Network printer shows offline on Windows 8

Anonymous
2013-04-05T06:09:56+00:00

Original Title: I have hp laserjet 1020 plus printer installed on win 7 it was a share printer when i was giving any print from win8 pc printer is going to offline & when i remove & add printer its working

i was installed win8 latest  drivers on all pc

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2013-04-06T03:27:53+00:00

Hi Hrishikesh,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I would like you to add few information:

Did you make any hardware or software changes on the computer prior to this issue?

I would suggest you to make sure that all the cables for the printer are connected properly and the printer is turned ON. Sometimes, offline status for a printer could be due no power to the printer.You also need to make sure that network sharing might be turned off.

For more information, refer to the link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/turn-sharing-on-or-off

If all the basic settings are checked and are up to the mark, you can follow the methods to troubleshoot the issue:

Method 1:

You can refer to the link to fix printer issues by running the printer troubleshooter:

“Fix printer problems”

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/printer-problems-in-windows-help#fix-printer-problems=windows-8&v1h=win8tab1&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1&v4h=winxptab1

Method 2:

I would suggest you to uninstall and reinstall the driver for the printer.

You can follow the steps to do so:

Note: Please make sure that you have the setup file for the driver of the printer before uninstalling the current version.

a) Press Windows and x key together and click on Device Manager.

b) Locate the printer driver and expand the driver icon.

c) Right click on the driver icon and click on Uninstall.

d) Follow the onscreen instructions to uninstall the driver.

e) Locate the setup file of the driver for the printer.

f) Double Click on the setup file and follow the onscreen instructions to reinstall the driver.

Check if you are able to find the printer online.

For further reference, you can refer to the links:

“How to solve printing problems in Windows”

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/how-to-solve-printing-problems

“Install a printer”

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/install-a-printer

Do let us know about the status of this issue.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-04-16T14:59:01+00:00

    I have ONE user in our community of 6 Windows 8 Laptops / Tablets, and this one user is having similar "offline" printer issues. If you restart the Print Spooler service the printers will become online. I've attempted to set the Print Spool service to automatically restart after 10 minutes of an error, which it turns out not to restart and stays offline. I'm not sure what is causing this issue as I am in the same boat with you all now.

    This is probably the easiest way.  Thanks.

    So for those of you who may be unfamiliar with how to do this (as I had to poke around too thinking I could do it from the system tray)

    Go to Task Manager (I used CTRL+ALT+DEL to get the task manager to come up)

    go to the Services tab

    Find "Spooler"

    Right click and choose "Stop"

    Right click Spooler again and choose "Start"

    This works for me too, but an easier way is to open a command window and type:

    net stop spooler

    net start spooler

    or better still put them in a batch file on your desktop and then you are just a double click away from a fix each time it happens.

    Happy printing :-)

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-04-18T20:09:53+00:00

    This is ridiculous.  MS needs to fix this NOW.  My printer is all but useless.  It shows offline and the ONLY way to get it back is to restart my computer.  And that only works 60% of the time.  The stop spool/start spool does not work for me and my HP 7520

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-04-18T20:14:40+00:00

    I agree it needs fixing. In the meantime, take the printer offline before you try the stop spooler trick. it works for both my brother and my canon printers.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-04-18T20:15:40+00:00

    For the issue when the client spooler marks the print server offline and cannot reconnect until the spooler service is reinitialized (stopped and started), I will update this thread when a fix is publicly available. 

    There are some additional tips on the Print Server forum.

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/4f401168-0c4b-431e-a04d-71973eab58d6/win-8-and-81-client-showing-shared-printer-server-as-offline?forum=winserverprint

    I realized the first time I posted about this problem was March 2013.

    It's now April 2014.

    IT STILL IS HAPPENING.

    That's a damn long time to wait for a pretty  important bug fix.

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