Printing problem MS Office & iPad

Charles Dyer 20 Reputation points
2026-07-19T16:19:34.2733333+00:00

I encountered this today.

  1. I was using this device: an iPad Pro M5 11”, 512GB storage, latest iPadOS.
  2. I was using the latest version of MS Word for iPadOS.
  3. I had a one page, repeat, one page document to print.
  4. The document was mostly text, so I wanted to print on my Brother laser printer, a DCP-L2540DW. The printer is live on the local network. Word would not see the printer. Selecting ‘print with any printer’ brought up a blank dialog box, with just a blue ‘Done’ button in the upper left corner.
  5. Word did see my Epson inkjet, a WF-2950. However, the document shows as two pages in preview, despite having text only up to less than half of one page. It also prints as two pages.
  6. I opened the same document in Pages on this iPad. Pages saw both printers. Pages printed just one page.
  7. I opened the same document using Word on a Win11 system, using another install of the same Office install. Both printers are visible, the document shows as one page in preview.
  8. I opened the same document in Pages and Word on a Mac. Again, both printers are available, and one page.
  9. I opened other documents on the iPad; DOC, DOCX, and RTF. Just the Epson shows from Word, both printers show from any other app. Single page documents show as two pages in Word, one page elsewhere.
  10. PowerPoint and Excel show similar problems.

This isn’t an iPad problem. It isn’t a network problem. It isn’t a printer problem. It isn’t a OS problem. It’s a MS Office for iPadOS problem. Note that this problem is new; in times past I could print to the Brother. And single-page documents were just one page.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | iOS
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Answer accepted by question author
Kai-H 26,665 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-07-20T09:43:11.31+00:00

Hi, Charles Dyer

Your testing strongly points to a problem in the current Office apps for iPad, especially since Pages can see both printers and prints the same files correctly.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

For now, export the document from Word as a PDF, open the PDF in Files or Pages, then print from there. PDF export has been the recommended workaround for Office print-preview failures.

In Word, check Layout > Size and manually select the paper size actually loaded, such as Letter or A4. Also check Margins and remove any manual page break.

Fully close Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, then reinstall them from the App Store. Test a new document containing only a few words before reopening the original files.

Report this through Word > profile icon > Help & Feedback > Send Feedback. Include the Office app versions, iPadOS version, printer models, blank dialog screenshot, and the fact that Pages prints correctly. This gives the Office team a reproducible app-specific case.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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