Printer will not print in colour

I have a HP Officejet Pro 8600 and I cannot find a way to get it to print documents (some) in colour. I have Googled for an answer but there are no solutions that I can find that explain how to set up the printer to do this. I have the print page preview and the colour icon is checked but still no colour.

Any suggestions are really appreciated and I must add that I use non-genuine cartridges but have never had this problem in the past.

I have that printer. Go into settings-bluetooth and devices-select your printer-printing preferences-advanced-make sure print in grayscale is OFF.
If that doesn't work, open all apps-HP-Officejet Pro 8600-printing preferences and do the same thing. Also check you ink levels from the HP app.

Thanks glasskutter will try both :)

Ok grayscale is turned off and a test page is showing some colour but not that brilliant maybe it is the ink quality?

ICIT2LOL said:

maybe it is the ink quality

Click to expand...

Have the cartridges been in the printer for a long time. If so they may be dried up. Are the cartridges genuine HP. I buy refurbished ones on Amazon but have had good luck so far. I'm a repeat buyer from same seller. You might also check if the printer is printing in draft quality which uses way less ink and washes out color. That setting is in preferences-paper/quality tab.

Ok I will try to clean the print head by soaking the bottom on some wet kitchen towel and have sent away for a cleaning kit. The cartridges themselves are still liquid as I can hear them sloshing around when i shake them and it may be that the quality isn't so good. The seller I have used for a long time now but have never had the need to print colour so I guess they have always emptied from the constant cleaning when you switch the printer on eh? I do have some new cartridges from a different source but like I said I'll try cleaning the print head first before using them.
Now as far as draft printing I am sure that it is just set to normal and I haven't seen draft printing mentioned anywhere and the annoying thing is there is so much in settings for both Windows and HP it is like a maze of instructions and settings?