Printer Not Connecting to Wi-Fi: Causes and Fixes

If your printer won't connect to Wi-Fi, the hardware isn't broken. It just failed the digital handshake with your router.

A few specific things cause this. Most printers only have a 2.4 GHz receiver. If your router uses dual-band steering to merge the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands under one name, your printer's network card gets confused and fails to connect. Check your printer's IP address. If it starts with 169.254, the printer failed to get an IP address from your router's DHCP server. Also, check the back of the machine. If you have an active Ethernet cable plugged into the physical port, it automatically disables the wireless radio on many models.

Your environment or router settings might also be the culprit. Microwaves, baby monitors, and cordless phones interfere with the 2.4 GHz band, dropping your signal strength below the -70 dBm minimum the printer needs to stay connected. On the router side, newer WPA3 security protocols block older legacy printers. If your network name is hidden, you must manually enter the exact name and security type. Finally, if your Wi-Fi password contains special characters, older printer firmware won't support them, and the connection fails.

A detail worth knowing if you own a Samsung printer: Samsung sold its printer business to HP in 2017, and support moved with it. Samsung printers are serviced through HP's software and drivers now, so the HP Smart app is what finds and reconnects them, and searching HP's support site by the Samsung model number is what finds the driver. The machine has not been abandoned; the name on the support page simply changed.

There is also a difference in how you get connected at all, depending on what the printer has on the front of it. A printer with a touchscreen can run its own setup wizard and take a typed password. A printer with two buttons and a row of lights cannot, and expects to be paired either by the WPS button on the router or through the manufacturer's phone app over a temporary network the printer creates itself. Trying to type a password into a machine that has nowhere to type it is a common way to conclude a printer is broken when it is not.

• The printer is too far from the Wi-Fi router.
• The router is broadcasting on a 5 GHz frequency, but the printer only supports 2.4 GHz.
• The Wi-Fi password or network name (SSID) was entered incorrectly.
• The router has security features enabled like MAC address filtering that block new devices.
• The printer has an outdated IP address configuration or a temporary network glitch.
• The network name (SSID) is hidden, preventing the printer from finding it automatically.

1. 1Make sure your Wi-Fi router is turned on and your phone or computer is connected to it.
2. 2Verify that you have the correct Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password.
3. 3Ensure the printer is within 10 to 15 feet of the router during the initial setup process.

1. 1

   Restart your printer and router

   Turn off your printer. Unplug your Wi-Fi router from its power source. Wait 30 seconds. Plug the router back in and wait for all its lights to become stable. Turn the printer back on and try to connect again.

   Do not press the physical reset button on your router, as this will erase all your network settings.

2. 2

   Verify the Wi-Fi frequency band

   Many older or budget printers only support 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi networks. If your router combines 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz under one name, log into your router settings and temporarily separate them into two different names, then connect the printer to the 2.4 GHz network.

   Changing router settings may temporarily disconnect other smart home devices.

3. 3

   Re-enter the Wi-Fi password on the printer

   Navigate to the printer's control panel. Go to the Network, Wireless, or Setup menu. Select Wireless Setup Wizard. Choose your network name and carefully type your Wi-Fi password. Remember that passwords are case-sensitive.

4. 4

   Reset the printer network settings

   Locate the network reset option in your printer's settings menu. This clears old network profiles and IP conflicts. After the reset, run the Wireless Setup Wizard again to configure the connection from scratch.

5. 5

   Disable MAC address filtering on your router

   Log into your router's administration page using a web browser. Look for Security or Wireless settings. Check if MAC Address Filtering is enabled. If it is, either disable it temporarily or add your printer's MAC address to the allowed list.

6. 6

   Use the WPS button, which is the fastest route on most printers

   If the router has a button marked WPS, this connects the printer without a password at all. Start it on the printer first: look for WPS, Wi-Fi Protected Setup or Push Button under the wireless menu, or on a printer with no screen hold the wireless button until its light blinks. Then press WPS on the router within two minutes. The printer's wireless light goes solid when it has joined. If the router has no such button, or the button does nothing, WPS has probably been switched off in the router settings, where it can also be switched back on.

7. 7

   Set it up from the phone app instead of the printer panel

   A printer with no keyboard cannot be given a password directly, and this is what the manufacturer apps are for: HP Smart for HP and Samsung machines, Epson Smart Panel, Canon PRINT, Brother Mobile Connect. With the phone on the network you want the printer to join, the app finds the printer over its own temporary setup network and passes the details across. This is also the quickest route on a printer that does have a screen, because nothing has to be typed on it.

8. 8

   Check for a 169.254 address, which means the router never answered

   Print a network configuration page from the printer's own menu and read the IP address. An address beginning 169.254 is the printer giving up and assigning itself one, which means it associated with the network but never received an address from the router. Restart the router, and if it recurs, check whether the router's DHCP pool is full, which happens on networks with a lot of devices and a small range. Assigning the printer a fixed address outside that range settles it permanently.

9. 9

   Set the router security to WPA2, or WPA2 and WPA3 together

   Routers set to WPA3 only will refuse older printers outright, and the printer reports this as a wrong password because that is all it knows how to say. In the router's wireless settings, change the security mode to WPA2-PSK, or to the mixed WPA2/WPA3 option if there is one, which keeps newer devices on WPA3 while letting the printer join. Related to this, if the network name is hidden, the printer has to be given the name, the security type and the password by hand rather than picking it from a list.

   Changing the security mode disconnects everything on the network briefly while devices rejoin.

10. 10

    Make sure it is not on the guest network

    A printer connected to a guest network will say it is online and stay invisible to every other device, because keeping guests apart from each other is exactly what that network is for. Check which name the printer joined on its configuration page. The same isolation can be switched on for a main network too, under AP isolation or client isolation in the router settings, and it has the same effect.

11. 11

    Move it during setup, then move it back

    Distance matters more during the handshake than afterwards. A printer that will not complete setup across the house will often complete it sitting next to the router and keep working once returned to its place. If it drops again after moving back, the signal where it lives is genuinely too weak, and the answer is a mesh point, a repeater, or an Ethernet cable rather than repeating the setup.

Wi-Fi passwords with unusual characters are worth ruling out early. Printer firmware is often years behind a phone, and an ampersand, a hash or an accented letter in the password can be accepted on screen and then fail at the handshake with no useful error. If a password contains anything beyond letters and digits and nothing else has worked, changing it temporarily to something plain is a quick way to find out.

Guest networks are the other quiet trap. Most routers isolate devices on a guest network from one another by design, which is the whole point of a guest network, and a printer connected to one will be invisible to everything else in the house even though it reports itself as online. The same setting exists on main networks under names like AP isolation or client isolation.

The brand apps are usually faster than any of this: HP Smart for HP and Samsung, Epson Smart Panel, Canon PRINT, and Brother Mobile Connect. Each of them can hand the network details to the printer directly from a phone that is already on the network, which removes the typing and the guesswork in one step.