Printers go offline on my MacBook, iPhone, iPad

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Level 1

111 points

Printers go offline on my MacBook, iPhone, iPad

My printers lose connection to my Mac on a regular basis. I have tried several printers, 2 Cannon, 2 Brother, and connected them to my home network. and all of them constantly go offline after they have not been used for a short period. I have tried all suggested solutions: re-setting the printing system, which resolves the issue for a short time, turning the printers off and on, which also resolves the issue for a short time, and unplugging the printers and plugging them again, which again resolves the issue for a short time. I have spent a lot of money purchasing printers that don't seem to work with my MacBooks (Air Retina 13", 2018 Big Sur Version 11.2.3 or my MacBook Air High Sierra 10.13.17) Any suggestions? At this point I think it is an Apple system issue.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Mar 14, 2021 2:50 PM

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Answer 1

sberman

Level 10

272,622 points

Mar 14, 2021 3:42 PM in response to Ruth Swinney

I have never had this issue. I use an Epson AirPrint-capable printer with my Mac (Big Sur 11.2.3), iPhone (iOS 14.4.1) and iPad (iPadOS 14.4.1) frequently. Sometimes many hours will elapse between printer uses.

I would suspect your router. Check its manual, and at a minimum, power it down for at least 45 seconds and then turn it on again.

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Answer 2

Mar 14, 2021 3:44 PM in response to Ruth Swinney

Make sure blue ltooth is enabled on all devices before you are ready to print. Sometimes Bluetooth will turn off of printers is it’s is not in use

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Answer 3

Mar 14, 2021 3:47 PM in response to sberman

Sorry - sometimes I turn on and off blue tooth on devices - I don’t think This is a system error but rather a system security measure to keep unused devices protected and also your network

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Answer 4

Ruth Swinney Author

Level 1

111 points

Mar 14, 2021 5:01 PM in response to sberman

Thanks for your reply sberman, I have turned off my router and turned it on again, we'll see if this works. All my printers have been AirPrint capable. I used to have an Apple Airport Station connected to my router, and the printers worked fine. My problems started when I eliminated the Apple Airport station and decided to connect directly with the router provided by Spectrum (my Internet provider). Sigh....

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Printers go offline on my MacBook, iPhone, iPad

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