Printer suddenly and inexplicably stops printing duplex

Problem: As title.  Working fine for years, then this.  

Obviously you have checked the print settings on the computer(s), on the printer, tried multiple computers, etc.   You might even have tried the diagnostic menu duplex print check, leading you to think it must be busted.

You might also notice the printer is feeding sheets more slowly than usual.

Possible solution:  Triple-check ALL of the input trays, and ensure they are ALL set to Plain Paper.

In my case, I printed ONE sheet of labels two weeks ago, and the printer assumed that tray would stay labels forever.  And this fully disabled duplexing.

OK, obviously you can't duplex labels.  But I have two trays, and Tray 1 was still plain paper.

It never prompted me to re-load plain paper into Tray 2; it seemingly never went back to Tray 1 (still Plain Paper), or do anything else to help.  Forcing printing from Tray 1 (already set to Plain) - which logically should have worked - made no difference.  And the diagnostics didn't say jack $#%!.

Honestly, it's 2025.  My printer cost a fortune, weighs a ton, and has an alphabet soup of features like IPSec, SNMP, Appletalk, SMTP, USB and AirPrint..  But this is the best they can do at HMI?

I wish I had found this before dragging a 50 lb spare printer up from my basement.

[Big thanks to this SpiceWorks post for the solution.]

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