Printer says "offline"? How to fix it at home

What "offline" really means

"Offline" almost never means the printer is broken. It means your computer sent a print job to the address where it last saw the printer and nothing answered. The printer can be powered on, showing a full WiFi signal and still be "offline" to your computer, because the two are looking for each other in different places.

In the homes I work in, it comes down to one of these five things:

• The printer's network address changed. Your router hands out addresses (like 192.168.1.23) and can give the printer a new one after a power outage or a router restart. Windows often adds wireless printers using a "WSD" connection that doesn't always follow the printer to its new address, so the printer shows offline until it's re-added.
• The WiFi changed. A new router from your internet company, a new WiFi password, or a new mesh system leaves the printer trying to rejoin a network that no longer exists.
• The printer is on the edge of your WiFi. A printer in a back office, a casita or on the far side of a block wall connects, drops, reconnects and drops again.
• A stuck print job. One failed job sits at the top of the queue and blocks everything behind it.
• "Use Printer Offline" got switched on. Windows sometimes turns this on by itself after a failed job.

The 10-minute fix

Go through these in order and test after each step.

1. Look at the printer first. Most printers have a WiFi light or a wireless icon on the screen. Steady means connected. Blinking or crossed out means the printer itself is off the network, so skip to step 4.
2. Restart in this order: printer off, wait 30 seconds, printer on. Wait until it's completely finished warming up, then restart the computer. Restarting the computer first doesn't help, because it will look for the printer before the printer is back.
3. Clear the queue and the offline setting. On Windows 11, open Settings, then Bluetooth and devices, then Printers and scanners. Click the printer and choose "Open print queue." Cancel every job. Then open the "Printer" menu at the top of that window and make sure "Use Printer Offline" has no check mark. On a Mac, open System Settings, then Printers and Scanners, click the printer, and if the queue says "Paused," click Resume.
4. Rejoin the WiFi from the printer. On the printer's screen, find Wireless Setup Wizard or WiFi Setup and choose your network again. Printers without a screen usually have a WPS button you can press together with the WPS button on your router, or you can set them up with the maker's app (HP Smart, Epson Smart Panel, Canon PRINT, Brother Mobile Connect).
5. Remove and re-add the printer on the computer. On Windows, remove it from Printers and scanners, then choose "Add device." On a Mac, select it in Printers and Scanners, click the minus button, then add it back with the plus button.

How I make it stop happening

If your printer goes offline every week or two, the steps above only fix it until the next outage. When I set up a printer, I do three things so it stays put:

• Reserve the printer's address in the router. In your router's app or settings page (eero, Google Home, TP-Link Deco, or your internet company's app), find the printer in the device list and set it to always get the same address. This is called a reserved address or DHCP reservation, and it's the single most effective fix.
• Add the printer on the computer by that address. On Windows, choose "Add device," then "Add manually," then "Add a printer using an IP address or hostname," and type the reserved address. That replaces the WSD connection with a direct one that doesn't wander.
• Fix the WiFi where the printer sits. Many home printers only use 2.4 GHz WiFi. If the printer is at the edge of coverage, a mesh point nearby or a network cable to the router ends the dropouts for good.

To find the printer's current address, print a network configuration page from the printer's menu (often under Settings, Network or Reports) or look for the printer in your router app's list of connected devices.

When to call for help

Call if the printer still won't print after the steps above, if a new router or mesh system broke printing for the whole house, or if you'd like every computer, phone and tablet printing reliably without thinking about it. I set up the printer and the network side together so it stays connected, and leave you with a printed note of what to do if it ever happens again. See printer setup and repair.

Common questions