What this means
When your computer says your printer is offline, it just means they cannot communicate. Your machine is usually fine. The path between the two has simply broken down.
If you use Wi-Fi, a weak signal below 50 percent (or -70 dBm) will cause the connection to drop. Many modern printers also enter a deep sleep mode to save power and fail to wake up when you send a job. Your router can also cause this: if it reboots, DHCP often assigns a new IP address to the printer, leaving your computer port configuration pointing to the wrong address. Even an active VPN on your computer will block local network communication and make a network printer look offline.
The problem can also be physical. If you are using a USB hub instead of plugging directly into the computer USB port, your connection will drop.
Inside Windows, the Use Printer Offline setting can get checked by accident. Another culprit is the SNMP Status Enabled setting in your port configuration: if the printer does not respond to SNMP queries, Windows flags it as offline. Finally, look at the software. Hung data in the Windows Print Spooler service will falsely report an offline status, while corrupted driver registry keys will permanently lock the printer offline until you completely purge the driver.
The most confusing version of this is a printer that is plainly connected and still reads offline. The printer prints its own test page, the control panel shows a network address, and Windows still refuses. In almost every case that is Windows asking the printer a question it is not answering. Windows checks a printer's status over SNMP, and plenty of printers either have SNMP switched off or use a community name other than the one Windows assumes. The printer is fine, the query goes unanswered, and Windows records the silence as offline. Turning off the SNMP status check in the port settings resolves that particular version outright.
On a Mac the mechanism is different and so is the cure. macOS does not have a "use printer offline" setting to switch off; it marks a queue paused or idle instead, and a queue that has paused itself after a failed job stays paused until told otherwise. Resetting the printing system clears every queue and every stored driver at once, which sounds drastic and is usually the fastest thing that works.
Common causes
- Loose or disconnected USB or Ethernet cables
- Printer is powered off or in a deep sleep mode
- The printer has changed its IP address on the local network
- The 'Use Printer Offline' setting is enabled in Windows
- Print spooler service on the computer is frozen
- Wi-Fi signal is weak or the printer disconnected from the wireless network
- Outdated or corrupted printer drivers
What to check first
- 1Verify the printer is turned on and the control panel screen is active.
- 2Check that the USB cable is plugged securely into both the printer and the computer.
- 3Look at the printer Wi-Fi light to ensure it is solid and not flashing.
- 4Try printing a network configuration page directly from the printer control panel to confirm it has an IP address.
Step-by-step fix
- 1
Disable Use Printer Offline Mode in Windows
Open the Control Panel and go to Devices and Printers. Right-click your printer and select See what's printing. Click the Printer menu at the top of the window. Ensure there is no checkmark next to Use Printer Offline. If there is a checkmark, click it to disable the setting.
- 2
Restart the Print Spooler Service
On Windows, press the Windows Key + R, type services.msc, and press Enter. Scroll down to find Print Spooler. Right-click Print Spooler and select Restart. This refreshes the connection queue.
- 3
Power Cycle Your Devices
Turn off the printer. Shut down your computer. Unplug your wireless router from its power source for 30 seconds. Plug the router back in and wait for the internet to restore. Turn on your computer, then turn on your printer.
- 4
Assign a Static IP Address to the Printer
If your printer keeps going offline, it may be changing IP addresses. Print a network configuration page to find the current IP address. Type this IP address into a web browser to open the printer's homepage. Go to the network settings and change the IP configuration from DHCP to Manual or Static. Save the settings.
- 5
Recreate the Printer Port in Windows
Go to Devices and Printers, right-click your printer, and select Printer Properties. Go to the Ports tab and click Add Port. Select Standard TCP/IP Port, click New Port, and enter the static IP address you assigned to your printer.
- 6
Reinstall the Printer Driver
Go to the printer manufacturer's website and download the latest driver package. Uninstall the current printer software from your computer, restart the computer, and run the downloaded installer to set up the printer fresh.
- 7
On Windows 11: the setting moved
Windows 11 hides the same switch somewhere else, which is why the Control Panel instructions above sometimes lead nowhere. Open Settings, then Bluetooth and devices, then Printers and scanners. Click the printer, then Open print queue. The Printer menu at the top holds the same Use Printer Offline entry. While you are there, go back one screen and turn off Let Windows manage my default printer, which is what silently sends jobs to a machine you are not standing next to.
- 8
Turn off the SNMP status check
This is the fix for a printer that is clearly connected and still shows offline. In Devices and Printers, right-click the printer, choose Printer properties, then the Ports tab. Select the ticked port and click Configure Port. Clear the SNMP Status Enabled box and click OK. Windows stops asking a question the printer was never answering, and the queue comes back. Nothing about printing changes; you only lose the ink level readout inside Windows, which the printer's own panel still shows.
- 9
On a Mac: resume the queue and clear the job that stalled it
Open System Settings, then Printers and Scanners, and click the printer. If the button says Resume, the queue paused itself after a failed job and everything sent since has been waiting behind it. Click Resume. Open the queue itself and delete any job that will not go, because a single stuck job will pause the queue again the moment it is resumed.
- 10
On a Mac: reset the printing system
When the queue keeps stopping, this clears every printer, every queue and every stored driver in one action. In System Settings, Printers and Scanners, right-click anywhere in the list of printers and choose Reset printing system. Confirm, then add the printer again with the plus button. It is the Mac equivalent of removing the driver on Windows, and it resolves the cases where a queue has become unusable rather than merely paused.
Every printer on the Mac is removed, not just the one giving trouble. Any saved presets go with them, so note anything unusual before you confirm.
- 11
Wake the printer properly, and stop it sleeping so deeply
A printer in deep sleep can take longer to answer than the computer is willing to wait, so the first job after an idle night fails and the printer is marked offline. Press a button on the control panel and wait for the display to come up fully before sending anything. To stop it recurring, look in the printer's own settings for sleep timer, power off timer or auto power off, and either lengthen the delay or turn the deepest mode off. The setting is on the printer, not on the computer, and it is usually under a power or eco heading.
- 12
Rule out the computer by printing from something else
Send a page from a phone on the same network, or from another computer. If that works, the printer and the network are fine and the fault is in the original computer's driver or queue, which is worth knowing before reinstalling anything. If nothing can print, the printer or its connection is the problem and the steps above about addresses and cables are the ones that matter.
When to contact a professional
You should stop trying to fix the issue yourself if the printer remains offline across multiple computers. The same is true if the machine refuses to connect to any Wi-Fi network, or if you can see that the network card hardware is physically damaged. If you decide to open any of the physical panels to check the internal cables, you must unplug the printer from the wall outlet first to ensure your safety.
Worth knowing
Some of this is brand specific, and the brand utilities are worth knowing about before reaching for anything more involved.
HP machines are usually recovered fastest through HP Smart, which finds the printer again and repairs the port without any of the manual steps below. Canon's equivalent is the IJ Network Device Setup Utility. Epson ships Status Monitor, which is also the thing that will tell you plainly when the printer is asleep rather than disconnected. Brother printers tend to be the ones affected by address changes, so the static address step matters more there than elsewhere.
One setting causes more repeat offline reports than any other, and it is easy to miss: Let Windows manage my default printer. With it on, Windows quietly switches the default to whichever printer was used last, so a job can be sent to a machine that is genuinely elsewhere and genuinely offline. It sits under Settings, Bluetooth and devices, Printers and scanners.