I was having some issues with my Epson XP-430’s scanner and thought I’d try upgrading to the latest firmware.

Very. Bad. Idea.

After the upgrade, it identified that I had installed 3rd party ink cartridges — as I have a legal right to do — and refused to print unless I replaced them with genuine, vastly overpriced, rip-off Epson cartridges.

So I decided to downgrade the software to restore the previous behavior. Here’s how I did that. (I’m on a Mac running High Sierra, if that matters).

First, I downloaded an older firmware image with installer. I got it from this page: https://www.latestprinterdrivers.com/epson-xp-430-driver-download/

Next, I plugged into the printer with a USB cable to the back connector.

Then, I turned on the printer in Firmware load mode: I held down the stop (circle with triangle), left arrow, home buttons all at once and, without releasing them, pressed the power button. A very sparse white type on black screen came up.

I then ran the installer, which identified the printer and the firmware that I downloaded. I let it load the firmware into the printer.

At some point the printer screen fills with a completion message, and I pressed OK. The printer restarted.

That’s it.

Before I started this, I had removed all the print cartridges and turned the printer on, so it thought the problem was no cartridges, not non-Epson cartridges, but I’m not sure that’s needed.

Hope that helps someone!