Support Printers All-In-Ones WorkForce Series Epson WorkForce Pro WF-3820

I'm having trouble sending or receiving faxes. What should I do?

  • If you cannot send or receive faxes, try these solutions:

    • Use Check Fax Connection on the control panel (Settings > General Settings > Fax Settings > Check Fax Connection) to run the automatic fax connection check. Try the solutions suggested in the report.
    • If you are faxing from a computer, use the Epson FAX Utility to send your fax.
    • Make sure the recipient's fax machine is turned on and working.
    • Make sure the recipient's fax number is correct and entered correctly.
    • Make sure paper is loaded correctly in your product.
    • Make sure you have set up your header information and have not blocked your caller ID. Otherwise, your faxes might be rejected by the recipient's fax machine.
    • Make sure Receive Mode is set to Auto so you can receive faxes automatically.
    • Check that the cable connecting your telephone wall jack to your product's LINE port is secure.
    • Print a fax connection report using your product control panel or fax software to help diagnose the problem.
    • Verify that the telephone wall jack works by connecting a phone to it and testing it.
    • Check the Line Type setting and set it to PBX. If your phone system requires an external access code to reach an outside line, register the code to the product and add a # (hash) to the beginning of the phone number when dialing.
    • If you connected your product to a DSL phone line, you must connect a DSL filter to the phone jack to enable faxing over the line. Contact your DSL provider for the necessary filter.
    • If you are connected to a DSL phone line, connect the product directly to a telephone wall jack and send a fax. If it works, the problem may be caused by the DSL filter. Contact your DSL provider.
    • Make sure you installed the FAX driver for your product and that it is not paused.
    • The data being sent may be too large. Try faxing the originals in batches or by using a connected phone. If you are faxing in monochrome, enable the Direct Send setting (Fax > Fax Settings > Fax Send Settings).
    • If a communication error occurs, change the Fax Speed setting to Slow(9,600bps) on the control panel.
    • If your telephone line uses call waiting and you have trouble receiving faxes, turn off call waiting to prevent disruption of incoming faxes.
    • If you have subscribed to a call forwarding service, the product may not be able to receive faxes. Contact your service provider for assistance.
    • If the recipient fax machine does not answer your call within 50 seconds after the product has finished dialing, add pauses after the fax number to send the fax.
    • Check your inbox and delete faxes after reading or printing them. If the inbox is full, the product cannot receive faxes.
    • Check if the sender's fax number is registered to the Rejection Number List
    • If you enabled Rejection Fax options, check if the sender is blocked, did not set up header information, or is not registered in your contacts list, as necessary.
    • If you have not connected a telephone to the printer, set the Receive Mode setting to Auto on the control panel.
    • If you have not connected a telephone to the printer, set the Receive Mode setting to Auto on the control panel.
    • If you are receiving faxes using the Epson FAX Utility, check that your product is registered as a fax product in your operating system:

      Windows: Make sure the product appears in Devices and Printers, Printer, or Printers and Other Hardware. If the product does not appear, uninstall and re-install the Epson FAX Utility.

      Mac: Select System Preferences > Printers & Scanners (or Print & Scan or Print & Fax) and make sure your product appears. If your product does not appear, click + and add your product. If the product does appear, double-click it and make sure it is not paused.

    Note: Do not turn the product off while it is receiving a fax. Otherwise, the fax transmission will be lost.

    Note: If your product is connected to a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone line, keep in mind that fax machines are designed to work over analog phone lines. Epson cannot guarantee that fax transmission will work when using VoIP.

    If your phone line includes voice mail answering services, calls or faxes may be inadvertently received by your voice mail service.

    Related tasks
    Connecting a Telephone or Answering Machine
    Using the Fax Setup Wizard
    Selecting the Line Type
    Selecting Advanced Fax Settings
    Receiving Faxes Automatically
    Printing Fax Reports
    Saving and Viewing Received Faxes
    Loading Paper in the Cassette
Published:  16-Sep-2020 Was this helpful? Thank you for the feedback!
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