macOS High Sierra drops printer connection

So I found a solution that works and I can print from my computer! It will now wake the printer from sleep/deep sleep to print.

I simply added the printer by IP address. This archived article for OS X did the trick: How to connect to an IP-based printer

I did have to use Spotlight to find Network Utility, but all incredibly simple stuff and it worked perfectly.

Now to figure out how to print from my mobile devices...

Is it using AirPrint or Secure AirPrint?

If it's Secure, maybe you can avoid this by using "plain" AirPrint.

You may have luck powering the printer off and on instead of resetting the print system and having to re-add it.

My two iMacs with High Sierra would lose connection with the printer after sleeping overnight. Restarting in the morning would spit out the stalled queue.

So in System Prefs I deleted the printer, then added it back. On both iMacs. This solved the problem.

Wont be much of a consolation, but me too, I have two printers connected, both Brothers, one has to be rejoined to network everyday so the MacBooks can see them, the other seems fine- annoying and only since update to high Sierra

Also having this problem with a new Brother HLL 2315 DW laser printer that I connect to through my wi-fi network. If it goes to sleep/deep sleep, it registers as "offline/not connected" on my Mac and I can't print to it without turning it off and then on. The printer is built to wake up for a print job, which it does just fine when I print from my PC laptop. But it has to be on and "ready" to print from my Mac. I also cannot print from my iPhone or iPad to this printer unless it is on and "ready". It won't even appear in the printer list.

I have uninstalled/reinstalled both driver and printer, rebooted router/Mac, and updated firmware on the printer. And their driver is listed on the Brother website as compatible with High Sierra.

***. I'm truly losing my love of Apple products with this update. It used to be so simple.

Just wanted to say thanks for finding that solution, after days of frustration trying to connect a printer to High Sierra the IP Address method works. Something else Apple seems to have overlooked, long gone are the days when Apple just worked!

I am having the same problem with my Canon MF733C using Bonjour. Both the printer and the scanner will go offline after some time. Power cycling the printer or removing and reading the device "fixes" the problem until the next time. I am running 10.13.3 with the latest printer and scanner drivers from Canon.

I have tried the Canon drivers using Bonjour / AirPrint and now have the scanner configured using the IP address of the device to see if that helps.

I have been doing some experimenting and, like others here, have found that specifying a hard-coded IP address for both the printer (using LPD protocol) and the scanner (in Canon's MF Scan Utility) dramatically increases the reliability of the MF733C printer/scanner. I also have configured a printer using fixed IP and LPD protocol for may Canon LP6230 printer, which was also going "offline" often. My Canon PRO-100 printer is hardwired and is configured using the Canon IJ Network protocol, which is also doing device discovery (no hard coded IP address) and that printer has been rock solid on by Sierra and High Sierra.

If you do a dns-sd -B on your system, you can see your Bonjour device events; here is a log of mine on High Sierra. What is notable is that there are way more events on High Sierra than on Sierra, which tells me that the mDNS code in High Sierra may either have a bug and drops devices or be way too aggressive in removing devices much sooner than Sierra did:

$ dns-sd -B

Sat Feb 3 23:57:30 PST 2018

Browsing for _http._tcp

DATE: ---Sat 03 Feb 2018---

23:57:30.090 ...STARTING...

Timestamp A/R Flags if Domain Service Type Instance Name

23:57:30.091 Add 2 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon PRO-100 series

23:57:56.545 Add 2 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon Laser

23:57:56.646 Add 2 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon MF731C/733C

DATE: ---Sun 04 Feb 2018---

0:02:03.160 Rmv 0 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon Laser

0:08:09.844 Add 2 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon Laser

0:12:20.602 Rmv 1 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon MF731C/733C

0:12:20.602 Rmv 0 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon Laser

0:13:59.822 Add 2 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon MF731C/733C

0:18:51.660 Add 2 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon Laser

0:23:02.527 Rmv 0 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon Laser

0:26:30.086 Rmv 1 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon PRO-100 series

0:26:30.086 Rmv 0 12 local. _http._tcp. Canon MF731C/733C

0:26:56.667 Add 2 18 local. _http._tcp. Canon PRO-100 series

0:27:01.574 Add 2 18 local. _http._tcp. Canon MF731C/733C

0:29:02.669 Add 2 18 local. _http._tcp. Canon Laser

I don't know if this is the cause, but it is frustrating that a core part of OS X seemingly breaks from one release to another. (I have been using my Canon Laser printer for the past 3 years so you know how many OS X releases it has seen!).

I ran dns-sd -B overnight with both Sierra and High Sierra and noticed a high number of Add / Rmv events, higher on High Sierra but not insignificant on Sierra. My wife's MacBook Air (running El Capitan) has also experienced the printers going offline from time to time. I have n't instrumented her system yet but will do so.

Configuring the printers to use a hard-coded IP address and the LPD protocol provides very high reliability on High Sierra, but isn't desirable.

My next set of experiments will be to hard-wire all the printers to my Ethernet switch and hard-wire my Macs (Sierra and High Sierra) to my switch and observe what Bonjour issues I see.

I am also having the same problem since High Sierra upgrade and it is independent of whether the printer is WiFi, LPD or Bonjour protocols/connection. I am finding opening the print dialog causes the app in question (does not matter what one) to stop responding for a while, sometimes to the point of needing force quit and on checking 'Printers and Scanners' in settings ALL of my printers were blank - it was basically saying there were no printers installed. They are all Network printers at my office or other locations connected via an ethernet LAN, using different protocols as noted above. The only thing that would restore the printers to show they are installed was a reboot of the Mac. The only common denominator I can point to is some change in High Sierra with respect to the print queue/printer handling

I also have this problem and it is causing problems for everyone in my business because it has been affecting our print server reliability. We use PaperCut NG to keep track of our business printer usage and need to use printer sharing via Bonjour. IP address install is not an option, as PaperCut NG will not track usage via IP address. I have laptops in my environment running Yosemite, and the problem is nearly nonexistent for those laptops. Does anyone know if connecting the printer from a Windows host/server will increase reliability? Thank you for the tip to monitor the connectivity via dns-sd -B.

Just found a solution.

Macs like to use mDNS (multicast DNS) aka bonjour protocol to communicate with the printer.

On my Linksys router, the option is deactivated by default in the firewall, that means such protocols are blocked by the router.

Since I am printing through the wifi network created by the router (not wifi direct), the MAC and the printer can't see each other using that protocol. Interestingly, the MAC can still ping the IP address and access the web based interface for the printer, but no printing.

PC's are not using using bonjour protocol and are not affected by the default firewall setting.

The option that allows mDNS can be activated in the security section of the Linksys router, it is called "Filter Multicast", it needs to be ticked (not very intuitive), approve click OK et Voila !

Same problem here - how is this fixed? I have the problem at work where we print through a print server and I don't have access to the WiFi routers.

Step-by-step guide how to fix this on my mac (OS High Sierra 10.13.4) would greatly be appreciated.

This was driving me nuts too - with both HP and Epson printers using High Sierra (that had been fine until now). On the basis of zibberfitchy's comment above, I decided to look at my wireless network - in my case created by an Apple Airport Extreme. Using Airport Utility, I discovered there was a firmware update available. Ran this, without much hope and hey presto suddenly all printers are visible again and remain so. Realise this will not help those whose wireless network is generated from a 3rd party router - but it does seem to point to the fact that this is an issue with High Sierra and wireless protocols (which Apple have now fixed for Airport, at least) and not anything to do with the printers or their drivers. Hope this may help.