There could be various reasons for the printer being offline on a Windows computer. You can find below the steps to make printer online in Windows 10.
In most day to day scenarios, printers usually go offline due to paper jams, lack of paper in the paper try and minor network connectivity issues. In such cases, clearing the paper jam, filling the paper tray and restarting the printer should fix the problem.
If the problem does not go away, you can try to make the printer online manually by using any of the following methods.
1. Make Printer Online Using Settings
The easiest way to make a printer online in Windows 10 is by using the Settings App.
1. Open Settings on your computer and click on Devices.
2. On the next screen, click on Printer & Scanners in the left-pane. In the right-pane, select your printer and click on Open queue option.
3. On the next screen, select the Printer Tab and click on Use Printer Offline option to remove the check mark on this item.
4. Wait for the printer to come back online.
2. Make Printer Online Using Device Manager
If you prefer using Device manager, you can follow the steps below to make the printer online on your computer.
1. Right-click on the Start button and click on Device Manager option in the WinX menu.
2. On Device Manager Screen, click on the Action tab and select Devices and Printers option in the drop-down menu.
Note: If Devices and Printers option does not appear, retry again after sometime.
3. On Devices and Printers screen, right-click on the Offline Printer (it will appear Faded) and select See what’s printing option in the contextual menu.
4. On the next screen, select the Printer Tab and click on Use Printer Offline option to remove the check mark on this item.
5. Wait for the printer to come back online.
Once the printer comes back online, it should start printing whatever was in the print queue.
3. Use the Printer Troubleshooter
If the option to make printer online is Grayed Out or if the printer comes online briefly and then goes back offline again, it is time to troubleshoot the printer problem on your computer.
1. Go to Settings > Devices > click on Troubleshoot option in left-pane. In the right-pane, scroll down and click on Printer option under ‘Troubleshoot’ section.
2. In the Expanded Printer Menu, click on Run the Troubleshooter Option.
3. Allow the Troubleshooter to run and it will come up with suggestions to fix the problem.
In this case the suggestion was to make the Printer as the Default Printer. The suggestion in your case might be to update the driver or anything else.
4. Click on Apply This Fix, and follow the next instructions.
If above methods did not help, refer to our detailed guide to fix Printer Offline Error in Windows 10.