How Do I Get My Wireless Printer Online? Printer Showing Offline

Imagine its midnight, and you need to print some essential documents. Then suddenly, you received a message on your device  “The printer is offline.”

You are now just left with a question, i.e., how do I get my printer online. You are unable to print a single document, and now you don’t know what to do.

In this article, you will get some impressive knowledge to solve this issue.

How Do I Get My Wireless Printer Online?

They have built-in menu options that show if it’s connected to a wireless network or not. If you are unable to find it there, then you should take help from the printer’s manual.

You can also try the following things:

1) Reboot Your Device:

Switch off your both devices. Then turn them on after some 2-3 minutes. Sometimes there are internal errors that get fixed by powering it off and on.

2) PC Connection:

Check if the printer is correctly plugged into your computer or not. If it is is a networked unit, then the small light that is present on it should be flashing green in this case.

Some common reasons for offline issue in this regard are:

• Loose wires
• Old or broken cables

Do Read About Computer Monitor Cables

3) Log into the Computer:

Log in to the computer with the administrator account or the account that has a right to manage the printer settings.

4) Printer Spooler Window:

From the start button, click on the device and printer, and then the spooler window will be displayed to you.

1. Select your printer
2. Untick the option “use printer offline.”
3. This setting will bring it online.
4. If it is still not online, then follow the steps explained ahead.

5) Download and Install Latest Printer Drivers:

Download and install the latest ones. As they contain extra features.

Also, from the control panel, click on troubleshooting. The troubleshooter will then identify the issues and fix them.

Printer Showing Offline:

Well, there are many reasons for this.

• The issue can be because of overloading.
• Any driver can also be a cause of this issue.
• Devices most often also send an offline message when there is an issue with the power supply.
• A shortfall in power affects its performance quite severely.

Why Does My Printer Say Offline?

Sometimes the issue gets resolved with just a few clicks while sometimes you need to do some severe troubleshooting steps.

The reason for this device showing offline is that it cant communicate with the PC.

You need to make sure that the following two things are done:

• The printer is on
• Both devices are connected to the same wireless network.

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How Do I Get My Wireless Printer Online Windows 10?

Some most important things that you can try to solve the issue are:

• Avoid connecting your device to any guest network. By network, I mean the wireless networks in apartments, schools, and hotels.
• They sometimes have security features enabled that can prevent printing.
• You can also try connecting it to some other machine.
• Check whether multitasking is supported on your wireless network or not. If it is not enabled, you need to enable it immediately.

1) Printer Status Error:

A windows update might have changed all your wireless settings. So you need to check the status again and again.

1. On windows10 press the windows key and I together.
2. Then from the screen displayed to you select the devices
3. Then choose the option “devices and printers.”
4. Right-click the icon that has the green mark and clicks on “See what printing.”
5. Click Printer.
6. If you see the option, use printer offline is enabled, then untick it to bring it online.

2) Print Spooler Service Not Running:

Sometimes the issue occurs because of spooling service. When it does not work well, you get the offline notification.

How to Fix Printer Spooler?

What you need to do in this case is first to check if this service is running or not.

To do this follow the steps below:

1. Press the Windows + R key or open RUN.
2. Then type of service.msc and click OK.
3. Go to printer spooler and check if its running or not.
4. If you are unable to check its status, then right-click on it and select start.
5. You can also restart it.
6. Then close this window.

How Do I Get My HP Printer Back Online?

This issue often occurs due to the lack of communication between the two devices.

Some guidance for HP users in this case are:

1. Switch on the printer.
2. Unplug the power cord.
3. Leave it unplugged for a minute.
4. Reconnect the power cord.
5. If it doesn’t turn on automatically, then follow the steps explained ahead.
6. Unplug the power cord from the printer
7. While it is unplugged from the printing device, unplug the power code from the router too.
8. After a minuter connect the power cord to the router
9. After the router turns on, plug in the cable of the printer, and it should now be connected to the network.

You can also try the following steps if it still does not work:

• Check if the system is in airplane mode.
• If it is in airplane mode, then disable it quickly.
• Switch off the windows firewall for some time.
• Do check if there is any paper jam.

How Do I Get My Printer Online Mac?

Follow these methods and the steps explained in them to solve this connectivity issue on MAC.

Reboot your MacBook Pro:

1. Unplug the printer cable from Macbook and the turn it off.
2. Reboot the Macbook.
3. Turn the printer on and then connect it to the Macbook.
4. Check if it is still offline

Restart Printer System:

1. From the apple icon, go to system preferences.
2. Goto printer and scanners option.
3. Click the trackpad with two fingers, and you will see a small window.
4. From there goto restart the printer system.

Driver Printer Update:

• Click the apple icon.
• Goto software update.
• Install updates if there are any.

Removing Extra Printer:

You can also try removing the multiple printers that might confuse the system.

How to Delete the Printer from Mac?

• Go to system preferences from the Apple menu icon.
• Then click on print & scan.
• If there are multiple queues for a single one, then remove the extra ones.
• Leave one name and set it as default.

If you cant, find your printing device in the list, then you can add it in the list too.

Add Printer Mac:

You can also add a new one by using JetDirect Protocol. This is for HP users.

How to Add a Printer?

1. Connect your printer to the network.
2. Connect to it using an IP address
3. Go to the printer and scanner list.
4. From their click the button with the plus sign. This will add a new one.
5. Goto the IP tab
6. Here enter the IP address.
7. If you don’t know its IP address, then you can find it by printing the network configuration page from it.
8. Select HP JetDirect-Socket
9. You can also enter the new name or replace the IP address by any name that is easy to memorize.
10. Then click on the add option to add it.

Turn Off IPv6 Mac:

You will need to disable IPv6 in your printer. This disabling of IPv6 is done to make sure that the network uses IPv4 and not the IPv6.

How to Disable IPv6?

To do this follow these steps:

1. Type the printer IP address in the browser.
2. Go to the networking tab.
3. Select your network type (i.e., wired or wireless)
4. Select the option that says enable IPv4 only
5. Apply the changes and save them.

Why Do Printers Go Offline?

Well, there is an issue in this regard which is mostly faced by the windows users.

The issue is that it shows an offline message on only one machine, and all other computers have an online signal.

Well, you might be thinking that this issue could be an IP address issue, but in reality, it is not.

The solution to this issue is much more straightforward but a bit stranger too.

What is SNMP?

SNMP is a simple network management protocol. It gets information from networking devices like servers, printers, and routers.

Issues with SNMP:

Windows enables SNMP support for networked printers. This enabling of SNMP support is done automatically. When it does not get any response to the SNMP message, it considers the printer as offline.

Computer Says the Printer is Offline:

Some devices respond to the SNMP message while some don’t. When windows don’t get any positive response, it shows the offline message.

How to Turn Your Printer Online?

This issue can be solved quite easily. All you need to do is to tell the windows that it need not communicate via SNMP.

To do this follow the steps below:

1. Go to printer window
2. Right-click on the printer.
3. Click on the port tab.
4. Select the settings for the configuration port.
5. There you will see a checkbox displaying text as “SNMP status enable.”
6. Uncheck it, and your device will be online within a minute.

Some other steps that you can follow are:

• Solving firewall issues
• Set the SNMP group name to the public

Useful Read What is All in One Colour Laser Printer? 

Final Words:

Now I am pretty much sure that you have got an answer to your question how do I get my printer online when it is in an offline state.

You should know what to do when your printer says offline. This can help you save time, and in this way, it will be much easier for you to repair it quickly. In this way, you can save some money also that you had to spend on its repair. You always have the option of using online printing services instead of a home printer, but being able to print at home is faster and more convenient.

Sometimes there are connectivity issues while sometimes the issue is on the hardware device itself. If you can solve this issue, then, believe me, you are a genius.

Also, read this impressive post about building a new pc.