How to Turn a Printer Online on a Mac (Fix Offline Printer)

AvatarByEric Dawson Updated Computers & Software

You can turn a printer back online on a Mac by fixing the connection, clearing the print queue, and restarting both machines before trying anything more drastic. Most offline printer alerts on macOS trace back to a dropped Wi-Fi link, a loose cable, or a stuck job sitting in the queue. Power cycling the printer and restarting the Mac clears many of these glitches within a few minutes. When that is not enough, canceling stuck jobs, resuming a paused printer, or resetting the printing system in System Settings brings the printer back online. Outdated drivers and IP address mismatches account for most of the stubborn cases that survive a simple restart.

How to Turn a Printer Online on a Mac

Bringing a printer back online on a Mac follows a short, fixed sequence: check the connection, restart both devices, clear the queue, resume if paused, update the driver, and reset the printing system only as a last resort. Working through the list in order saves time, since most printers come back online after the first three steps.

  1. Check connections. Confirm the printer is powered on, plugged in, and connected by USB or the same Wi-Fi network as the Mac.
  2. Restart both devices. Power cycle the printer, wait 60 seconds, then restart the Mac.
  3. Clear the print queue. Cancel any stuck jobs in Printers & Scanners before sending a new one.
  4. Resume the printer. Click Resume if the printer shows as paused rather than offline.
  5. Update the driver. Download the current driver from the manufacturer’s support site.
  6. Reset the printing system. Use this only when every earlier step has failed, since it removes every printer and preset.

Menu names shift slightly between macOS releases. Older versions label this area System Preferences instead of System Settings, though the printer controls inside behave the same way either way.

Why Does a Printer Show Offline on a Mac

A Mac marks a printer offline whenever it loses contact with it, most often because of a dropped Wi-Fi connection, a loose cable, an outdated driver, or a paused queue. Any of the causes below can trigger the offline label even while the printer itself is working normally.

Cause Fix
Loose cable or weak connection Check every plug and confirm the printer and Mac share the same Wi-Fi network
Stuck print jobs Open the print queue and cancel the jobs blocking it
Paused print queue Click Resume in Printers & Scanners
Outdated printer driver Download the latest driver from the manufacturer’s site
Printer in sleep mode Check the control panel and wake the printer
Mac and printer IP address mismatch Delete the printer and add it again
Corrupted printing system files Reset the printing system in System Settings

None of the sources behind this guide disagree on the underlying causes. Terminology differs slightly between macOS releases, since older versions call the settings area System Preferences, but the troubleshooting sequence itself stays the same across versions.

How to Restart the Printer and Check the Connection

Restarting the printer and confirming its physical connection resolves the offline status in most cases, since a dropped signal or a loose cable causes more offline errors than anything else on this list. Start here before changing any setting on the Mac.

How to Power Cycle the Printer

Turn the printer off at its power switch, wait 60 seconds, then switch it back on. The pause lets the printer’s internal software fully clear, which fixes temporary glitches that a quick off and on does not. Restart the Mac afterward too, since macOS sometimes needs a fresh start to restore communication with a printer it has already marked offline.

How to Check Cables and Wi-Fi

Push a USB cable firmly into both ports, and try a different port if the printer still will not appear. Wireless printers need to sit on the same Wi-Fi network as the Mac, since a printer parked on a guest network or a different band always shows offline. Glance at the printer’s control panel for warning lights too, because a sleeping or errored printer looks identical to an offline one from the Mac’s side.

How to Clear a Stuck Print Queue on a Mac

Clearing a stuck print queue means removing the jobs sitting in Printers & Scanners, since a single failed job blocks everything sent after it. This is the most common fix for a printer that was working an hour ago and now shows offline.

How to Cancel Jobs in Printers and Scanners

  1. Open the settings. Go to System Settings, then Printers & Scanners.
  2. Select the printer. Click it once to open its print queue.
  3. Cancel the job. Control-click the stuck job and choose Cancel.

How to Cancel Jobs from the Dock

Click the printer icon in the Dock while a job is printing, select the stuck job in the window that opens, then click the small x next to it to cancel. This shortcut skips System Settings entirely when the print window is already on screen.

How to Cancel All Jobs with Terminal

Open Terminal, type cancel -a, then press return and enter the administrator password when prompted. That single command clears every queued job across every printer at once, which beats clicking through several stuck jobs one at a time.

How to Resume a Paused Printer on a Mac

A paused printer shows as offline even though nothing is wrong with the connection, and clicking Resume in Printers & Scanners fixes it right away. macOS pauses a printer automatically after certain errors, so this step is easy to overlook.

Open System Settings, select Printers & Scanners, choose the printer, and click Resume next to its name if the button appears. Send a test page afterward to confirm the queue is moving again before assuming a deeper problem exists.

How to Reset the Printing System on a Mac

Resetting the printing system removes every printer, preset, and completed job record from the Mac, forcing a clean rebuild that clears corruption a restart cannot touch. Apple recommends trying every earlier step first, since this is the most drastic option available.

What Resetting the Printing System Deletes

A reset deletes every printer in the list, every saved preset, and the record of completed print jobs. It does not remove the underlying printer driver, so the printer typically reappears correctly once it gets added back.

How to Re-Add the Printer After a Reset

  1. Open Printers & Scanners. Go to System Settings, then Printers & Scanners, scrolling down if the option is not visible right away.
  2. Reset the system. Control-click anywhere in the printer list and choose Reset Printing System. If the list is already empty, Control-click the empty area instead.
  3. Confirm as admin. Enter the administrator user ID and password when asked.
  4. Add the printer back. Click Add Printer, Scanner, or Fax, then select the printer from the list.

I would treat resetting the printing system as a true last resort, not the next step after a restart fails. It may solve a deeper setup problem, but the tradeoff is larger than with clearing a queue or reconnecting Wi-Fi because it removes every printer, preset, and completed job record. In the reader’s position, I would first check the connection, restart both devices, cancel stuck jobs, and look for Resume. Those steps target common faults without making the Mac’s printing setup start over.

How to Update Printer Drivers and macOS Software

Updating the printer driver and macOS itself fixes offline errors caused by software that no longer matches the printer’s firmware. An outdated driver can make a perfectly healthy printer look not found to the Mac.

How to Download the Latest Printer Driver

Visit the printer manufacturer’s support site, search for the exact model number, and download the current macOS driver package. Installing a driver built for the wrong model produces the same offline symptoms, so match the model number exactly before installing anything.

How to Check for macOS Software Updates

Open the Apple menu, choose System Settings, then General, then Software Update, and install anything listed there. Printer support is bundled into macOS updates, so a pending update can be the entire reason a connection keeps failing.

Restart the Mac once both updates finish installing, since a driver or system update rarely takes effect until the printing subsystem restarts along with the rest of macOS. Sending a test page right after the restart confirms whether the update actually solved the offline status.

How to Fix a Wireless Printer That Keeps Going Offline

A wireless printer usually keeps dropping offline because its IP address changed while the Mac is still reaching for the old one, or because a firewall is quietly blocking the connection. Deleting and re-adding the printer forces the Mac to find its current address.

How to Fix an IP Address Mismatch

Remove the printer from Printers & Scanners, then add it again through Add Printer, Scanner, or Fax. Since the Mac searches the network fresh every time a printer is added, this step alone fixes most address mismatches without touching the router.

How to Run Network Diagnostics for Brother Printers

On Brother printers, Control-click the printer and choose Resume first, then run Reset Printing System if that does not help. Brother’s software also includes a Network Diagnostics tool, reachable through System Preferences, then Network, then Assist Me, which checks the connection from end to end.

How to Rule Out Firewall or Antivirus Blocks

Turn off the Mac’s firewall or any third party antivirus software for a few minutes, then try printing again. Security software occasionally blocks the ports a printer uses to announce itself on the network, and disabling it briefly confirms whether that is the cause.

What to Do if the Printer Still Will Not Come Online

When every step above fails, isolating the problem to either the Mac or the printer narrows down what to try next. A handful of fallback options usually gets a job printed even while the underlying offline issue stays unresolved.

  • Connect by USB. Plug the printer directly into the Mac as a temporary workaround while the wireless issue gets sorted out.
  • Print from another device. Try an iPhone or a second computer to see whether the printer is offline for everyone or only for the one Mac.
  • Try AirPrint. If the printer supports it, AirPrint sometimes reaches a printer that the regular driver connection cannot.
  • Ping the printer. Open Terminal and ping its IP address if known. Typing, for example, ping 192.168.1.45 and pressing return sends repeated signals to that address; replies confirm the network path is open, while a timeout points to the router or Wi-Fi rather than the Mac or the printer.
  • Check the router. Restart the wireless router itself if several devices on the network are struggling to reach the printer, not just the one Mac.

Contacting the printer manufacturer’s support line is worth doing once these options are exhausted, since a hardware fault will not clear no matter how many settings get reset on the Mac. Warranty coverage, a replacement part, or a firmware fix on the printer’s own side sometimes turns out to be the real problem once the Mac itself is ruled out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Resetting the Printing System Delete My Documents?

No. Resetting the printing system only removes printers, presets, and the record of past print jobs, not any files stored on the Mac. The printer driver stays installed, so re-adding the printer afterward takes only a minute.

Why Does the Printer Show Offline Only Sometimes?

An on-and-off offline status usually points to a wireless printer sliding into sleep mode or an IP address that changes periodically. Checking the control panel for sleep or error lights, then deleting and re-adding the printer, resolves most of these intermittent cases.

Do I Need the Administrator Password to Fix an Offline Printer?

Only for two steps. Resetting the printing system and canceling all jobs through Terminal both ask for the administrator user ID and password, while restarting devices, clearing a single stuck job, or resuming a paused printer do not.

Does Every macOS Version Use the Same Menu Names?

Not exactly. Current versions of macOS call the settings area System Settings, while older versions used System Preferences, though the printer options inside behave the same way in both. Follow the same sequence of steps regardless of which label shows up on the current Mac.

Can I Print Without Fixing the Offline Error First?

Yes, temporarily. Connecting the printer by USB cable or printing from another device on the network both work as short term workarounds while the underlying wireless issue gets resolved.

How Long Does It Take to Fix an Offline Printer on a Mac?

Most fixes take only a few minutes, since restarting the printer alone takes about a minute and clearing a stuck queue takes even less. A printing system reset adds a little more time, since the printer needs to be re-added afterward, but that step rarely runs past a couple of minutes once the correct driver is already on the Mac.

A working connection, an empty queue, and an up to date driver solve nearly every offline printer case on a Mac within the first three steps of this guide. Save the printing system reset for cases where nothing else works, since it is the only step that wipes every printer and preset from the Mac at once.

What This Page Does Not Publish

  • I don’t separate steps by macOS release; settings names may differ on your Mac.
  • This page does not give personalised advice.

References

Author Profile

Eric Dawson
Eric Dawson
I'm Eric Dawson, the writer behind The Money Watch. I live in the Columbus, Ohio area and I write about the ordinary questions that turn out to be complicated: computers, shopping, food, travel, parking, small businesses, fees, rules and products. Every article starts with the official page, the maker or the agency, then the sources that check it, and I say plainly where they disagree and what I would do. More about how I work is on the About page.