Why is my printer not printing? 12 reasons why – and the fixes you’ll need

Having your own printer is great, until something goes wrong. Unfortunately, printers combine complex electronics with precision mechanical elements so, in the words of HP Tech Takes contributor, Jessica Childres, “issues are bound to happen after years of use and hundreds of copies printed”.

Finding and fixing problems can be frustrating, as there are many different places to look. But, as Childres advises, “it’s important to troubleshoot and try fixing the issue before seeking professional help to save yourself time and money”. Here are some of the most common causes of printing problems – and the steps you can take to get your printer back online.

1. No power

It sounds laughably obvious, but that’s why people forget to check it: make sure your printer is plugged in and switched on. Power cables can gradually work their way out of sockets, or as Childres points out, electrical connectors can simply fail: “If they are worn out or frayed, that could cause issues preventing you from printing properly.”

Or, if your printer has previously lost power for any reason – such as a power cut – it might be fully powered down, and will simply need turning on again.

2. Wrong printer selected

Even if you only own one printer, there might be many printer drivers installed on your computer, perhaps ones left over from old hardware you used to own, or shared printers in a workspace you’ve visited. You may also have “virtual” drivers installed, such as for creating PDFs.

If your document seems to have got lost in the ether, hit Print again to open the dialogue and check the right printer is selected.

3. Printer in offline mode

“Offline” is a catch-all term that just means the printer isn’t receiving data from the computer. This could indicate a problem with the cable or network connection, or the printer itself might be in an error state.

If there isn’t an obvious error message or alert, Childres recommends that you “turn the printer off and wait ten seconds before turning it back on. This resolves many issues by giving the printer a small reboot.”

A printer could also appear as offline if its print queue is set to “Use printer in offline mode” in Windows – which can sometimes happen by accident. To check this, open the relevant print queue (you might have to dig around for this) and look in the title-bar of the window for the printer status. You can disable offline mode in the Printer dropdown menu.

4. No network connection

If your network printer won’t print you can re-establish the network connection by, again, turning it off and on. If that doesn’t fix the problem, check that both the printer and the computer are connected to the same router, and able to communicate with each other. Ensure the printer isn’t connected to an isolated guest network, or blocked behind a firewall – and remember that many printers use 2.4GHz networking, so your router must accept wireless connections on this radio band.

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Wireless connection strength could also be an issue. Alice Ramsden de Gómez, product manager at Epson UK, warns that “depending on the size and the configuration of your house, the Wi-Fi might not be quite strong enough for your printer to pick it up. Think about moving your printer closer to the router, or vice versa – or getting an extender to boost the signal.”

If you’re comfortable tinkering with your router’s network settings then consider one further tip from Lee Grant, director of Huddersfield-based retailer Inspiration Computers: “Give your printer a static IP address. Otherwise, its network address can change, and Windows – depending on how you’ve set it up – can sometimes just go ‘I don’t know where that printer is any more’”.

5. Slow processing

If you’ve hit “print” on a big document and nothing seems to be happening, you may merely need a little patience. It can take a minute or two to process a page containing lots of high-resolution images, especially if you’re using a laser printer that needs to render a complete internal image of the entire page before it can produce the hard copy.

In other words, if it looks like your printer is refusing to print a graphics-heavy page, go and have a cup of tea before you start digging into potential problems. To speed things up for future prints, reduce the graphics resolution – or dial down the print quality settings in your printer driver.

6. Out of paper or ink

Simple supply issues are easy to miss, especially if your printer is neatly tucked away out of sight. On Windows and macOS, you should get a specific notification when you’re out of paper, but ink and toner warnings will depend on the driver software you’re using.

As Lee Grant points out, you can hit ink issues even with cartridges you didn’t think you were using. “Some printers won’t print if any of the colour cartridges are empty,” he explains – “even if you just want to print in black. What you can do is buy a genuine, high-quality black cartridge, plus a set of cheap-as-chips [third party] colour cartridges, just to keep the printer happy.”

7. Wrong paper feed selected

Larger printers – especially lasers – often have multiple paper trays, plus a fold-out single-sheet feeder for envelopes and other special paper types. Your driver software should let you select which one your document will be sent to; if the wrong tray is selected, your job could come out on the wrong type of media, or if it’s empty then you’ll get an out-of-paper alert.

You might be able to fix the problem by pressing a button to redirect the job to the right paper feed, or you can just cancel it and send it again, this time checking the paper tray selection in the Printer software.

8. Paper jam

Some paper jams are obvious, with horrible clunky crumpling noises and big flashing error messages. Others are harder to spot. If a printer’s refusing to print, and the reason isn’t obvious, try opening up the cover or door that protects the print path to see if there’s anything stuck in there, and gently pulling out any bits of paper you may find.

As Lee Grant notes, one common cause of paper jams is damp paper. “Paper is absorbent,” he says, “and if it’s stored in a slightly damp environment it will get sticky. The printer will be grabbing about four pages at the same time, and of course you’ll get problems.”

Another potential issue is stuff other than paper getting into the mechanism. Alice Ramsden de Gómez warns that if your paper is left exposed in a dusty environment then “you may get all sorts of muck and dust in it. Then the paper is dragging all this dust across the print head, and then it gets stuck and you’ve got to clean the print head.”

Once you’ve cleared a media jam, you can reduce the risk of future problems by only using fresh, clean, dry printer paper of the right weight, and fanning out the sheets before you insert them into the printer tray.

9. Driver issues

Many printers will work “out of the box” without needing custom driver software. If dedicated software is required to fully enable all the printer’s features, a download link will usually be provided.

If you accidentally end up using the wrong driver – perhaps one for a different printer model – then you may hit problems, ranging from missing options to a total inability to print. This can also happen if your OS automatically installs or updates the driver, or if a software update breaks compatibility with your existing driver.

As Canon UK warns, “you won’t get a notification if there’s an updated software driver for your printer, so it’s worth checking from time to time.” That’s good general advice, and it definitely applies if your printer isn’t behaving like it should.

10. Incompatible cartridges

Lee Grant has seen plenty of cartridge issues in his time. “You’re not meant to be able to install a cartridge of the wrong type or colour, but people manage it,” he tells us. “And then the printer will sort of fire up, but you might get errors or all sorts of problems.”

Ensure you’re using the right supply of ink or toner, especially with third-party cartridges. In the latter case you could also find the printer has recognised an unofficial ink supply and is refusing to print – although this is usually easy to diagnose, as you’ll probably see a big conspicuous alert advising you to use only branded supplies.

11. Clogged nozzles

If you don’t use your inkjet printer very often, the ink in the cartridge can dry up and block the print nozzles. When this happens, the printer may appear to be working as usual, but your prints might come out covered in horizontal streaks, missing colour elements or even completely blank.

You can usually unclog the nozzle by putting the printer through its head-cleaning process one or more times. This wastes ink, but it’s sadly the only solution other than wholly replacing the cartridge with a new one – which might be necessary anyway if you can’t clear the head with multiple cleaning passes.

12. Can’t verify subscription

If you’re using a subscription service such as Epson ReadyPrint or HP Instant Ink, the printer needs to track and report your printing usage and ink levels. If it can’t do this, it will likely refuse to print – so make sure your printer is connected to the internet and signed into your subscription account.

Note, too, that if you cancel your subscription, you won’t be able to continue printing with the same cartridges, as they’re tied to your monthly page allowance. You’ll need to replace them with regular retail cartridges if you want to continue using your printer.