damage the machine and accepts no liability for that damage. On imageRUNNER machines add heat and scale: the fixing unit runs at fuser temperatures (the E001 thresholds in Canon's manuals are in the hundreds of degrees), internal parts are service-only, and a copier that has tripped a fixing protection code should be left to a technician rather than repeatedly reset and retried.

How to read an E code — and find its support code

An LED-display PIXMA reports a fault by alternating characters on its segment display: the letter E, then the code's digits, then back to E. Canon's LED support page (the master document for this platform) lists each E code alongside the support code it renders — E04 is support code 1687, E16 is 1688 — and that pairing is the key to the whole platform, because it means nothing about the fault changes when the display does: the E code and the support code are one event in two vocabularies. Practically, this gives you two routes to help. Your model's manual table works in E codes; Canon's larger support library mostly works in support codes. When you search or call, give both: 'E04 on an MG2540 — support code 1687, cartridge not installed properly' is a complete report that any Canon channel can act on. The platform note that matters most is generation variance: Canon has shipped LED models for many years, and small wording shifts exist between generations — Canon's MP210 manual groups E4/E5 as 'FINE cartridge cannot be recognized', while the current LED page defines E04 as 1687 'not installed properly' and E05 as the recognition group. The sections below follow Canon's LED page, and flag the older grouping where it differs, because quoting the wrong generation's meaning for your machine is the classic E-code mistake.

E02 and E03: out of paper, and paper jammed

The two paper codes open Canon's LED table. E02 is support code 1003: out of paper, or paper does not feed — the front tray is empty, or the sheets in it are not being taken up. Canon's action is the simple one: load paper in the front tray and press the Black or Color button to resume. E03 is support codes 1300/1303: paper jam — a sheet is stuck inside the machine or at the output slot. The fix is mechanical, not electronic: remove the jammed paper following your manual's jam procedure (slowly, with both hands, in the direction of travel, checking for the torn fragment that causes the instant re-jam), then press Black or Color to resume. The pair teaches the platform's first lesson in miniature: E02 is the printer asking for something (paper), E03 is the printer reporting something (a blockage), and the responses differ accordingly — feeding the tray does nothing for E03, and hunting for a jam does nothing for E02. Both codes return faithfully if their cause is half-fixed: E02 on a tray loaded with curled or damp paper that will not feed is still E02's cause, and E03 with a fragment left inside is still E03's. Finish the cause, then press resume.

E04 and E07: the cartridge is in, but not properly

E04 and E07 are the seating pair — Canon's codes for cartridges that are physically present but not correctly placed. E04 is support code 1687: the FINE cartridge is not installed properly — a cartridge pushed in crooked, or stopped a fraction short of its locked position, most often in the moments after a cartridge change. The fix is to take the cartridge out and reinstall it until it locks. E07 is support codes 1486/1487: the FINE cartridge is not installed in the correct position — the colour cartridge in the black holder or vice versa, the two holders being labelled for exactly this distinction. The fix is to put each cartridge in its correct, labelled position. Together the pair covers the mechanical half of cartridge problems: present-but-crooked, and present-but-swapped. Note the generation flag Canon itself creates: on the older MP210 generation, the manual groups E4/E5 together as 'the FINE cartridge cannot be recognized' — an older, blunter grouping of the same neighbourhood. If your machine is of that generation, its own manual's table outranks any general guide, including this one; the current LED page's split (E04 seating, E05 recognition) is the modern reading and the one Canon's current support page publishes.

E05, E14 and E15: the cartridge cannot be recognized

Three E codes report recognition failure, and Canon's LED table keeps them distinct for a reason. E05 is the FINE-cartridge group — support codes 1401/1403 (and 1485): the cartridge is not installed, cannot be recognized, or the appropriate cartridge is not installed. It is the LED rendering of the 1401/1403 family covered in depth on this site's ink-system page. E14 is support code 1684: the ink cartridge cannot be recognized — on these models, the same 'may not be installed properly or may not be compatible' story Canon documents for 1684. E15 is support code 1682: the FINE cartridge cannot be recognized, with Canon's table adding the harder edge — the cartridge may be damaged, and its remedy is replacement. The working sequence the three codes imply is disciplined: first eliminate seating (the E04/E07 checks — a cartridge that isn't properly in cannot be recognized either, and reseating is free); then eliminate identity (is this the correct, appropriate cartridge for this exact model — E05's 1485 and E14's compatibility wording); only then accept the verdict E15 states plainly, that the cartridge itself has failed and is replaced, not cleaned or coaxed. Owners waste the most money in this family by buying a replacement for a seating problem, and the most time by reseating a genuinely dead cartridge — Canon's three codes exist to separate those cases, in that order.

E13 and E16: ink may have run out, and ink has run out

E13 and E16 are the ink-level pair, rendered from support codes 1686 and 1688, and the difference between them is the difference between a warning and a fact. E13 (1686): the ink may have run out — precisely, the remaining ink level cannot be correctly detected. The printer is not certain the cartridge is empty; it is certain it can no longer measure it, which happens at the bottom of a cartridge's life and with cartridges whose levels cannot be read. E16 (1688): the ink has run out — the measured, definite state. Canon offers the same documented override for both: hold the Stop button for at least five seconds and printing continues with the remaining-ink detection function disabled (and, for E16, with Canon's explicit warning that printing under the ink-out condition may damage the machine, and that Canon accepts no liability for that damage). Read the override as what it is — an emergency bridge to finish a job while a replacement cartridge is obtained, which also permanently blinds the printer to that cartridge's level (the level shows as unknown thereafter). The pair's real instruction is simpler than the override suggests: E13 is the early knock, E16 is the door closing, and the cartridge change answers both — owners who treat the override as a lifestyle find, eventually, that printing truly dry is how print heads die.

E08: the ink absorber is almost full

E08 is support codes 1702/1704/1712/1714 in Canon's LED table — the waste ink absorber is almost full — and it is the LED rendering of the 1700/1701 warning stage documented in depth on this site's 5B00 page. The absorber is the pad set in the printer's base that collects purge and cleaning ink; its counter is nearing the limit Canon set for it. Canon's LED-page action matches its LCD counterpart: press the Black or Color button to continue printing — the warning stage is a grace period, not a stop — and contact the service centre, because the end of this road is fixed. On an LED model the full state never shows as 5B00; Canon's table gives it as P07 ('the machine error has occurred — contact the service center', support codes 5B02/5B04/5B12/5B14). So the LED owner's absorber story is two codes: E08 while action is still optional, P07 when it no longer is. The guidance transfers unchanged: do not ignore E08 because the printer still prints — it prints precisely so that you can finish your work and arrange the service the code is announcing, and a machine that reaches P07 stops being negotiable about it. Note also what E08 is not: it has nothing to do with the ink in your cartridges, and changing cartridges does nothing for it.

E06 and E17: covers and trays — the interlock codes

E06 and E17 report the printer's physical configuration rather than a fault in any component. E06 is support code 1202: the paper output cover is open — printing cannot proceed with it open, and closing it is the entire fix. E17 is support code 1250: the front tray is closed — open the front (output) tray and the code clears. These are interlock reports: the printer checks its own body before it runs, and reports the piece that is out of position with the same seriousness as a component failure, because from the paper path's perspective a closed output tray is a blockage scheduled to happen. They earn their place in this guide for two reasons. First, they are the codes most often 'fixed' by accident — a user fiddles, closes the cover in passing, and the mysterious error vanishes — leaving the impression E codes are random. They are not; the cover was the cause, and naming it makes the next occurrence a ten-second fix. Second, they are the first check after moving or cleaning a printer: a machine set down with its output tray pushed shut, or reassembled with a cover ajar, will greet you with E06 or E17, and recognising them as configuration rather than failure saves the whole troubleshooting session that would otherwise follow.

E12: content the printer will not print

E12 is the odd one out in the E table — support code 4100 — because nothing is wrong with the printer: the specified CREATIVE PARK PREMIUM contents cannot be printed. Canon's premium content service carries conditions (it is Canon's programme for downloadable creative content, tied to genuine supplies), and E12 is the printer enforcing them at the point of printing: the data selected cannot be printed under the conditions present. The 'fix' is therefore not mechanical at all: print the content from the computer under the conditions Canon specifies for the programme, or choose different content. E12 matters to understand precisely because it breaks the pattern owners learn from every other code — something must be broken, jammed or empty. Nothing is. Chasing E12 with cartridge changes and power resets (the standard liturgy) wastes both, and the correct response is to read the code as a policy message in error-code clothing: the printer is the messenger for a content restriction, and the answer is on the content side. It is also a reminder, useful across this whole guide, that Canon's tables occasionally assign codes to conditions rather than failures — E12, the E30/E31 states below, and the E40 leftover from installation are all the printer reporting a fact about its situation, and each is resolved by changing the situation, not the printer.

E30 and E31: the scanner's two reports — document, and connection

E30 and E31 belong to the copying/scanning side of these all-in-one models. E30: the original's size cannot be correctly detected, or the original is too small for Fit-to-Page copying — the platen sensors cannot size what you have placed (a very small original, or one placed so its edges cannot be read), at the moment a Fit-to-Page copy needs that size. The answer is placement and mode: position the original properly on the platen, and for genuinely tiny originals, copy at a fixed magnification instead of Fit-to-Page. E31: the machine is not connected with a computer — a scan was started with no USB connection present. Canon's page for these models is explicit about the platform's limit: scanning on them is a USB function, and network scanning is not available, so the fix is physical — connect the USB cable and run the scan from the computer. Both codes share the E12 lesson in a second form: they are the printer accurately reporting its situation (an unsizable document; an absent cable), and they resolve the moment the situation does. An E31 on a model you believed was network-scanning is also information about the model itself — Canon's budget LED platform was built USB-only, and the code is how that specification surfaces in daily use.

E40: the new-printer code — protective material left behind

E40 is support code 1890: protective material or protective tape remains attached to the FINE cartridge holder. It is, almost by definition, a young printer's code — the orange tape and packing pieces that protect the cartridge holder in transit were not all removed at set-up, and the printer has detected the leftover. The fix is the set-up step completed late: open the cover, remove every piece of protective material and tape from the FINE cartridge holder area, and resume. E40 earns attention beyond its rarity for what it teaches about this platform's related codes: it is a member of a small family of 'the printer found something inside itself' reports — P02's checks begin with protective material inside the machine, support code 5100's procedure starts with packing material, and C000's Canon article lists unremoved packing first. Canon clearly expects installation leftovers to be a recurring real-world cause across its whole inkjet line, and E40 is simply the LED platform's dedicated version. If an E40 appears on a printer that is not new, read it with the same suspicion: a printer that was moved, stored or serviced may have had material reintroduced, and the code means what it says — look inside before you look anywhere else.

E50: the alignment sheet would not scan

E50 closes Canon's documented LED table with the scanning-print-head-alignment failure — the LED rendering of the same condition LCD models report in the 2900 family. Automatic alignment asks the printer to print a pattern sheet and then scan it; E50 means the scan of that sheet failed, so the alignment could not complete. Canon's documented causes for the family are practical: the sheet placed in the wrong position or orientation on the platen; a dirty platen glass or sheet; the wrong paper used for the pattern; or a pattern too faint to read because the nozzles are clogged. The fix follows the causes: place the sheet exactly as the manual directs (printed side down, mark to the alignment mark), clean the platen glass, use A4 or Letter plain paper for the pattern, print a nozzle check and clean the head if the pattern is broken or faint, then retry — or align the print head manually through the maintenance settings, which Canon provides for exactly the case where the automatic scan cannot be made to work. E50 is worth one calibration of expectations: it is an alignment failure, not a printing failure — the printer still prints, with alignment unverified — so it is a quality code to resolve promptly rather than a stop code, and it should never be the reason a printer is described as 'broken' in a service call.

The E codes Canon documents — and the ones it does not

Canon's LED page and the Canon manuals checked for this guide document these E codes by number: E02, E03, E04, E05, E06, E07, E08, E12, E13, E14, E15, E16, E17, E30, E31, E40 and E50 — and the gaps in that sequence are information, not oversight on this page. The remaining numbers in the E02-E59 span (E09, E10, E11, E18-E29, E32-E39, E41-E49, E51-E59) are not individually defined in the Canon LED documentation captured in this research, so — under this site's rule that a meaning needs two Canon sources — they are listed here without meanings. Some of them are defined in third-party lists that circulate widely (an old MP-era service list, reproduced on repair forums, assigns meanings like E22 carriage error, E24 purge unit error, E27 absorber full and E28 cartridge temperature rise); those definitions come from a service-era document for different machines, appear in no Canon consumer document checked, and conflict in places with the modern LED table — E24 in that list is a good example of a plausible-sounding meaning this site will not print as Canon's. If your printer shows an E code this page does not define, your model's own manual is the authority, and Canon support — given the model and the exact digits — can read the code in the right generation's table.

Key takeaways

Always report an E code with its model and its support-code translation (Canon's LED page gives the pairing) — 'E04, MG2540, support code 1687' gets you the right answer from any Canon channel.
Work recognition codes in Canon's order: seating first (E04/E07), identity second (right cartridge for the model), replacement last (E15 is the one that says the cartridge itself has failed).
The Stop-button 5-second override for E13/E16 disables ink-level detection permanently for that cartridge — use it to finish a job while a replacement is on its way, not as a way of life; Canon warns ink-out printing can damage the machine.

Resetting the Canon printer

Canon documents one general power reset for its printers, in the form given in Canon USA's B203 article and repeated across its support-code procedures: turn the printer off, unplug the power cord, wait at least two minutes, plug the cord back in, and turn the printer on. The LED-display manuals give the same motion in shorter form for undocumented errors (turn off, unplug, plug back in, turn on; if the error remains, contact the service centre). This reset clears transient internal states only — Canon's guidance is explicit for code families like B200-B207 that a code which reappears after the reset has given its verdict (there, likely print head hardware failure and service). Two standing cautions attach to the unplug step on Canon machines: on fax models (the MX line), unplugging deletes faxes stored in the printer's memory, so retrieve them first; and for imageRUNNER copiers, user power cycling is not an error clear at all — iR errors are cleared in service mode (COPIER > FUNCTION > CLEAR > ERR) by a technician after the fault is repaired, and repeated clearing of protection codes like E001 without repair defeats a safety function.

Frequently asked questions

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