Which printers block third-party ink or toner? Firmware-DRM tracker

Firmware lockout by brand (at a glance)

Across the 257 models we track, 2 brands document firmware capable of refusing non-OEM cartridges. Read the Epson figure with its range in mind: the lockout rate is 24 of 46 because 22 of Epson's models here are EcoTank, which Epson excludes itself. Among Epson's cartridge models alone it is every one. Brother and Canon sit at zero, and both now rest on their own documents rather than on an absence: every Canon and Brother row here carries a dated line naming what was read for that machine.

How Dynamic Security became a ten-year saga

A dated timeline of the firmware blocks, apologies, fines and settlements, so you can see this is a documented pattern, not a one-off glitch. Sources are listed at the foot of the page.

1. 2016. HP introduces Dynamic Security, an authentication system that checks whether a fitted cartridge carries a genuine HP security chip. Cartridges without one can be refused.
2. September 2016. A firmware update that landed around September 13 makes select OfficeJet printers reject non-HP cartridges. Owners see errors on cartridges that printed fine the week before.
3. 28 September 2016. After a public backlash, HP apologises and promises optional firmware to remove the block from the affected models.
4. October 2016. HP ships that optional firmware, letting owners of the affected OfficeJet models take Dynamic Security back off.
5. September 2017. HP quietly pushes Dynamic Security to printers again through a new firmware update.
6. 17 November 2020. Italy's competition authority fines HP EUR 10 million for not making the cartridge restriction clear to buyers.
7. November 2020. A firmware push reactivates Dynamic Security on printers where it had gone dormant, triggering a fresh US class action.
8. 17 December 2020. HP settles a US class action, funding roughly USD 1.5 million to compensate affected owners.
9. 7 September 2022. HP settles with consumer group Euroconsumers, a fund of up to USD 1.35 million paying up to EUR 150 per owner in Belgium, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
10. August 2024. HP agrees to settle a US class action over Dynamic Security on certain LaserJet printers (Mobile Emergency Housing Corp v HP).
11. March 2025. A federal judge approves that settlement. The class gets no cash payout, but HP agrees to let owners of 21 named models decline or roll back the Dynamic Security firmware, and to keep disclosing when a printer uses it.

The takeaway: HP has softened the edges under legal pressure but kept the mechanism. Most HP printers made after late 2016 can still receive an update that changes which ink they accept.

Printers that can block compatible ink or toner (84)

These models use firmware that may reject non-OEM cartridges. You can often still use compatibles if you decline firmware updates, but there's no guarantee. Buying genuine is the only zero-risk option here.

The supply column is a second, independent reading. It is not about firmware at all: it records how recently the cartridge numbers this printer takes were last picked up by a newly released printer, which is what we use to gauge how long a maker keeps a number in production. Current means a family that was still gaining hosts in 2020 or later, aging means its last new host arrived between 2015 and 2019, and orphaned means nothing new since 2014. We explain the method in the cartridge discontinuation guide.

Firmware locks and supply droughts mostly land on different machines

A printer can fail its owner two ways. The firmware can start refusing the cheap cartridge, which is what this tracker measures. Or the cartridge itself can quietly leave production, so there is nothing cheap left to refuse. The bad case is a machine carrying both at once, where the OEM cartridge is winding down and the firmware refuses the compatible that would have replaced it. When we first cross-tabulated the two, no model in the catalogue was in that position, and we published the empty result. It is no longer empty, and the reason is worth more than the original finding was.

The two risks still mostly miss each other, and the reason is chronological. Dynamic Security arrived in 2016, and the newest machine in the orphaned band is from 2014, so a printer is usually either old enough for its ink to have been dropped or new enough to have been built with the lock. That holds at the cartridge level too: lockable models draw on 87 cartridge families, the orphaned band contains 43, and only 7 families sit in both. 31 of the 84 lockable machines are on cartridge families that are still current and 48 on families in the aging band, which leaves the 5 the next paragraph is about.

What broke the clean split was reading manufacturer documents instead of product pages, twice. HP's remediation document moved the OfficeJet Pro 8610 and 8620 onto the lockable list, both 2013 machines running HP 950 and 951 ink, a family that stopped picking up new host printers the same year. Then Epson's own position added three more: the Expression Home XP-400 and WorkForce WF-2540 on Epson 200 ink, and the Expression Premium XP-820 on Epson 273. All 5 are the case the first version of this table said did not exist: firmware that can refuse the compatible, on a number the maker has already stopped designing in. If you own one, hold firmware updates and buy the compatible while it is still made, because the OEM side of that machine is the side winding down.

Which risk applies to you otherwise follows from the age of the machine. If your printer is on the list above and not one of those 5, your ink is not going anywhere and the firmware is the thing to manage, so hold updates and read the opt-out section below. If your printer is old enough that its cartridge number is drying up, no firmware will stop you buying compatibles, and compatibles are what the market keeps making after the OEM stops. In our experience owners worry about the wrong one of the two, because the firmware story gets headlines and a cartridge line ends without anyone announcing it.

One caveat on how far this generalises. These are properties of the 257 models we track, not laws about printers, and the overlap count moves whenever a status changes. It was zero when we first published it and it is 5 now, every step of that caused by us correcting our own rows rather than by anything changing at HP or Epson. The three Epson entries are also the weakest-evidenced rows on this page, since all three are machines whose own guides predate Epson printing its note, so treat that corner of the table as the part most likely to move again. The gap will keep closing on its own as the machines locking today reach the end of their supply. We recompute the figures on every build, so what is above is current as of 13 September 2026 rather than a claim we made once.

Toner is caught by this too, not only ink

Dynamic Security is usually written about as an inkjet story, because the 2016 blocks that started it hit OfficeJet models. The notice HP publishes is not limited to ink. It appears, word for word, on the product pages and data sheets of LaserJet Pro models as well, and the 2024 US class action HP settled (Mobile Emergency Housing Corp v HP) was specifically about Dynamic Security on LaserJet printers.

Of the 38 HP laser printers we track, 16 carry a lock. On the inkjet side it is 44 of 67. The inkjet range is still the worse of the two, but a buyer choosing a laser on the assumption that toner is the safe option is working from an out of date idea.

The locks come in two flavours, and they are not equally escapable:

• Dynamic Security on LaserJet Pro models. HP's notice says the printer is intended to work only with cartridges carrying a new or reused HP chip, and that periodic firmware updates will keep blocking cartridges that previously worked. Compatible toner often works until an update lands. Holding updates is the defence.
• HP+ on the e models. Where the model name ends in an e, HP sells it as an HP+ printer. HP's own terms require an HP account, a permanent internet connection and Original HP toner for the life of the printer, and its store listings say plainly that the printer works only with original HP toner. There is no firmware to decline afterwards: the choice happens once, when the printer asks whether to activate HP+ during setup. 15 of the models on this page are in that position.

HP's own notice leaves one route open: a reused HP chip enables the use of reused, remanufactured and refilled cartridges. A remanufactured cartridge built on a genuine HP chip therefore sits in a different position from a new compatible built on a cloned one, and it is the option most likely to survive an update on a locked model.

There is a limit to what this list can tell you. HP has stated in its own support forum that it publishes no list of which LaserJets carry Dynamic Security, so the only reliable per model evidence is the notice HP prints on that model's product page or data sheet. We record a printer as locked when HP publishes that notice for it, and as open when HP publishes nothing, which means undocumented rather than guaranteed.

What "open" rests on, model by model

Calling a printer open is a claim about an absence, and an absence is only worth anything if you know where somebody looked. Every HP row here now carries a dated line recording what was checked for that one model and what it said, including the checks that found nothing. 105 of the 105 HP models we track carry one, covering 45 of the 45 we mark open. It travels with the row in the downloadable file as drm_verified.

There are three places to look and only one of them is a list. HP's document on dynamic security enabled printers explains the mechanism and names no models at all, which is where the caveat above comes from. HP's inkjet remediation document does name models: it lists the OfficeJet and OfficeJet Pro machines the blocking firmware reached, and offers firmware that takes it back off. Past those two, the only per model evidence is the summary line "Dynamic security enabled printer" that HP prints on a model's own store page.

Checking all three instead of the store page alone changed five rows on this page. HP names the OfficeJet Pro 6230, 6830, 8610 and 8620 in its remediation document, while the store pages for the 6830, 8610 and 8620 carry no notice whatsoever. A method that trusts the product page reads those three as open, and this page did read them as open until we checked. The OfficeJet 5255 moved the other way round: no mention in the remediation document, but HP's live store page for it carries the notice.

If you are checking your own printer, take this from it: on the 2014 to 2016 OfficeJet Pro generation, a product page with no notice on it proves nothing. Those machines went on sale before HP began printing the line and HP never went back to add it. The remediation document is where they surface, and landing in it is partly good news, because it is also where HP publishes the firmware that removes the block.

Two models are left deliberately unresolved. HP names the OfficeJet Pro 6830 but not the 6835, and the OfficeJet 6810 and 6820 but not the 6812. Both unnamed machines sit in a series HP does name. We have not promoted them, because we do not have HP saying it, and their rows say so plainly rather than reading as a pass.

What a lock rests on, model by model

We evidenced the open rows first, since a claim about an absence needs it most. The locked rows now carry the same dated line, so all 60 HP models on this page record what was checked on that one machine and what HP's own material said.

Working through them a model at a time turned up something we were not looking for. HP writes the notice three different ways. The oldest version, from the 2016 OfficeJet Pro generation, says the printer is only intended to be used with cartridges using an HP original chip and that cartridges working today may not work in the future; 5 rows carry that one. The current version is firmer, because it states that periodic firmware updates will maintain the measures and block cartridges that previously worked. HP prints it in a chip variant on 5 rows and an electronic circuitry variant on 12.

The split between those last two describes the listing rather than the cartridge. HP 962 goes in the OfficeJet Pro 9025 and the 9025e, and HP gives the 9025 the chip wording and the 9025e the circuitry wording. HP 910 goes in the 8035, the 8025e and the 8035e, and the first two get chip while the third gets circuitry. That matters to anyone shopping for remanufactured stock, because the two versions point at different escape routes. One says a reused HP chip is acceptable, the other says unmodified HP circuitry is, and on these models the wording will not tell you which of the two your cartridge has.

The other surprise was how much of the evidence is going away. 10 of the models here have no HP store page left at all, and 6 more have a page that is still live but emptied of its product copy, so the notice line is not there to read. Those 6 keep the status they were published with. HP reduced the page we would check to a shell, which is a different thing from HP publishing a page that clears the printer.

One row is weaker than the rest and is labelled that way. HP's live page for the DeskJet 3755 carries full product copy and no notice, while the DeskJet 2655 and the ENVY 5055, which take the same HP 65 cartridge, both carry it. We have not demoted the 3755 on a missing line, having already found on the older OfficeJet Pros that a page without the notice proves nothing, but it is the one entry here we would like a second source for.

HP's remediation firmware also turns out not to be the same offer on every model it covers. On the OfficeJet Pro 6230, 6830, 8610 and 8620 the update removes dynamic security from every unit whatever its build date. On the OfficeJet Pro 6970, 7740 and 8210 it only removes it from units manufactured before 1 December 2016, and on anything built later the block survives the update. 3 rows here fall on the conditional side, so check the build date of your own machine before you treat being named in HP's document as a fix.

Epson locks too, and the line runs through its own range

Everything above is about HP, because HP is what gets written about. Working through Epson's material the same way turned up a second locking brand and, more usefully, a boundary that Epson draws itself and we had missed. 24 of the 46 Epson models here are now on the list. The other 22 are EcoTank and are not, on Epson's own say so.

Epson's Ink Yields page carries both halves. On cartridge printers it says they are designed for use with Epson cartridges only, that other brands are not compatible and if described as compatible may not function properly or continuously, and that some updates may affect the functionality of third-party ink. Then a footnote names the exception: EcoTank printers have been designed as an open system that does not prevent the use of non-OEM inkjet bottles. It is unusual for a maker to mark the edge of its own restriction that plainly, and once one has, our data should follow it.

So we read the User's Guide Epson publishes for each of the 46 machines, reached through Epson's own search and the model's support page rather than a guessed document number, and looked at what the software update topic says. 46 rows now carry a dated line recording what that guide said.

The middle of that table is where the interesting part is. The same silence means opposite things on the two sides of Epson's range. On 21 EcoTank guides, no warning is Epson declining to warn about ink it has said in writing it does not block. On the 5 cartridge guides from the 2013 to 2016 generation, no warning is a document that predates the disclosure. Reading both as a clean bill of health is exactly the mistake this page made until today, and it is the same one w1-006 caught on HP's 2014 to 2016 OfficeJet Pro pages, arrived at from the other direction.

Epson's two wordings do not sort by age either. The XP-15000 and the XP-8500 are 2017 machines and the WF-2830 is a 2019 one, and all three carry the short note, while the 2017 WF-7710 and WF-7720 carry the full one. As with HP's three wordings, the text tracks the guide template rather than the hardware, so the strength of the wording is not a signal about your printer.

One difference between the two brands decides how we treat a missing document. HP states that it publishes no master list of Dynamic Security printers, so an HP model with no notice is undocumented and we leave it open. Epson made a single categorical claim about every cartridge printer it sells and named the exception itself, so the 7 cartridge models whose own guides say nothing are still covered by something Epson published. We promoted them on that and their rows say so, rather than presenting a class statement as a per model check.

There is also a practical difference worth knowing before you panic. Epson documents its own off switch. Auto Update Settings in the Windows printer software has a Never option, and the printer's panel carries a firmware update setting, both described in Epson's own documentation. Declining updates is a supported choice on an Epson rather than a workaround, which is more than HP offers outside the 21 settlement models.

What Canon and Brother actually document

The two brands that stay open were the two we had never worked. Every Canon row on this page used to carry an empty note, so the column that is meant to say what a status rests on printed nothing at all, and the Brother rows carried one inherited sentence asserting that no lockout exists rather than a source for it. Both are now read model by model, the same way HP and Epson were: 45 of 45 Canon rows and 61 of 61 Brother rows carry a dated line naming the document and what it said.

Both makers do document something, and what they document is the distinction this page exists to draw. Neither describes a printer that refuses to work with a third-party supply. Both describe one that loses the ink level reading, and both write down how to carry on printing without it.

Canon puts the way out in the same paragraph as the problem. Its 1686 and 1688 pages tell you to disable the function that detects the level of ink remaining by holding Stop for five seconds, after which the machine prints until the ink is gone. One Canon code does stop a job, 1684, worded as a cartridge that may not be installed properly or may not be compatible with this printer. That is a fitment check. It fires on a genuine Canon cartridge meant for a different model exactly as it fires on a third-party one, and nothing in the code list turns on the brand. Which button it is varies by machine, so we recorded it per row: Stop on most, RESUME on the button only TS202 and TS302, and ON/RESUME on the iP2820.

Brother's disclosure has moved the opposite way to Epson's. Epson's newer guides added a third-party ink warning its older ones lacked. Brother's newest inkjet guides dropped the caveat their predecessors carried. The guides for its 2015 to 2018 inkjets say that ink which is not genuine Brother may leave the machine unable to detect the cartridge or read its volume; the guides for the current machines say only that Brother recommends genuine supplies. Neither wording describes a refusal, and the same guides tell you a low cartridge keeps printing until the screen asks for a replacement. On the laser side Brother goes further and documents a Replace Toner setting whose whole purpose is to continue printing past Brother's own end of toner stop.

The method is worth stating plainly. Across 41 Canon manuals and 57 Brother guides we searched for the sentences that would mean a refusal, phrases like a non-Brother cartridge that cannot print, or a firmware update tied to third-party supplies, and found none. Brother has said it in public too: in March 2025, after a widely shared claim that a firmware update had started blocking compatibles, Brother stated that its firmware updates do not block the use of third-party ink in its machines. A search that comes up empty is weaker evidence than a maker's own statement, which is why the Canon rows with no manual left and the Brother rows with no guide are marked unread instead of counted as passes.

The open rows, and what each one rests on (106)

Every Canon and Brother model we track, with the document that was read for it. These are the rows the tracker used to leave blank.

How to tell if your printer will lock you out

• Find your exact model above, or search this site. If it's in the list, treat it as capable of blocking compatibles.
• Check for HP+ or Instant Ink. If you enrolled the printer in HP+ at setup, or you use HP Instant Ink, the printer enforces original HP cartridges as a condition of that programme. That's the highest-risk case.
• Watch the error text. Dynamic Security shows up as messages like "Cartridge Problem," "Non-HP Chip Detected," or "Used, Refilled, or Counterfeit Cartridge" on a cartridge that is actually fine.
• Know the timing tell. A compatible cartridge that worked for weeks and then suddenly fails right after the printer ran an update is the classic Dynamic Security signature.
• On an Epson, check which half of the range you own. A model number starting ET is an EcoTank and refills from bottles, so there is no cartridge for an update to refuse. An XP or WF number is a cartridge model and is on the list above.
• Brother or Canon owner? You're clear. No model from either brand in our database ships firmware that blocks third-party supplies, and we have now read the maker's own document for each one. What you can lose on both is the ink level reading, and both makers document how to carry on printing without it.

How to decline, avoid or remove Dynamic Security

• Turn off automatic firmware updates first. On an HP printer you rely on for compatibles, set firmware updates to "Do not check" or "Notify me" in the HP Smart app, or in the printer's built-in web page (EWS) under Web Services or Printer Update. Updates are how the block arrives.
• Don't accept a prompted update unless you know what it changes. Once installed, most updates can't be undone on models outside the settlement list.
• Use HP's own opt-out where it exists. Under the 2025 settlement, owners of 21 named HP models can decline Dynamic Security or roll it back with a firmware downgrade. HP publishes the model list and the step-by-step process on its support site (see Sources).
• If you're already blocked on an eligible model, the firmware downgrade restores third-party support. On other models your choices are genuine HP ink or a different printer.
• On an Epson, use the setting Epson gives you. Auto Update Settings in the Windows printer software has a Never option, and the printer's panel has its own firmware update setting. Epson documents both, so turning updates off is a supported choice rather than a trick.
• Buying your next printer? If cheap running cost matters, a Brother machine or an Epson EcoTank sidesteps the whole problem. An Epson cartridge model does not, which is the part of this page that changed most recently.

Want to stop it happening in the first place? Our full walk-through covers how to disable HP Dynamic Security and decline firmware updates safely, including which HP models HP itself let you unlock. Already been blocked? See why your printer stopped accepting compatible ink after a firmware update, and how to get printing again, or the Epson specific non-genuine and ink-not-recognized error walk-through.

What is left open, and how firmly

• Brother has no firmware lockout on any model we track. Genuine and third-party TN and LC cartridges both work. It is the safest bet for cheap printing and the only brand here we can say that about across its whole range.
• Epson EcoTank is the one exception a maker wrote down itself. Epson calls it an open system that does not prevent the use of non-OEM inkjet bottles, which is a stronger position than the absence of a notice. Non-genuine ink can still cost you warranty cover on damage it causes.
• Canon is now read model by model too, and the answer is firmer than the old unverified label. Its own support code pages describe a printer that loses the ink level reading on a cartridge it stops trusting, and they tell you which button to hold for 5 seconds to keep printing without it. The 4 models Canon has withdrawn the manual for are marked unread, not cleared.
• HP and Epson, the open rows: 173 of the printers we track are open, which still includes plenty of HP. Being open is a statement about what the maker publishes for that model, so check your own above rather than trusting the badge on the front.

Common questions

Sources

1. BBC News, "HP apologises for ink-blocking update" (2016). bbc.com
2. SiliconANGLE, "HP apologizes for printer update that locked out third-party ink cartridges" (28 Sept 2016). siliconangle.com
3. Euroconsumers, "HP Printergate" case timeline (Italy EUR 10m fine, US and EU settlements). euroconsumers.org
4. The Register, "HP pays $1.35m to settle dispute over printer security chip" (13 Sept 2022). theregister.com
5. The Register, "HP settles lawsuit after killing first responders' printers" (19 March 2025). theregister.com
6. HP Support, notice of proposed class action settlement, Dynamic Security on certain LaserJet printers (Mobile Emergency Housing Corp v HP). support.hp.com
7. HP Support, Dynamic Security feature and cartridges using a non-HP chip. The one per-model list HP publishes for inkjets, naming the OfficeJet and OfficeJet Pro models the blocking firmware reached and the firmware that removes it. support.hp.com
8. HP Support, "HP Printers - Dynamic Security enabled printers." HP's statement of the mechanism, which names no models, and the reason an open status has to rest on per-model checks. support.hp.com
9. HP Store product page, OfficeJet 5255, listing "Dynamic security enabled printer" on a model absent from the remediation document. hp.com
10. HP Store product page, OfficeJet Pro 6230, carrying the same notice. Its siblings the 6830, 8610 and 8620 are named by HP in the remediation document while their store pages carry nothing. hp.com
11. HP Store product page, LaserJet Pro M15w, listing "Dynamic security enabled printer" in its summary specifications. hp.com
12. HP Store product page, Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdw, carrying the same notice on a colour laser. hp.com
13. HP data sheet, LaserJet Pro M404 series: "Dynamic security enabled printer. Only intended to be used with cartridges using an HP original chip." hp data sheet (PDF)
14. HP Store product page, LaserJet M209dwe, an HP+ model HP describes as working only with original HP toner. hp.com
15. HP Support Community, an HP employee confirming that Dynamic Security is not enabled by firmware on printers manufactured before 1 December 2016, and that HP publishes no list of Dynamic Security LaserJets. h30434.www3.hp.com
16. HP, printer security and secure cartridges, describing the supplies security scope as Pro devices and LaserJet models 200 and up. hp.com
17. HP, the HP+ page. Its comparison table lists Original HP ink cartridges as required to operate an HP+ printer, against recommended without HP+, which is what the e suffix rows on this page rest on. hp.com
18. HP Store product page, OfficeJet Pro 9025, carrying the notice in its chip wording. hp.com
19. HP Store product page, OfficeJet Pro 9025e, carrying the notice in its electronic circuitry wording. Same HP 962 cartridge as the 9025 above, described two different ways by HP. hp.com
20. Epson, Ink Yields. The source for both halves of the Epson position: cartridge printers designed for Epson cartridges only with updates that may affect third-party ink, and the footnote naming EcoTank as an open system that does not prevent the use of non-OEM inkjet bottles. epson.com
21. Epson, Important Ink Information. The same position stated more briefly, under the headings Designed for EPSON cartridges only and Firmware updates. epson.com
22. Epson User's Guide, XP-4200 and XP-4205, Checking for Software Updates. An example of the full note in a model's own guide, saying non-Epson branded or altered Epson cartridges that functioned prior to a firmware update may not continue to function. files.support.epson.com
23. Epson User's Guide, XP-6100, the same topic carrying the short note instead. The wording differs from the guide above on a machine of the same kind. files.support.epson.com
24. Epson User's Guide, ET-4850, the same topic on an EcoTank, carrying no ink note at all. The contrast with the two guides above is what the EcoTank rows rest on. files.support.epson.com
25. Epson, Changing Automatic Update Options. Epson's own instructions for setting automatic driver and firmware update checks to Never. files.support.epson.com
26. ClassAction.org, "Class Action Claims Epson Software Updates 'Effectively Ruined' Printers Using Third-Party Ink Cartridges" (Mondigo et al v Epson America, filed October 2019, dismissed without prejudice February 2020). The complaint describes updates that make printers report a third-party cartridge as not recognised. classaction.org
27. TechRadar, "Epson firmware update stops printing with third-party ink, lawsuit alleges" (October 2019). Contemporary coverage of the same dispute. techradar.com
28. Canon Online Manual, TS3700 series, support code 1686. The printer reports an issue with a cartridge and Canon tells you to disable the function that detects the level of ink remaining by pressing Stop for five seconds, after which printing continues. ij.manual.canon
29. Canon Online Manual, MG7500 series, support code 1683. The older wording, and the one place Canon names refilled ink tanks: it disclaims liability for machine damage they cause and gives the same five second release. ij.manual.canon
30. Canon Online Manual, TS3700 series, support code 1684. The only Canon code that stops a job, worded as a cartridge that may not be installed properly or may not be compatible with the printer. ij.manual.canon
31. Canon's own model picker, which resolves a US model name to the manual Canon publishes for it. Every Canon row here was reached through it rather than through a guessed series name, because Canon's series names do not track its model names. ij.manual.canon
32. Brother Online User's Guide, HL-L2350DW and its siblings. Carries Brother's full laser position: non-Brother supplies may affect print quality, hardware performance and machine reliability, the limited warranty does not cover problems they cause, and the Replace Toner setting continues printing past the end of toner stop. download.brother.com (PDF)
33. Brother Online User's Guide, MFC-J460DW and its siblings. The inkjet wording: ink that is not genuine Brother may leave the machine unable to detect the cartridge or read its volume, and repairs caused by non-Brother supplies may not be covered. download.brother.com (PDF)
34. Brother Online User's Guide, MFC-J4335DW and its siblings, the current generation. The same document type with none of the wording above, which is the change described in this page. support.brother.com
35. Ars Technica, "Brother denies using firmware updates to brick printers with third-party ink" (March 2025). Carries Brother's statement that its firmware updates do not block the use of third-party ink in its machines. arstechnica.com

Take the data

We render the table above from a file you can download. It holds all 257 models we track, not only the 84 that can lock, and each row has the firmware status, the note that status rests on, the dated record of what we checked to reach it, the cartridge numbers the machine accepts and its supply outlook. The build regenerates it on every deploy from the database the page itself reads, so the file matches the table.

drm-tracker.json, JSON, built 13 September 2026. A header block inside the file documents the fields, the method behind both columns and the counts, so you can use it without coming back here.

It is published under CC BY 4.0. You are free to republish it or build on it, commercial use included. The only condition is attribution: MyCartridgeFinder Printer Firmware DRM Tracker, https://mycartridgefinder.com/ink-drm-tracker.html. If we have a model wrong, send us the manufacturer page that shows it and we will fix the row.

Methodology and citation

We track 257 current inkjet and laser models. A printer is marked can block when its manufacturer publishes, for that specific model, that it documents or ships firmware (such as HP Dynamic Security) capable of rejecting non-OEM cartridges, or sells it under a programme like HP+ that requires original supplies; otherwise it is open. Because HP publishes no master list, open means we found no such notice for that model, which is weaker than a guarantee. Epson is the one brand here where that caveat does not apply, because Epson publishes a single claim covering every cartridge printer it sells and names EcoTank as the exception, so its rows rest on a statement rather than on a search that came up empty. Status is compiled from manufacturer support pages and user guides, court filings and retailer cross-reference tables, and reviewed on each update. Where a row carries a drm_verified line, that line names the date of the check and what each source said, so a status can be re-tested rather than taken on trust; 257 of the 257 rows carry one, covering all 105 HP rows, all 46 Epson rows on both sides of the line, all 45 Canon rows and all 61 Brother rows. Where a maker has withdrawn the document, the row says it was unread rather than counting as a check that passed. Last updated 13 September 2026.

The OEM supply outlook beside each model is computed, not researched. For every cartridge family, meaning a brand and OEM number together, we take the release year of the newest printer in our catalogue that accepts it, then give each printer the newest such year across all the families it uses. A number that kept being designed into new machines is one the maker still has reason to produce. It is a proxy rather than a discontinuation notice, and it inherits the limits of our catalogue: a family whose recent host printers we do not list will read older than it is. Counts on this page are recomputed from the database on every build.

Cite this data as: MyCartridgeFinder Printer Firmware-DRM Tracker, https://mycartridgefinder.com/ink-drm-tracker.html