Print button grayed out after editing Excel sheet. Changing printers and then changing back fixes it.

Anonymous
2025-05-09T19:01:20+00:00

We have a M365 user that is having trouble with printing from Excel only. We can open a spreadsheet and print normally, but when anything gets edited, it grays out the print button. I can get to the print dialog, but the button to actually print is what is grayed out. The workaround I found is to manually select a different printer in the print dialog, then select the original, default printer again. This allows it to print again, but the error always returns. It seems to be happening with any Excel file. I have tried the same files on other PCs and could not replicate the problem. I tried the online Office repair, but that did not help. Any ideas?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-13T17:52:37+00:00

    I'm also seeing this suddenly on several PCs.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-13T16:53:24+00:00

    We are also seeing this on at least one machine. Windows 11 23H2 with Office 365

    We've been seeing this on several computers today, and it happens no matter which spreadsheets are opened or which printer is selected. The computers are a mix of W10/W11 builds and print to many different printers, and the only thing seemingly in common is they all have the same build of M365 Apps of 16.0.18827.20008. As you mentioned, the CTRL+P option works fine for us as well.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-12T15:34:29+00:00

    We've been seeing this on several computers today, and it happens no matter which spreadsheets are opened or which printer is selected. The computers are a mix of W10/W11 builds and print to many different printers, and the only thing seemingly in common is they all have the same build of M365 Apps of 16.0.18827.20008. As you mentioned, the CTRL+P option works fine for us as well.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-05-12T15:15:08+00:00

    Hello Ehron,

    Thanks for your details.

    It's weird...I assume Microsoft’s support team will need to step in. A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to collect necessary logs to further analyze. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis. If you would like to find a cause for this, time for them to be involved.

    As forum moderators, we don’t have access to the detailed logs or backend systems needed to troubleshoot this effectively due to privacy and security constraints. For that reason, the most efficient solution would be to contact Microsoft’s support team directly. 

    Clover-L - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.

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  5. Andreas Killer 144.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-05-11T08:31:31+00:00

    Sounds as if there is an issue with the printer driver itself and/or the printer network.

    The difference between File/Print and CTRL+P is that the dialog shows some more options. But Excel must be determine this options first, therefore the printer driver is called. And when there is no answer, the options/buttons are grayed out.

    If you press CTRL+P we can assume that "the critical part" is skipped.

    Try File/Print and wait 10 minutes, then try to change an option and see if the behaviour changes. If so there is a delay / bad answer in the printer network.

    Andreas.

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