There’s a time when you want to print something, and once you hit Print and select your printer it won’t appear on the list and in some scenarios once you select the printer and hit print nothing happens.
You can notice this problem when you see that the printer is on but the computer won’t detect it as online thus you can’t print. This can be caused by the printer driver or software and also may occur when they are outdated or corrupted.
We can fix this problem and get your printer back online quickly with these simple steps. Here are some tips to try to get your printer back online.
Do A Hard Reset and Check Physical Connections
To do a hard reset or others say power cycle, just simply turn the printer off and unplug to the power source, wait for around 3 minutes, turn the computer back on, plug the printer back and turn it on.
Don’t forget to also check all the physical connections or cables are properly connected to the printer to your PC and if the printer has networking capabilities check if the network cable or WiFi connectivity are okay.
Set Printer Online Manually
- Go to the Control Panel by searching on the Start menu and choose Devices and Printers.
- Right click on the icon of your printer.
- Click Use Printer Online. Try printing if this solves the issue.
Check if Printer is in Use Printer Offline mode
- Go to Control Panel and choose Devices and Printers
- Right click on the icon of your printer and select See what’s printing.
- Click on the Printer menu on top of the window that pops up.
- Check if Use Printer Offline is checked, if it is click on it to disable it.
Reinstalling the Printer
- Go to Control Panel and choose Devices and Printers
- Right click on the icon of your printer and select Remove Device.
- Add the printer again by clicking Add a Printer on the top left of the window.
- Check if this solves the issue.
Printer Offline due to Paper Jam
Sometimes the printer will tend to go offline due to an error caused by printer jams.
- Go to the Control Panel by searching on the Start menu and choose Devices and Printers.
- Right click on the icon of your printer. Click Use Printer Online.
- Now double click your printer.
- Go to Printer menu and choose Cancel all documents,
- Restart your printer and try printing again.
Reinstall the Printer Driver and Software.
- Open Control Panel and go to Devices and Printers
- Right click on your printer icon and select Remove Device.
- Wait for the removal to finish and restart your computer.
- Once logged back to your computer, go to the official website of your printer brand and download the driver for your printer. Make sure it is compatible with the operating system that you are using and it is the latest version released.
- Install the printer driver, just follow the instructions that will come up upon installation.
- Restart the computer and try if that resolves the issue.
These fixes can be applied to all printer brands under the Windows operating system. We hope these troubleshooting steps help you get your printer back online.
