How Do You Change A Printer From Offline To Online

It’s a weekday and you wish to print out a file for a very important meeting in half-hour. You open the file and click on the Print button, and watch for the printer to work. Nothing. Then, a message pops up at the bottom-right corner of your computer desktop saying that your printer is offline.

You then check the printer status in the Devices and Printers window, and you see this printer offline error

Here are 5 solutions for you to try. You may not need to try them all; just work your way down until you find the one works for you.

 1.Check Printer Connection

2.Check Printing Status

3.Restart The Print Spooler Service

4.Add a Second Printer

5.Update Printer Driver

Method 1: Check Printer Connection

The printer offline status is your printer’s way of telling you that something is wrong with the communication between your pc and your printer, via USB cable or network connection (wireless and wired). so one of the first things you check is your printer’s connection with your computer.

1) Power off and then power on your printer to restart it. wait for a short while for it to be fully ready.

2) Check your printer connection:

2.1)If your printer is connected via USB cable: ensure the cable to your printer is well connected. Then ensure you’re connecting the cable to your pc via a working USB port.

2.2) If your printer is connected via wired network: ensure the cable to your printer is well connected to the LANport. Then ensure the port your printer connect with on your router is working well. Check if the network signal on your printer is flashing.

Note: Your printer could go offline if the connected cable is loose, too old, or broken, you will need to replace them if needed.

2.3) If your printer is connected via wireless network: Check your printer and ensure that it’s connected to your pc to network. The lit-up wireless icon on your printer usually indicates that you’re connected.

Check if you can print now. If the problem persists, continue to the next method.

Method 2: Check Printing Status

Auto-updated printer driver provided by Windows Update could change your printer settings without notifying you. So you need to make sure that your printer status is problem-free:

1) Turn your printer off and then turn it back on again.

2) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and I at the same time. Click Devices.

3) Click Devices and printers.

4) Right-click the icon with a green check-mark and click See what’s printing.

If what you see here is a grey icon without the green check-mark, right-click the icon and click Set as Default Printer.

Then right-click it and click See what’s printing.

5) Click Printer. If you can see a tick next to the option Pause printing and Use Printer Offline, click them to remove the ticks.

Method 3: Restart The Print Spooler Service

Your printer can refuse to work if the Print Spooler service is not working well. In some case, this service is somehow turned off. you need to check if it’s running first, then decide whether or not to restart it:

1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time. Type services.msc in the search box and press Enter.

2) Find Print Spooler  in list  press P key  on keyboard and find Print spooler

3) right-click Print Spooler service and click start

4) Right-click Print Spooler and click Restart.

5) Close the Services window.

Method 4: Add a second printer

NOTE: This method only works when your printer is connected via network instead of USB cable.

If none of the above methods work, you can still set a manual ip address for your printer and add a port on your pc for them to match.

You need to have an IP address for your printer. You can usually find it in your printer manual. If you don’t have the manual, try to search for it on the manufacturer website.

1) press the Windows logo key and I at the same time. Click Devices on keyboard

2) Click Devices and printers.

3) Right-click your printer and select Printer properties.

4) Click the Ports tab, then Add Port.

5) Select Standard TCP/IP Port, then click New Port.

6) Click Next.

7) Type in the printer’s IP address. Click Next.

Your offline printer should work flawlessly.

Method 5: Update Printer Driver

If you’ve tried all the above method, but no avail, it’s time for you to check if you have the best-matched printer driver installed.  Here is how you can do it:

 1) press the Windows logo key and I at the same time.  and Click Devices.

2) Click Devices and printers.

3) Right-click your printer and click Remove Device.

4) If you’re prompted about permissions, click OK, then Yes.

5) There are 2 ways that for you to get the right drivers for your printer: manually or automatically.

Manual driver update –  go your printer manufacturer’s website and search your printer driver download printer driver and install driver

You don,t no how to  download printer driver and install post is coming soon

Automatic driver update – If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update your printer driver manually, you can, instead, do it automatically with Driver easy. Driver easy will automatically recognize your system and find the right driver for your exact printer, and your variant of Windows, and it will download and install them correctly:

5.1) Download and install Driver Easy.

5.2) Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button.

5.3) Click the Update button

Your printer driver is updated, and it should work