If your HP printer is offline,

• First, restart the printer.
• Then, wait for a while and check if any kind of error message flashes on the printer screen.
• Should there be any, fix it first. Your printer will go online after that.

Moving forward,

• If it’s a wired printer, try reconnecting the USB cable to your computer.
• Make sure you are not using USB hubs to connect printer and computer.
• In case its wireless; verify if the computer and printer are connected to same Wi-Fi network.
• Make sure the band is 2.4GHz if you have a dual-band Wi-Fi router.

Alright! Now that you checked the printer status and connection issues, try printing.

If that fixes your offline HP printer, great! No need to dig deeper into the issue.

However, if that does not,

Manually Bring Your Printer Online

1. Go to Printers & scanners settings from Windows Settings.
   
2. Select your printer and Open print queue from there.
   
3. Click Printer > Make sure this option is unchecked.
   

Clear Print Queue and Restart Spooler

1. Go to Command Prompt and open it with admin privileges.
   
2. Copy-paste these commands and execute them one by one.
   • net stop spooler
   • del %systemroot%\System32\spool\printers\* /Q
   • net start spooler
   • exit
     
3. Try printing.

Use this Printer Troubleshooter from HP

I strongly recommend you download and run the HP Print and Scan Doctor app before moving down to advanced fixes.

It is because this official app from HP can exactly pinpoint what is causing the printer offline error.

What’s more is that you don’t need to do anything. The app will find and fix the error on its own.

Isn’t that interesting?

Reinstall Printer Driver

I believe you already have a printer driver installed on your computer.

If you don’t remember installing it, follow these steps to check and reinstall the printer driver on your computer.

1. Windows Settings > Printers & scanners.
   
2. Remove your HP printer.
   
3. Add manually (The printer that I want isn’t listed)
   
4. Go with the Add a local printer….. option.
   
5. Choose the port. USB001 for wired, TCP/IP for printers added with IP address, WSD for other wireless printers.
   
6. On the next screen, you should see the printer driver for your printer.
   
7. Choose it > Replace the current driver.
   
8. Check if the Offline status of your printer goes away.
9. If you don’t see printer driver at step 6, here’s my article on how to install printer driver to help you.

Avoid Using Dynamic IP Addresses With Printers

Is your printer a wireless printer? And did you add it to your computer using its IP address?

If your answer to both of these questions is yes, you should know that IP address mismatch is the reason why your printer is offline.

To avoid this, I have always advised my readers to assign a static IP address to their printer.

Static IP addresses do not keep changing like default dynamic IP addresses that cause conflict with the printer’s IP set on the computer.

So, assign a static IP to your printer now. Once you do it,

1. Windows Settings > Printers & scanners.
   
2. Add manually (The printer that I want isn’t listed)
   
3. Add printer using IP…..
   
4. Enter the new IP and add it. You won’t face the problem now.
   

Well, that’s all for today. If you need any support, comment down below, and I’ll be in touch right away.