Disclosed are methods for compensating for failed ink jets in an ink jet apparatus. The method in embodiments determines if one or more ink jets are nonfunctioning or have failed and substitutes for the one or more nonfunctioning ink jets by using one or more operational ink jets. The operational ink jets used are neighboring operational ink jets that fill in for the one or more failed ink jets. The one or more failed ink jets are disabled wherein a primary image pass is performed followed by one or more additional imaging passes to fill in for the one or more disabled ink jets by enabling the one or more neighboring operational ink jets. The additional imaging passes may be a right fill imaging pass, a left fill imaging pass or a combination of both.