Epson printers have one specific rule that matters more here than on most other brands: never manually push the print carriage back to its resting position. Here's the full safe sequence.
Power off before touching anything inside. This stops the carriage and rollers mid-motion and gives you a stable, non-moving mechanism to work with.
On most Epson EcoTank and Expression models, opening the top scanner unit exposes the print carriage and the main paper path directly. If the carriage is sitting in the middle of the printer rather than at its usual resting position on the side, leave it exactly where it is for now — don't try to slide it back manually.
Gently pull any visible jammed paper in the direction of normal feed, using both hands and steady, even pressure — never pull at an angle, which is what causes tearing. If the paper tears and leaves fragments, carefully remove those with your fingers or tweezers rather than trying to grab them with the printer's rollers by turning it back on.
If paper is jammed directly under the print carriage and you genuinely need to move it to access the paper, do this only with the printer powered off and unplugged — moving it while powered can damage the drive mechanism. Slide it gently to one side just far enough to clear the paper, remove the jam, then let the printer reposition it automatically once you power back on. Never force it past any resistance you feel.
On models with a rear paper feed or an automatic duplexer, check both specifically — these are separate paper paths from the main front-loading tray and are easy to overlook if the visible jam from the front turns out to be only part of the problem.
Close the scanner unit and any access panels fully. The printer will typically run the carriage through a brief reset cycle on power-up to confirm the path is clear.
Repeated jams on the same Epson printer are most often caused by paper stored somewhere humid (Epson's fine feed tolerances make it more sensitive to slightly curled paper than some competitors), paper loaded above the tray's fill line, or — particularly relevant to EcoTank models given their heavier internal ink reservoirs — a slightly uneven surface the printer is sitting on, which can very subtly affect paper alignment on entry.
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