Tag Archives: printer

Printer goes permanently offline fix

Scenario:

Whenever you print documents in Windows 8 or Windows 10 they do not print and the printer appears Offline.

Solution:

Often times the printer will go offline and not come back online until you reboot.  Microsoft points to the vendor drivers as the cause and the vendor usually point a Microsoft as the cause.

A temporary work around is to restart the print spooler service.  This will save you from having to reboot.  To restart the print spooler follow these steps:

  1. Open “Computer Management”
  2. In the “Computer Management” window click “Computer Management->->Services and Applications->Services”.
  3. Right click on “Print Spooler” and choose “Restart”.

Windows 8 – Workaround for Printer Appears Offline

Scenario:

The printer stops working after a set period of time.  Rebooting usually fixes the printing issue but after a period of time it starts again.  When you navigate to the active print jobs you will see what you wanted to print but the printer will list as “Offline”.

Solution 1:

Note that is a work around to the real issue.  The first thing you will want to do is see if your printer has updated drivers.  If that doesn’t work often times restarting the print spooler service will alleviate the issue.

  1. Press the windows key to pull up your local search.
  2. Type services and then choose “Services” from the results to open that control panel option.
  3. Navigate to “Print Spooler” in the main window.  Right click on that item and choose “Restart”.

Solution 2:

  1. Press the windows key+R to bring up a run dialog.
  2. Type “cmd” and click Ok to start a command prompt.
  3. Enter “net stop spooler” then press enter, wait for this command to complete.
  4. Enter “net start spooler” then press enter, wait for this command to complete.