How to put a printer online

You have purchased a printer a few days ago and after a few successful attempts to print, you have received the message of “printer offline” or offline. Don’t worry, in this guide I’m going to explain just how to put a printer online by changing its status in the computer settings: I’ll show you how to do it both on a PC with a Windows operating system and on a Mac; I will also give you some instructions on how to connect a wireless printer to the router network and how to network a printer without Wi-Fi support. Find all the details below.

Index

• How to put a printer online on Windows
• How to put a printer online on Mac
• How to put a wireless printer online
• How to put an old printer online

How to put a printer online on Windows

In case you have encountered the offline printer warning on a PC running Windows , continue reading the next lines. To know how to put a printer online in Windows, you must first check if the printer is on and correctly connected to the PC . If so, the printer may have problems connecting to the PC.

One of the first methods to try to solve the problem, if you are using Windows 11 , is to go to the operating system Settings , by clicking on the flag icon at the bottom left of the taskbar and then on the gear icon .

Once you reach the Settings , click on the Bluetooth and devices option , then on the Printers and scanners option . Then click on the name of the printer that appears to be offline, then select the item Open print queue . In the window that opens, expand the Printer menu and check that the Use printer offline item is not checked .

The process is the same on Windows 10 as well , but the shortcut to reach this option is Start> Settings> Devices> Printers and Scanners> Offline Printer Name> Open Queue> Printer .

If the option is not selectable, click on the Open as administrator item , always placed in the Printer section . If this doesn’t work, you can try various recovery options.

First, you can choose to reset the printer as default , or delete any printing in progress and clean the print queue altogether. Trivially, you could try to power cycle the printer, unplugging it from the power supply for 30 seconds and reconnecting it to the PC.

Otherwise, I suggest you reinstall the drivers of the same, or rely on the Windows Troubleshooter tool , by right-clicking on the printer icon located at the bottom right of the taskbar and clicking on the Troubleshooting item .

How to put a printer online on Mac

You’ve connected the new printer to your Mac , but it’s now Offline , and you don’t know how to fix it. If you want to know how to put a printer online on Mac , as seen also for Windows , first you need to check if it is correctly turned on and connected to the Mac .

Once this is done, go to the Apple menu (the icon in the shape of a bitten apple at the top left), then select the System Preferences item and then the Printers and Scanners icon , in order to check the actual status of your printer: if it is set to Offline , you can try to remove the Print Dialog Extensions (PDE) .

To do this, click on the printer that is offline, then go to Options and supplies . At this point, select the Use generic printer features box and click the OK button to confirm. If this does not solve the problem, try updating the printer software .

Go to the Apple Menu and then to the System Preferences item . Then select the Software Update option and proceed to check if there are any updates for your printer.

If even this time the problem does not go away, I suggest you reset the printing system to carry out a clean reinstallation . First, click on the Apple Menu again and go back to the System Preferences section and then to the Printers & Scanners section . At this point, click with the right mouse button in a free spot in the Printers section , select the Reset printing system item from the drop-down menu that appears and confirm the choice with the OK button . If necessary, enter your username and password to confirm the operation, then click the OK button .

This system allows you to completely clean the print queue and delete printers connected to your Mac to prepare it for a clean installation . If you don’t want to go down such a drastic route, you can choose to remove the single printer by right clicking on it and selecting the Remove item from the menu that opens.

At this point, all you have to do is proceed with the installation of the printer on Mac again and hope that this solves the problem.

How to put a wireless printer online

If you are wondering how to put a newly purchased wireless printer online , know that the procedure is really quick and intuitive.

LCD panel printers are really simple to set up. The procedure may slightly change depending on the model, but often just tap the Menu / Configuration button and access the Network Configuration . You must then select the Wi-Fi connection option , then the home wireless network and enter the password to access it.

Alternatively (or for printers without display) just turn on the printer, enable the Wi-Fi connection on it (often just press a single button) and then follow the instructions of the software installed on the PC (for example, in case you want to know how put an HP printer online , the reference software is HP Smart ). In case you have not yet installed the printer software, you can learn more in the tutorials I have dedicated to installing the drivers for Epson , Samsung , Canon and HP printers . Finally, I recommend that you take a look at my guide on how to connect a Wi-Fi printer to deepen everything.

How to put an old printer online

If you are wondering how to put an old printer online , without a Wi-Fi connection, you can rely on the physical connection via the LAN ports (if the printer has an Ethernet port) or the USB ports of the router, to make it accessible to everyone. devices connected to the local network.

In the latter case, connect the printer to the router via USB cable and access the control panel of the latter and then reach the section dedicated to devices connected via USB and enable the USB printer or USB print server option . More info here .