My Mac tells me my printer is "offline." How can I get it back online?

Hi, I had this issue with my Brother MFC-J5720DW which I could not get it to print from my Macbook Pro 13" 2016 and tried everything from updating the OS Sierra which it updated with the Brother Printer Software Update v4.1 but to no avail. I also tried about 10 times reinstalling and setting up the printer again on my Macbook including setting the Brother MFC on my network but still to no avail. FINALLY, I found out accidentally that I have set up my Brother MFC-J5720DW on Google Cloud Print which I then deleted it. I then re-install all the Brother full driver and printer applications and then "Reset all my printing" on my Macbook. Then I set up the Brother printer again on my Macbook and now it works flawlessly. I hope anyone who is experiencing a similar problem can give this a try to see if this helps to resolve the issue. Good luck!

I've had the same problem with 1 of my 2 HP printers. Restart your mac and it should clear up.

This should help you

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3771

HP doesn't put updated mac drivers on their website, they supply them to Apple and they distribute them to us via software update. Check out this list of supported printers, I'll bet yours is there. Have you run software update recently?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3669#HP

Give yourself a star, I found the web page that says your printer is no longer supported by HP. BUT it is supported under Gutenprint, I found it on their list. I would install their driver and see if that corrects your problem. Here's their page

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/index.php

I don't know how old your printer is but I suppose we can't expect HP to support them forever huh? If you still have problems maybe we can figure a way to get old drivers that work and install them.

Had the same problem...went into Print and Scan (located in the Finder), deleted my HP Photosmart Plus B210, re-added it, and this time made sure that Airprint WAS NOT selected, but instead selected the software/driver from the drop-down menu directly after I added the printer, titled exactly the same as the printer itself: HP Photosmart Plus B210...tried to print again and presto- it worked! Good Luck!

My HP Laserjet suddenly went offline recently as well. Went through several steps to rectify but the one that worked best was to uninstall all the HP drivers from my hardrive. Checked and downloaded new software drivers from Apple. Then plugged in the printer (USB conenction) and it automatically sensed the printer to begin the installation process. Works fine now. I suspect the problem may have been the HP drivers themselves that had gone corrupt or simply no longer compatible. Just one of those things you learn as you navigate through.