Canon Support Code 6000: Paper Feed Error Explained and Fixed

Canon support code 6000 on a PIXMA means a paper feed error: the printer tried to pull a sheet in and the sensors did not report what they expected. In practice that is either something physically blocking the mechanism, paper loaded in a way the printer cannot grip, or feed rollers that have glazed over and stopped gripping. All three are fixable at home.

Quick fixes first

1. Power the printer off with the panel button and unplug it from the wall.
2. Remove all paper from both the rear tray and the front cassette. Pull the cassette right out.
3. Shine a torch into the empty cassette bay and into the rear feed slot. Remove any scrap, tape, foam or foreign object.
4. Reload a small stack of fresh plain paper, fan it first, and set the guides so they touch without squeezing.
5. Plug in, power on, and print one page. If 6000 returns immediately, work through the fixes below.

What Canon means by a feed error

Canon PIXMA models feed from either a rear tray or a front cassette, and many have both. Each has its own pick roller and its own sensors. The rear tray drops paper almost straight down into the mechanism; the cassette uses a lifting plate that raises the stack against the pick roller.

When you send a job, the printer raises the plate or spins the pick roller, then waits for the leading edge of the sheet to break a sensor within a set time. If nothing arrives, or if the mechanism stalls partway, it stops and reports 6000. The same code covers a sheet that never moved and a mechanism that jammed while moving, which is why the symptom can look quite different from one machine to the next.

Canon uses the term "support code" for these numbers, and they appear both on the printer's own panel and in the Canon software on your computer. Support code 1300 is the related jam code, and 5100 is a carriage error - all three sometimes appear in sequence when a single obstruction affects several mechanisms.

Fix 1: Clear both feed paths thoroughly

Work in this order.

The cassette bay. Pull the cassette completely out and set it aside. Look into the empty slot with a torch, checking the base plate and the rollers at the top of the opening. Scraps that fall here sit where nothing can reach them but everything can catch on them.

The cassette itself. Check for the protective sheet on new printers, and for a sheet that has slipped under the paper guides. Confirm the rear paper guide is set to the correct paper size and clicked into position rather than sitting loose.

The rear tray. Look down the slot with a torch. Remove any tape, and check that the paper support is fully extended so sheets sit at the right angle.

The output area and the rear cover. On models with a rear access door, open it and check the transport path behind it.

Fix 2: Load paper the way the printer wants it

Feed errors are frequently loading errors.

Fan the stack before loading so sheets are not stuck together. Do not exceed the fill line marked inside the tray - an overfilled stack presses too hard against the pick roller and stalls it. Set the edge guides so they touch the stack lightly; guides squeezed tight bind the paper, and guides left loose let it skew.

Use flat, dry, ordinary paper for testing. Curled sheets from a part-used ream stored in a damp room will fail to feed on a machine that handles fresh paper perfectly.

Finally, check the printer's paper settings match: on the panel, go to Setup, then Device settings, then Feed settings, and confirm the size and type registered for each source matches what is loaded. A mismatch makes the printer expect the sheet at a different point in the cycle.

Fix 3: Run Canon's roller cleaning routine

Glazed rollers are the most common cause of a 6000 that appears intermittently on an otherwise healthy printer. Canon builds a cleaning routine in.

On the printer panel, go to Setup, then Maintenance, then Roller Cleaning, and select the paper source you are having trouble with. The printer spins the rollers dry first, then asks you to load a sheet of plain paper and runs it through. Run the routine three times in a row - a single pass rarely does enough.

On models without a full panel, the same routine is available from the Canon IJ Printer Assistant Tool on Windows, under Maintenance.

Fix 4: Clean the rollers by hand

If the built-in routine does not fix it, clean manually. Power off and unplug. Reach into the cassette bay or the rear slot and locate the rubber pick roller. Dampen a lint-free cloth with plain water until barely damp, and wipe the roller while rotating it with a fingertip, until the cloth stops picking up grey residue.

Let everything dry for ten minutes before powering on. Never use oil, silicone spray or furniture polish - they make rubber permanently slippery and turn an occasional feed error into a constant one.

Fix 5: Check the lifting plate in the cassette

Cassette-fed models raise the paper stack on a hinged plate driven by a cam. If the plate is stuck down, or a spring has come off, the stack never reaches the pick roller and every job produces 6000 from the cassette while the rear tray works fine.

With the cassette out, look at the plate inside the printer's cassette bay - it should move freely when pressed and spring back. If it does not, that is your fault, and it is a mechanical repair.

The quick diagnostic is simple: if the rear tray feeds perfectly and only the cassette throws 6000, the fault is in the cassette mechanism, not the printer as a whole.

Fix 6: Reset the printer and clear the queue

Once the path is clear, the error may still be latched. Power off at the panel, unplug for five minutes, then reconnect and power on.

Clear the failed job too, or it will retry immediately. On Windows 11, open Settings, then Bluetooth & devices, then Printers & scanners, select the Canon, open the queue and cancel everything. If jobs will not delete, press Windows+R, run services.msc, right-click Print Spooler and choose Restart. On macOS 26 Tahoe, open System Settings, then Printers & Scanners, select the printer, clear the queue and click Resume if it shows as paused.

Related Canon support codes

Our error code index covers the wider list, and the Canon support hub collects the model-specific guides.

If nothing worked

A 6000 that survives a cleared path, fresh paper, three roller cleaning cycles and a hand clean points to a hardware fault: a failed feed sensor, a stripped drive gear, or a lifting plate mechanism that has broken. All of those require partial disassembly.

Here the economics deserve honesty. Canon PIXMA models in the home range are inexpensive, and a repairer's bench fee plus an hour of labour will usually exceed the price of a replacement, before any parts. The picture changes on MegaTank and higher-end MAXIFY models, where the machine cost enough and holds enough ink that a repair is clearly worthwhile.

One thing worth trying before writing a machine off: if the cassette fails but the rear tray works, you can simply use the rear tray. It is not elegant, but on a home printer it keeps a perfectly good machine in service for years.

If you would like a second opinion on whether the fault is mechanical or just a stubborn obstruction, you can get help from a printer specialist.

Related: Canon support code 1300, Canon error 5100, and our general paper jam guide.