Printer uses the wrong tray or asks for manual feed

Open the paper or tray settings on the printer's control panel, or on its web page, and check the size and type assigned to each tray. When a job asks for Letter plain paper and no tray is set to Letter plain, many printers fall back to manual feed or ask you to load a tray. Make each setting match what's really in the tray.

Some printers let a tray accept any size or any type. Setting your main tray this way, where offered, stops jobs stalling over small mismatches. Leave special trays, such as one holding letterhead or labels, set to their own paper type so ordinary jobs skip them.

On many laser printers, the multipurpose or bypass tray is used first whenever it holds paper. Take paper out of it when you don't need it, or look in the tray settings for an option that controls whether it's used first.

A job set to A4 sent to a printer loaded with Letter, or the reverse, is one of the most common causes of manual feed prompts. Check that the size in your document, in the print settings and on the tray all agree.

Open Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners > your printer > Printing preferences (Windows 10: Settings > Devices > Printers & scanners > your printer > Manage). Set the paper source to automatic selection or the tray you want, set the size, and click Apply to make it your default.

Click Printer properties and open the Device Settings tab if your driver has one. Make sure optional trays are marked as installed, and if there's a form to tray assignment list, set each tray to the paper it holds.

Apps can override the default. In Microsoft Word, open the Page Setup dialog from the Layout tab and look at the Paper tab, where First page and Other pages each have a tray. Older documents and templates sometimes point at manual feed or a tray your current printer doesn't have.

In Printer properties, the Advanced tab has a Printing Defaults button that sets defaults for everyone using the printer on that computer. If your choice keeps reverting, check the tray setting there too; changing it may need an administrator account.

In the print dialog, open Media & Quality and set Feed from to automatic selection or the tray you want. On macOS versions before Ventura, this is in the Paper Feed section, which can also take the first page from a different tray.

Choose Presets > Save Current Settings as Preset and name it, so you can pick the same tray in any app. Choosing a saved preset is more dependable than relying on whatever was used last.

Open System Settings > Printers & Scanners, click your printer, then Options & Supplies > Options. If a tray you have is shown as not installed, turn it on so macOS can send jobs to it.