Disable Canon Abrasion

Disable Canon Abrasion

Today we're going to be going over what to do when you get a message saying the following after trying to print something with a Canon printer:

"The printer abrasion preventative function is enable on the [Custom Settings] of the IJ printer assistant tool.

If you continue printing without changing this setting, the print quality or print speed might be affected.

To print without changing this setting, click [OK].

To change this setting, click [Cancel Printing] and then click [Maintenance and Preferences] on the [Maintenance] tab of the printer driver."

This message appears because of Canon's built-in abrasion prevention function. What this does is cause the print head to raise up a little bit in an attempt to avoid scratching the surface of the paper, especially if the kind of paper you're using is more thick than usual. For example, this may be cardstock or poster board, on which scratches are extra visible.

If you only plan to print regular sheets of paper with an average thickness, there's no point in having that function turned on. Here's how to disable it.

The process is very simple. On your computer, find the [Devices and Printers] tab. Right-click on your printer and select [Preferences]. Finding the maintenance tab may be a bit more difficult for people on a Mac computer. If that's the case, you'll have to download the driver from the Canon website. The generic driver won't have this.

Go to the maintenance tab once you're sure you have all of the correct drivers installed and click on [ Custom Settings]. Uncheck the box next to [Prevent Paper Abrasions], and then you should be good to go.

I hope this helped you solve the issue! For a visual walkthrough of this troubleshooting process, watch my video. My YouTube channel, Kevin at BCH, has many more helpful videos for DIY printer fixes. Happy printing!