One of the most frequently occurring problems is the ‘why is printer showing offline‘ error which occurs without any apparent reason. We have explained the causes for this problem along with its troubleshooting steps. just follow the instructions given in the below section.

Why is Printer Showing Offline Status?

Make Sure ‘Use Printer Offline’ Mode Is Not Selected

The wireless printer goes offline if “Use printer in offline mode” is selected. The navigation for rectifying this setting is as follow:-

• Select the start menu- click on ‘settings’, click on devices – ‘printer and scanners’

• Now from the listed printers, select and right-click on your printer.
• From the menu, uncheck the option of “Use Printer Offline”. Now your printer will come back in online mode.

Ensure your printer is “Set as default printer”

If your printer keeps going offline on your Windows or any other operating system, follow these given troubleshooting steps –

• Click on Windows button and type in ‘Run’. Now type ‘Control Panel’ in the dialogue box and press ok.

Click on the ‘Device and Printer’ option after which you will see your listed printer.

• When you see a green checkmark, it means that your printer is already ‘set as default’.

• Right click on your printer and click the option of “Set as a default printer”.
• Now your printer will successfully work and printer offline problem will no longer be visible in your printer.

Check Printer Driver – Remove or Update Outdated Version

• Go to the Windows search and find “Device Manager” and click on it

• Now expand the section where it says ‘Printers’.

• Now from the expanded section, locate your printer’s model number and ‘Right Click’ on it and click on ‘Update Driver’ option.

• Next press on the ‘search automatically’ option and wait for your printers driver to update.
• If you want to re-install your driver, go to the ‘control panel’ and click on ‘remove programs’ and uninstall your existing printer driver.

Troubleshoot Printer Spooler Settings

To fix this, follow these steps-

• First of all, open the ‘Run’ dialog box type “Services.msc” and Click on “OK”

• Now from the listed items, locate the option of “Print Spooler”
• Right click on it and slect Stop option to pause the print spooler services.

• Next click on the address bar from the Windows File Explorer type C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Printer and click on ok.
• Now delete all the files from the printer folder to clear the printing queue.
• Go back to Print Spooler right-click on it, and select the start option to resume the spooler service again.

• Restart your computer and printer and your complain of “Printer Says offline” will be gone.