Printer problems are common, and there is nothing more frustrating than while printing something you receive an error message your printer is offline or in the control panel, devices and properties window your printer showing offline. Well if the Printer status showing Offline, it means it’s having problem communicating with your computer. And the reason could be from connectivity issues to a fault with your printer, But the most command is because of a missing or problematic driver for your printer. Whatever the reason, here in this post we have every possible solution to fix and change the printer status from offline to online.
How to change the printer from offline to online
The Printer status showing offline that means it’s having a problem communicating with your device. Let’s first check the connectivity between your computer and printer.
Check the USB cable connecting your printer to your PC or laptop.
If you are connected to a network printer then, you should look at the network cable connecting your printer to your router.
Again check your PC on the same network, you can do confirm the same using the ping command. If you are connected to VPN network try to disconnect and check the printer status.
Restart your PC and printer that fix the temporary glitch that can set active printers offline even if they are connected and fully operational.
Try clearing all your print jobs by pressing ‘cancel all documents on your printer’. This will clear the printing queue and allow you to restart your model.
Change printer status to online
- Open control panel then Devices and Printers
- This will display the installed printer list, locate the printer you want to change to online
- Right-click on it and make sure to set the printer as default,
- Again right-click on that printer and this time select “see what’s printing”
A new window opens, Click Printer. Here if you see a tick next to the option Pause Printing and Use Printer Offline, remove them to change your printer status from offline to online.
Check the print port
Also, check and make sure the printer configured properly, and it uses the proper USB port.
- Open control panel then Devices and Printers section.
- Locate your printer right-click it, and choose Printer properties
- Move to the Ports tab and make sure that the proper port (USB01) is selected
- And after making this small change check the printer working properly.
Check Print Spooler Service status
The print spooler is a most important utility or software interface that controls the order in which documents are printed. And the print spooler service must be running state to complete print jobs or printer to function properly.
- Press Windows key + R, type services.msc and click ok,
- This will open the windows services console, scroll down and locate Print Spooler. See if its status is Running.
- If its running right click on print spooler service select restart,
- If you can’t see its status here, means print spooler service not started,
- Double click on print spooler service to open its properties,
- Change its startup type automatic and start the service next to service status,
- Click apply and check if your printer is online now.
Run Printer Troubleshooter
Run the build-in printer troubleshooter that help automatically detect and resolve driver issues, connectivity issues, restart printer related services, and more.
- Search for troubleshooting on the start menu and select troubleshoot settings,
- Click on the additional troubleshooters link, (refer image below)
- Now locate the printer select it and click run the troubleshooter,
- This will start to detect and diagnose problems that prevent the printer to function properly.
- Once the diagnose process completes restart your PC and printer, It should help you fix the offline status of the printer
Reinstall Printer Driver
All printers need a printer driver installed on your computer for it to communicate and work. and a Faulty or Outdated Printer Drivers Can Also lead to the Printer offline Error. Let’s remove the older printer driver and install the latest printer driver from the manufacturer’s website.
First, remove your printer driver:
- Open the ‘devices and printers’ in your computer’s control panel.
- locate and Right-click on the printer that you’d like to remove and select ‘remove’.
- Click on Yes when the confirmation dialogue appears
- Now press Windows key + R, type appwiz.cpl and click ok
- This will open programs and features window, look if your printer listed there,
- Right-click on it and select uninstall, follow on-screen instructions to completely remove the printer driver from your computer. Once done reboot your PC.
Reinstall printer driver
You can download and install the latest printer driver manually by going to the manufacturer’s website for it, and searching for the most recent correct driver.
Also read:
- Solved: Printer only print one page then hangs until reboot Windows 10
- Does Windows 10 Printer keeps going offline? Let’s make it online
- Printer not working after windows 10 update “Printer Driver Is Unavailable”
- Solved: Print Spooler keeps stopping Not Running on Windows 10
- Solved: Cant print documents, Printer Driver is unavailable in Windows 10
