Canon Pixma MX 450 printer showing offline with OS X 10.7.5

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Canon Pixma MX 450 printer showing offline with OS X 10.7.5

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I joke with Canon's IT department that I keep them employed! I was calling them at least twice a week for a few weeks to try to fix the problem, but was unable to find a resolution. I returned a less expensive Canon printer today, in a desperate attempt to get my wireless connection to work! I just installed a Canon Pixma MX450 wireless print, copy, scan, fax with my OS X 10.7.5. Everything seemed to be going great. The setup was fine when communicating between the router and printer; none of those connections failed. However, once I installed the software from Canon and tried to setup the wireless connection from the computer to the printer, the printer could not be detected wirelessly-I had to pull out the 'ol USB. With the USB, the printer was detected. The test print page printed, which game me a false hope! I tried a dummy page from Pages and Word both, but nothing prints. The printer error indicates the printer is offline and not connected. This is the same problem I had with the less expensive Canon. Help! I want to be able to use the wireless function that I paid for to print. Thanks 🙂

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jun 9, 2013 7:58 PM

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Answer 1

PAHU

Level 6

16,717 points

Jun 9, 2013 9:11 PM in response to funkedva23

One common mistake people make is to use the printer that is for the USB connection to print to the wireless print. This results in offline message. So are you using the correct printer, ie - the wifi connected MX450?

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Answer 2

funkedva23 Author

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Jun 10, 2013 6:31 PM in response to PAHU

Yup, we only have one printer at a time installed at the house-the other one was returned to the store. The MX450 is the only one, and is supposed to be wireless.

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Answer 3

PAHU

Level 6

16,717 points

Jun 11, 2013 1:36 PM in response to funkedva23

When you connected the MX450 to the Mac via USB cable, it would have created a printer in Print & Scan for this USB connected printer. If you then disconnect the MX450 USB cable from the Mac but then attempt to print to the MX450 using the printer that was created for the USB connection, this will result in the "Printer Offline" message.

So, are you trying to print with the MX450 printer that was created for the USB connection?

If you are not using the USB printer and definitely using the printer that you created when the MX450 was connected to your wireless access point (wireless router), then try removing this printer from Print & Scan and creating the printer again.

If you cannot find the printer when you try to add it again then check the wireless network settings via the control panel on the front of the printer. It will confirm what wireless network it is connected to and what IP address it has acquired.

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Answer 4

funkedva23 Author

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Jun 14, 2013 6:40 PM in response to PAHU

I removed the MX450 printer that was listed in the Print & Scan tab. I then clicked the "plus" symbol to add another printer, and no other printer was found. I am unsure of how to check the wireless network settings via the control panel as you suggested to determine what IP address it has acquired. Any tips on how to complete that task?

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Answer 5

PAHU

Level 6

16,717 points

Jun 15, 2013 12:42 AM in response to funkedva23

I don't know your model and looking at the manuals I could find, I was not able to determine how to check the network settings. Using my MP990 as a reference, I use the scroll wheel to get to Settings and then scroll to Device Settings. I then scroll to LAN settings and then scroll to Confirm LAN settings. Then I select Wireless LAN settings list. This shows all the network settings including the IP address.

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Answer 6

funkedva23 Author

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Jul 23, 2013 8:19 AM in response to PAHU

I had to contact Apple support (no offense, Pahu) to walk me through step by step. I was getting too frustrated with the on and off again of the wireless network working with my printer. We tried several different things, but here are the steps I think that ultimately helped. The Apple support person thought the computer was being bogged down by having too many Preferred Networks. Here is what I was instructed to do:

Go to System Preferences---Network---Unlock the lock on the bottom left with the administrator info (if applicable)--- Go to Advanced-- Preferred Networks. I deleted at least 10 old networks that we aren't associated with anymore.

We had too many preferred networks, and the router, printer, and computer were having trouble communicating. The printer has been working ever since this fix! I am keeping my fingers crossed this is the solution.

Thanks again for your assistance, Pahu.

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Answer 7

DB48

Level 1

26 points

Mar 2, 2016 9:43 AM in response to funkedva23

Thanks so much for figuring this out. We went through several steps with Canon to uninstall the printer, reinstall, etc. etc. etc. nothing was working and they said the next step was to call our ISP provider, as it must be a router issue. BUT I tried this today and it worked. The odd thing is that the computer I was having problems with is a desktop. BUT I guess since we share printers any place we had been and connected to a wifi with our iPads or laptops were showing up in our net work list. I never even noticed. We had several from years ago when we stayed at hotels on different trips!!

So thankful it worked. Defeats the purpose of having a wireless printer if you have to walk to the printer and turn it on and off everytime to get it to print.

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Answer 8

Apr 12, 2016 12:46 AM in response to funkedva23

MAC

Turn printer on

1 - Open System Preferences by clicking on the icon in the Dock.

2 - Go to the Print & Fax control panel under the Hardware category.

3 - Select the printer you want to take online from the list on the left side of the screen. Then click on the "Open Print Queue" button.

4 - Click on the "Resume Printer" button at the top of the queue window to change the printer from offline to online. Now, restart your computer

Source(s):

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120310071512AAdTISz

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