Fax rings but won't answer incoming call. It send a fax without problem, there's plenty of paper in the machine, Display says "call pickup" but nothing happens.

Set the answering machine to answer incoming calls before the printer does. For example, if you set the answering machine to answer calls after three rings, set the printer to answer calls after five or six rings. Also, make sure the fax line is plugged into the Line port on the back of the printer and the fax settings are correct (phone number, pick-up on rings, etc).

You can receive faxes automatically or manually. If you turn off the Auto Answer option, you must receive faxes manually. If you turn on the Auto Answer option (the default setting), the device automatically answers incoming calls and receives faxes after the number of rings that are specified by the Rings to Answer setting. (The default Rings to Answer setting is five rings.)
If you receive a legal-size fax and the device is not currently set to use legal-size paper, the device reduces the fax so that it fits on the paper that is loaded. If you have disabled the Automatic Reduction feature, the device prints the fax on two pages.
NOTE: If you are copying a document when a fax arrives, the fax is stored in the
device memory until the copying finishes. This can reduce the number of fax pages stored in memory.
This section contains the following topics:
• Receive a fax manually
• Set up backup fax reception
• Reprint received faxes from memory
• Poll to receive a fax
• Forward faxes to another number
• Set the paper size for received faxes
• Set automatic reduction for incoming faxes
• Block junk fax numbers
• Receive faxes to your computer (Fax to PC and Fax to Mac)
Receive a fax manually
When you are on the phone, the person you are speaking with can send you a fax while you are still connected. This is referred to as manual faxing. Use the instructions in this section to receive a manual fax.
NOTE: You can pick up the handset to talk or listen for fax tones.
You can receive faxes manually from a phone that is:
• Directly connected to the device (on the 2-EXT port)
• On the same phone line, but not directly connected to the device
NOTE: The automatic document feeder must be empty to receive a fax. If there are documents in the ADF, then the device will not be able to receive incoming faxes.
To receive a fax manually
1. Make sure the device is turned on and you have paper loaded in the input tray.
2. Remove any originals from the document feeder tray.
NOTE: The automatic document feeder must be empty to receive a fax. If there
are documents in the document feeder, then receiving the fax will be
unsuccessful.
3. Do one of the following to answer a fax manually:
• Set the Rings to Answer setting to a high number to allow you to answer the
incoming call before the device answers.
• Turn off the Auto Answer setting so that the device does not automatically
answer incoming calls.
4. If you are currently on the phone with the sender, instruct the sender to press Start on their fax machine.
5. When you hear fax tones from a sending fax machine, do the following:
a. Press START FAX Black or START FAX Color on the device control panel.
b. When prompted, select Fax Receive.
NOTE: Depending on your country/region, the device might receive the fax
automatically when you hear fax tones from the sending fax machine.
6. After the device begins to receive the fax, you can hang up the phone or remain on the line. The phone line is silent during fax transmission.

The fax must be connected directly to the wall phone jack. Connect any other phone line devices, such as a telephone or answering machine, to the phone jack on the back of the fax


The phone line cable used to connect the fax must be a two-conductor (wire) phone cable, like the one that shipped with the fax. The fax may fail to send or receive faxes if the phone cable has more than two conductors. To determine how many conductors the phone cable has, look at the end of the cable. Most phone cable connectors are clear and you can see the number of wires

The Rings to Answer setting determines how many times the line will ring before the fax answers. Follow the steps below to change the rings to answer setting.

1. Press Setup , press 3 , and then press 3 again to access the Rings to Answer setting.
2. Press the Right Arrow to scroll through the available settings. When the desired number of rings is shown in the display, press OK .

To receive faxes manually, follow the steps below.

1. Answer the phone like you normally would a telephone call. If the incoming call is from a fax machine, you will hear beeps or fax tones.
2. Press either Start Black or Start Color to begin receiving the fax.
3. Hang up the phone.

Set rings to answer
You can select the number of rings that will occur before the fax answers an incoming call. If you are using your machine as both a telephone and a fax machine, we suggest you set the ring count to at least 4 to give you time to answer.
TIP: HP 1050 Fax: The Toll Saver function for the Digital Message Center interacts with Rings to Answer. See Toll Saver on page 40. If you have the HP 1050 Fax and have Toll Saver turned on, set the Rings to Answer to 2.
1. Press Menu repeatedly until BASIC FAX displays and press Start/Enter.
Rings to Answer will display.
2. Press Start/Enter.
3. Enter the number of rings you want (2-7) and press Start/Enter.
The HP Fax rings the set number of times and then answers. It then produces a different sounding ring to alert you to which type of call is incoming.
• The additional ring may occur once for a fax call
• The additional ring occurs 5 times for a voice call. After the 5 additional rings, the answering machine will answer.

Check to see if the fax machine is in 'answer' mode. Different fax machines have different features, though.

Check to see how many rings it is set to answer incoming faxes.

Test it by sending from a known good fax machine to your fax machine.

If a human calls the fax machine, nothing will be printed.

Make sure "Auto Rx" light is on. It may also be labeled as "Auto Receive".

Some machines have a three answering modes.
1-manual-you have to pick up the fax headset and then press send when someone calls you with a fax.
2- auto-The machines answers the phone line when it rings and receives the fax automatically.
3-answer- the machines acts like a voice answering machine only.

Check your display or user settings to see that it in in AUTO RX or receive mode. .
Hope that helps.

Could the message be reading "TAD"? If you have an answering machine hooked up anywhere on the same line as the fax, you need to refer to page 16 of your manual. Set your answering machine to 2 rings and de-activate the toll saver mode. If you have a dedicated fax line without the TAD, set your fax recieving mode to fax only by pressing the MODE button under the LCD display untill fax only isindicated

The mode is correct. You can check the rings to answer setting. Default is 4 rings. If your phone line is just for the fax try setting rings to 1. Sometimes sending fax machines go into redial before the 4th ring.

Also, sometimes unplugging the power for 10 seconds will clear any memory that may have locked up the machine.

Hope this helps.

Ok first of all you have to deside how you are you going to use the fax,there is a option for Manual mode,Fax only and Fax Tel mode.
I normally set all my faxes with Fax only mode and then set the incomming ring to 7 rings before it switch to fax.This give you enought time to answer the phone.If you answer the phone and it is a fax you just press the green button.
You load your paper at the vertical tray,this is the last paper tray from thefront.
For sending faxes-put your documents face down in the dockfeeder dail the number and press green button.
Remember to connect the incomming fax line to the "L" jack on you machine and the extention tellephone to the jack with a handset showing on top of it.