Affected models: Canon imageCLASS and PIXMA models with fax, plus imageRUNNER office machines. It usually shows up as #005 on a fax error report or on the status screen.
What This Error Means
When you send a fax, your printer dials the number and then waits for the other machine to answer with a fax tone. Canon gives it 35 seconds. If nothing answers in that window, your printer gives up and logs code 005.
So this isn't a fault in your printer. It's your printer telling you it dialed out and got silence back. Your printer will still print, copy and scan normally.
What Causes It
- The receiving fax machine was switched off — by far the most common reason. Plenty of offices power theirs down overnight.
- Their line was busy — someone was on the phone, or another fax was already coming through.
- The number is a voice line, not a fax line — easy mistake when a business lists one number for both.
- Your phone cord is in the wrong socket — Canon printers have two similar-looking sockets. The wall line must go into the one marked LINE; the socket marked EXT is for plugging a handset into the printer. Swap them and every fax fails.
- You're faxing internationally without pauses — Canon specifically notes that overseas numbers often need pauses inserted so the connection has time to establish.
- Your phone service is internet-based (VoIP) — cable and internet phone lines compress audio, which can garble the fax tones. Faxing over VoIP is unreliable even when everything is set up correctly.
How to Fix It
Fix 1: Ring the number yourself
- Dial the fax number from an ordinary phone.
- Listen for a few seconds.
If you hear harsh electronic screeching, that's a fax machine answering and the number is right. If a person answers, or it rings out, or you get a "number not in service" message, you've found your problem — get the correct fax number and try again.
Fix 2: Wait and resend
If the number checked out, their machine was probably off or busy. Wait fifteen minutes and send again. If you're faxing at night or on a weekend, try during their business hours instead.
Fix 3: Check the phone cord is in the LINE socket
- Unplug the printer from the wall power.
- Look at the sockets on the back or side. One is labelled LINE (sometimes with a wall-jack symbol), the other EXT or with a handset symbol.
- Make sure the cord running to your wall phone jack is in LINE.
- Plug the power back in and resend.
Worth doing whenever a brand-new printer has never successfully sent a fax.
Fix 4: Add pauses for international or switchboard numbers
If you're dialing overseas, or dialing out through an office phone system that needs a 9 first, insert a pause after the prefix. On most Canon models you add one by pressing the Redial/Pause button while entering the number; it appears as a p or a comma in the display. Two pauses is a reasonable starting point.
Fix 5: If you're on internet phone service
Fax and VoIP are a poor match, and there's no setting that reliably fixes it. Most Canon fax models do have an option to slow the sending speed down, which sometimes helps — the name and location varies quite a bit between models, so look up "fax transmission speed" in your model's manual rather than hunting blindly through the menus. If you fax rarely, an online fax service or a copy shop is honestly less painful.
If None of That Works
If the number definitely answers with a fax tone, the cord is in the LINE socket, and it still fails every time, the fault may be in the line itself rather than either machine — worth having your phone provider test it.
To contact Canon support, have ready: your model number, the serial number from the sticker on the back or underside, the exact code (#005), the fax number you were dialing, and whether your phone service is a traditional landline or internet-based. That last detail saves a lot of back-and-forth.
