Printer constantly showing offline

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Level 1

18 points

Printer constantly showing offline

My PC doesn’t have a problem, only my Mac books (all 3 of them running Mojave 10.14). I thought it was my HP printer so went and bought a new Brothers $300 printer. It’s connected via WIFI (HP was too) with a static IP.

Heres what I did:

changed from DHCP to Static - No change

disabled IPv6 - no changes

could not ping printer from Macbooks

Can ping from Router and PC

Cannot Print from MacBooks but can from PC

ran Updates - No change

reset printer - not reinstalling every time I need to print

If I reset my printer it works - not a long term solution because that’s why I bought anew printer to stop having to do this

made sure firewall was turned off - it was

Disabled my printer sleep mode - no change

work around solution - logged into my WiFi router and created a wake on lan entry for the printer’s IP and MAC Address.

Waited over night so printer would be offline again for sure and of course it was.

Sent teat page from MacBook to Printer and it says offline. Waited... 5-10 min later it woke the printer and printed.

Not a perfect solution but beats reinstalling drivers, printer, turning printer in and off, and rebooting MacBook every time I need to print as seems to be the ONLY solutions I can find.

Apple - you REALLY need to address this! Rebooting and reinstalling EVERY print is NIT a solution!

MacBook Pro 13”, macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 13, 2019 7:06 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 13, 2019 8:26 AM in response to Jbell777

Hi, Jbell777 !

Please try each and every troubleshooting step here :

If you can't print from your Mac or iOS device

I would suspect resetting the printing system would help. If you try all the troubleshooting steps and still can't print, I would start looking at your printer and/or network.

Good luck !

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Answer 2

Jbell777 Author

Level 1

18 points

Apr 13, 2019 9:38 AM in response to Buster_From_Oak_Park

Read my post... I’ve already tried resetting things. If this was a printer or network problem, my PC would have the same issue. The ONLY systems having issues is my MacBooks. Apple wants to blame network and printers and ignores the facts.

Im an IT Engineer with over 25yrs in the industry... I think I can narrow down the issue. This is an apple Problem! It happened with my HP, it’s now happening with my brands new Brothers, and does the same thing with my Epson at the office.

The bug bug lies in the OS on macbooks... and it doesn’t matter if I use the driver, AirPrint, or directly an IP Port.

Again... my windows machines have absolutely ZERO problem... I click print to same printer and it’s instant!

Apple is giving the same answers that my post describes I’ve tried and NOTHING resolves the issue.

Oh and what my post doesnt say is my new my new printer has direct WiFi printing. It creates its own WiFi SSID / network. I attached to it and guess what... same issue. So that eliminates the NETWORK issues. Windows again works flawlessly with that too.

So so basically it appears MAC OS can’t handle

wifi printing! Have not tried direct USB but didn’t buy a WiFi printer to have to connect everytime directly!

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Answer 3

Apr 13, 2019 1:14 PM in response to Jbell777

Hi again, Jbell777 !

I read your post quite thoroughly, and I found no mention of your having reset the printing system. Even in your second post there was no mention of this step being taken.

Since you are so experienced, I won't bother trying to help you anymore.

Good luck !

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Answer 4

Apr 13, 2019 4:27 PM in response to Jbell777

I see this in one of your earlier posts: “have your engineers actually LOOK at this problem”. We’re just end users like yourself who want to help other people get the most out of their Macs. I can’t speak for everyone on the forum, but I’m pretty sure most don’t work directly for Apple.

I don’t see that you provided which model of Brother printer you purchased. Here’s a page from Brother that can be used to confirm if that model is compatible with Mojave:

https://support.brother.com/g/s/id/os/macintosh.html

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Answer 5

Jbell777 Author

Level 1

18 points

Apr 13, 2019 1:55 PM in response to Buster_From_Oak_Park

Then you didn’t read it....

Quote: Heres what I did: reset printer - not reinstalling every time I need to print

you’re not trying to help... you’re trying to blame everyone else and make me do all the same steps again and I’ve already said I’ve done all that and then some and nothing is resolving the issue!

Provide me something new, have your engineers actually LOOK at this problem and provide an update... would think a trillion dollar company with loyal customer Apple would want to KEEP that!

Inly work around I found to remotely help but still not great since I have to wait 10 min to print is the wake on lan.

but since you don’t want to help... thanks for pointing me to exactly what I stated in. My first post as all the steps I’ve taken.

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Answer 6

Jbell777 Author

Level 1

18 points

Apr 13, 2019 3:50 PM in response to TheToastSnob

Look... apparently you’d rather argue than help. I posted this to help others since it’s very clear Apple doesn’t want to take ownership of their problem. Hopefully this will help other ‘live’ with the problem too.

rebooting printer or computer, resetting printer, reinstalling print drivers, etc etc etc... doing ANYTHING other than just clicking print is unacceptable.

You would think as long as Apple has been in business and as easy as printing is that this wouldn’t be an issue.

Since you you would like to argue va helping over what I posted... I’ll just continue on my own. Thanks for superior support. NOT

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Answer 7

Jbell777 Author

Level 1

18 points

Apr 13, 2019 4:51 PM in response to TheToastSnob

My apologies then.... I thought Apple was replying and I was a little taken back by the reply.

Yes I’ve checked and it was in the list of compatible printers. Even downloaded the drivers for 10.14.

Sorry for the confusion.... thought Apple was replying.

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Answer 8

Jbell777 Author

Level 1

18 points

Apr 13, 2019 4:51 PM in response to Jbell777

Hopefully what I did as a work around helps others... Apple really needs to get in this!

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Answer 9

Apr 13, 2019 3:06 PM in response to Jbell777

Hi Jbell777,

I have read both your original post and your follow up comments. I see that you “reset printer” and correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you mean that you’ve reset the printer itself. If you called any IT dept, it’s the first thing they would ask... “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” Lol.

Not to put words in anyone’s mouth, but I think Buster_From_Oak_Park is suggesting is to try the following steps on the Macs:

If the issue continues, reset the printing system on your Mac. This removes all printers and scanners—including their print jobs and settings—from Printers & Scanners preferences.

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Printers & Scanners.
While holding down the Control key on your keyboard, click anywhere in the list of devices.
Choose “Reset printing system” from the menu that appears.

I apologize if you’ve already done these steps, but it wasn’t clear from your posts. Good luck!

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Printer constantly showing offline

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