Everyone knows that the personal printer industry is full of scams.

Cheap printers with pricey cartridges, software that tries to monitor your use and tries to keep you from using cheap toner refills, and other sketchy business practices.

But TikTok user @ibc.suitcheeks discovered a workaround for one of the most unfair scams that printers run, not allowing you to print documents due to “low ink” warnings when the cartridge still has plenty of life left.

“This is going to be a rant,” she explains. “I’ve had this printer for about six years and it’s been a rock star as far as printing goes. However, recently I was in the middle of a job, and I just had a few pages to go when the error warning came on that I had to replace the print cartridge.”

@ibc.suitecheeks

Corporate waste and greed continues. If you have a printer you’ll want to figure out how to clear the “replace toner” code before you actually do #scam #corporategreed

♬ original sound – SuiteCheeks

Not having any extra print cartridges on her and really needing to complete the job, she decided to see if there was a way to get those last few pages out.

“So, I decided to try the University of YouTube to see if there was a way I could clear out those error codes to print the rest of the paper,” she says.

“Sure enough, there was a great guy on there who showed me through a couple of steps on how to go ahead and clear that out, and then I was able to finish my print job.”

But this is where things get sketchy. For a “low ink” warning, it was wildly off and she not only could finish that print job, but thousands of pages more.

“Guess how many pages I was able to print after I cleared out that error code and did not replace the cartridge. Go ahead, guess,” she states. “2,000. Four reams of paper I was able to print after I cleared out that error code and didn’t replace the cartridge.”

She even posts a follow-up video to explain how she accomplished this trick.

@ibc.suitecheeks

This is how to clear the “Replace Toner” message on a brother printer to get more pages printed. DONT replace the cartridge until you try this trick to override the message. I was able to get over 3000 additional pages printed! My printer model is HL-L6200DW @error648394 @ilovebeets #scam

♬ original sound – SuiteCheeks

In the comments, people agree that these warnings are completely inaccurate, and that the printer really has no way of measuring toner, just making a rough estimate based on pages printed.

And of course, this is not a problem only with Brother brand printers, but with every brand.

Here a man managed a similar trick with his Samsung printer.

And a printer repair expert says that this is a known issue with printers and you should not worry about following their guidelines.

On the plus side, at least Brother doesn’t throw a fit when you use off-brand toner, like some companies we can mention.

The bottom line is that you can’t necessarily count on the machine to tell you the truth.

Do not trust the printer’s low ink warnings.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this guy’s helpful tip to get free tools at Home Depot without buying anything.