How do I change my printer status to online? It is currently offline and will not allow me to print.

Anonymous
2010-03-25T14:58:35+00:00

I cancelled some print requests and it put my printer to status offline and I cannot figure out how to get it back to online!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2010-03-26T03:05:11+00:00

Hi Steve7878,

You may also try these:

1.       Open the Start menu and click on the "Printers and Faxes" icon. This will open a window with a list of the printers currently set up on your computer.

2.       Double-click on the icon of the printer you want to change to online. A pop-up window detailing all current print jobs will open.

3.       Go to "Printer" in the menu bar of the pop-up window and uncheck "Use Printer Offline." This action will change the printer from offline to online.

Also change the default printer by following the steps in “Change your default printer” http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Change-your-default-printer

Diana DMicrosoft Answers Support Engineer

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-04T23:29:16+00:00

    I am running Win 8.1 and from time to time my printer would become unable to print to... the first step as many others have pointed out is to off/on the printer... or reboot the computer to get it reconnected.

    If you have done that... and checked for printer errors like out of paper, ink, or a jam of some kind... looking at resource sharing issues... that is a big part of the reason for the reboot... as I said up line I had an external hard drive in a box, that Win 8 could not recognize that at some point got shuffled into a position in the resource queue. Software programs can also block access to resources (Zone Alarm has been a repeat performer in that role).

    A question comes to mind that I have had to ask myself a few times. 'What has happened since the last time the printer/Wi-Fi/whatever worked?'... What programs have been running? Any Updates of software?  If you know what processes normally are running on your machine when the printer works (check Task Manager) and open it up to see if a process might not have closed or is non-responsive... any strange ones that might have been installed, like a browser helper or app that is running when you think it should have shut down... maybe a printer process that did not close, but is blocking the printer from restarting properly.

    Read up on processes and know what you can and can not "End Task" on... sometimes clearing a blocking process will allow a printer to function.

    In rereading your sentence... I might just guess a canceled print request did not get completely canceled before some other request confused the printer software...

    Without a whole lot more information I am mostly guessing based on what has worked for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-07-09T00:45:08+00:00

    This fix does NOT work.  I've completed these steps several times, and the printer is still offline!  Typical Microsoft!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-07-20T16:51:18+00:00

    I love all these people making guesses but not identifying the problem.  Reminds me of my auto mechanic, try this, try that, rather the find what causes the problem.

    In my case, the assigned port had become unchecked, possible by a power outage.  I just reassigned the port to the original port (USB002) and all the files in the print queue printed. No delete and add printer needed.  In my case that's difficult since I have my printer added twice, one to print portrait for some apps and one for landscape for other apps. Big headache to add again.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-09-12T02:28:52+00:00

    How do you open the start menu?  Not obvious to me

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