Epson Secure Printing
Symptom: you add a new Epson receipt printer, WCPOS finds it on the network, the test print says it was sent — and nothing comes out. No error, no flashing light, and the printer's own status page says "Available". Panel self-tests print fine.
If that's you, your printer almost certainly has Secure Printing turned on, and it ships that way from the factory on recent Epson models.
What's happening
Since August 1, 2025, an EU cybersecurity regulation (the Radio Equipment Directive, "RED") requires network-connected devices placed on the EU market to be secure by default. Epson's response on TM-series receipt printers is a setting called Secure Printing: while it's enabled, the printer silently holds and then discards print jobs that arrive over the traditional unencrypted channels — the raw TCP port (9100) that most POS software uses, and plain-HTTP ePOS. The job isn't rejected with an error; it just quietly never prints, which is why everything looks fine.
This affects every POS product, not just WCPOS — Epson's own guidance for legacy systems is to re-enable the classic ports, and other POS vendors document the same fix.
The EU regulation does not itself apply outside the EU, but units sold elsewhere can arrive with the same firmware and defaults. If a brand-new Epson anywhere in the world shows this exact symptom, check the setting — it takes two minutes and settles the question.
The fix
You need the printer's web configuration page and its admin password. On recent Epson printers the factory admin password is unique per device — typically the printer's serial number, printed on the label on the base of the printer (older models shipped with the password epson). If someone set up the printer before you, they may have changed it.
- Find the printer's IP address (it's on the self-test sheet, or use Scan Network in WCPOS printer settings).
- In a browser, open
https://<printer-ip>— for examplehttps://192.168.1.131. Accept the certificate warning (the printer uses a self-signed certificate; that's normal). - Click Administrator Login and sign in with the admin password.
- Go to the Print tab → Secure Printing.
- Set Secure Printing to Disable and confirm.
- Power-cycle the printer — unplug it for ten seconds. Some settings only take effect after a restart.
- If you use the web app with a recent model, edit the printer in POS > Settings > Printing and set its Port to
80when your store uses HTTP or443when it uses HTTPS. For HTTPS, first accept the printer's certificate warning on that device as described in step 2. - Back in WCPOS, run Test Print again. It should print immediately.
Epson's guidance states that a firmware update resets the security configuration to its compliant defaults — meaning Secure Printing comes back on after you update the printer's firmware. If a printer that's worked for months suddenly stops printing right after a firmware update, redo the steps above.
Not sure whether your printer is affected? Print its network status sheet (with the roll cover open, hold the FEED button for a second — or hold the status-sheet button for three seconds on models that have one) and look for the Security Mode line: RED means it ships with Secure Printing; Normal (or no such line) means it doesn't.
The factory password is printed on a label anyone can read, and the printer's admin page is reachable by every device on your network. If your printer is on a shared network (an office, a coworking space, a mall), set your own admin password — and ideally put the printer on your own network segment. Anyone who can reach an open receipt printer can print to it, tie it up, or pop an attached cash drawer.
Why the regulation exists
It isn't arbitrary. A receipt printer with an open, unauthenticated network port accepts commands from anyone on the network — including the command that kicks open an attached cash drawer. Internet-exposed receipt printers have been mass-hijacked to print spam, and embedded devices with factory passwords have been conscripted into botnets. The rule — Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/30, in force for products placed on the market from 1 August 2025 per Regulation (EU) 2023/2444 — requires devices to ship without those open doors.
Disabling Secure Printing is legitimate — the regulation requires secure defaults, not secure always, and turning the classic ports back on is the device owner's deliberate choice. Make it an informed one: prefer a private network for the till, and set your own admin password.
Ports, for the technically curious
Verified against a live TM-m30III (firmware 13.21):
| State | Raw TCP 9100 | ePOS-Print (HTTP :80) | ePOS-Print (HTTPS :443) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secure Printing enabled | accepted, silently discarded | not served | works |
| Secure Printing disabled | works | works | works |
Two details worth knowing. First, with Secure Printing enabled the discard isn't instant — the printer holds the job for a few minutes, and while it holds one, it won't print from any channel, so one stray job can make a healthy printer look completely dead. Second, on this printer generation the classic ePOS ports 8008/8043 do not serve ePOS-Print (8008 is closed; 8043 carries a different Epson service) — so on the web app, if your store runs over HTTP set the printer's Port to 80, and if it runs over HTTPS set it to 443.
Epson's own compatibility guide confirms this matrix and adds the encrypted variants: with Secure Printing enabled, the TLS ports — 9143 (encrypted raw), 443 (HTTPS ePOS), and 8043/8143 (SDK) — keep working, which is how RED-compatible software prints without disabling anything. On RED firmware, LPR (port 515) and TLS 1.0/1.1 are disabled outright, regardless of the Secure Printing toggle.
References
- Epson: Radio Equipment Directive FAQ — Epson's statement on RED compliance and legacy systems
- Epson security portal
- Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/30 and (EU) 2023/2444 (application date) on EUR-Lex