Printer offline or stuck? Here's the fix.
A printer that shows "offline" almost never means it's actually broken. Work through these in order before you consider replacing it.
Work through these in order
Check power and physical connections
Confirm the printer is powered on and, if it's wired, that the USB or Ethernet cable is firmly seated at both ends. It sounds obvious, but a loose cable is one of the most common causes of a printer randomly showing offline.
Clear the print queue
Open the print queue (Settings > Printers on both Windows and Mac) and cancel any jobs stuck at the top. A single failed job blocks everything queued behind it, which is why print jobs can pile up while nothing actually prints.
Set it as the default printer
In your printer settings, confirm the correct printer is set as default — especially if you've added a new printer recently or use a laptop that switches between home and office networks.
Restart the print spooler or printer service
On Windows, restart the Print Spooler service (search "services.msc," find Print Spooler, right-click, Restart). On Mac, remove the printer from System Settings > Printers & Scanners and re-add it. This clears a stuck internal queue that a simple cancel won't fix.
Reconnect a Wi-Fi printer to the network
If it's a wireless printer showing offline despite being powered on, use its control panel to reconnect it to Wi-Fi directly — router changes or a weak signal can silently drop the connection without any error on your computer.
Reinstall or update the printer driver
Download the current driver from the manufacturer's website (not just the version bundled with your OS) and reinstall it. An outdated or corrupted driver is the most common cause of a printer that connects but won't actually print.
Still showing offline?
Tell us the printer model and what you've tried — we read every email.