Blank Faxes

All incoming faxes are completely blank. Help! It’s just an ordinary fax machine connected to a phone line. I can send faxes without any problem. However, the incoming faxes are blank. It sounds like it’s printing, but it isn’t. Thanks for your help.



My first guess would be that your fax machine is out of ink. But before you buy new ink, check your user’s manual and make sure the ink cartridges or toner are installed correctly. Perhaps there is a tab you need to pull off.

If your fax machine doesn’t use ink, then it almost certainly uses thermal fax paper on a roll. (Your machine would be fairly old if this is the case.) If so, you need to be sure you’re using a roll of thermal fax paper, not just any old roll of paper. If you’re sure it’s the right paper, then the fax machine’s printing system that heats the paper (and burns the image into it) is probably broken – so it’s time for a new fax machine, or to make the switch to fax-to-email.

Do you have a question about faxing? Send me your fax question.