Pixma G6020 printing black as brown, no cyan at all

[Catbus]

I swear I didn't do anything except give my printer a new password for the house wi-fi. Since then, anytime I try to print black—even if I tell the printer to print in grayscale rather than color—instead of black, I get brown. And a nozzle check shows no cyan at all, even after a deep cleaning. It says it's using the most recent firmware. What the heck happened, and how do I fix it?

[jrhoffman75]

Sounds like you have a nozzle clog or a head failure.

What model printer?

[Catbus]

Pixma G6020. It's there in the subject line.

But why would reconnecting to wi-fi cause a nozzle clog or a head failure?

Literally the only things I did were that and add paper.

Did I maybe accidentally tell it something wrong about the kind of paper I just added?

[jrhoffman75]

I am only speculating, because I don't know of any setting that would selectively disable a color ink from printing.

How long a time period elapsed from when it printed correctly and you did the Wi-Fi connection and tried printing again?

[Catbus]

Two days. Saturday, it printed fine. Monday, goofy. I didn't use it on Sunday.

[jrhoffman75]

You could try downloading and reinstalling the driver.

Canon Support for PIXMA G6020 | Canon U.S.A., Inc.

If that doesn't resolve it register the printer on the Canon site and then give canon a call for support. 1-800-OK-CANON

[Catbus · Accepted solution]

Support chat recommended an ink flush, which seems to have solved the problem (albeit at the cost of one-fourth of all my color ink tanks).

[jrhoffman75]

But now you have a functioning printer. 

[hhccaz]

Mine did exactly the same thing and, after I'd tried everything and had torn all my hair out, I read your posts, did the ink flush (yes, it uses about ¼ tank of all colors) and now it's just fine.  THANK YOU!  Keep posting - you're a genius!

Harriet Christakos

Boca Grande FL