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Printer Shows "Offline" But It's On — Here's the Fix

Updated October 26, 2026 · 5 min read

Your printer is on, connected to the same Wi-Fi, and Windows still insists it's offline. This is one of the most common printer problems in existence, and it's almost always one of three things. Work through them in order.

Fix 1: Restart the print spooler

1. Press Windows + R, type services.msc, press Enter.
2. Find Print Spooler in the list, right-click it, and choose Restart.
3. Wait 10 seconds, then try printing again.

A stuck print job jams the spooler, and Windows reports the printer as offline rather than telling you the queue is stuck. This alone fixes it most of the time.

Fix 2: Uncheck "Use Printer Offline"

1. Open Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners.
2. Click your printer, then Open print queue.
3. Click Printer in the menu bar and make sure Use Printer Offline is unchecked.

Windows sometimes flips this on by itself after a failed print or a network blip — and then never flips it back.

Fix 3: Check the port (the one that actually sticks)

1. In the print queue window, go to Printer → Properties → Ports.
2. Make sure the checked port is a Standard TCP/IP port with your printer's current IP address — not a WSD port, which breaks whenever the printer's IP changes.
3. If the IP changed (common after a router restart), add a new TCP/IP port with the printer's current IP. Print a network config page from the printer's own menu to find it.

The permanent version of this fix: give the printer a static IP in your router settings, so the address never changes again. That's the difference between fixing this once and fixing it every month.

If it's still offline

Remove the printer entirely (Settings → Printers & scanners → Remove), restart, and re-add it. If it still shows offline after a clean reinstall, the printer's own Wi-Fi radio is the suspect — and a USB cable, unglamorous as it is, ends the argument.