Windows Cannot Connect to the Printer No Printers Were Found

About of the time, Windows automatically sees any printer on the same network as your PC. But what if your reckoner can’t meet the printer, or simply refuses to connect? Adding a printer on a local network is elementary in theory, but the reality is that, when the process goes wrong, it can be tricky to unravel.

Running the “Add together a printer or scanner” wizard or the printer troubleshooter should fix the trouble, in most cases. If this doesn’t piece of work, though, these easy troubleshooting steps tin rescue the day.

Discover a Connected Printer

A printer can connect to a network on either an Ethernet or Wi-Fi local expanse network (LAN), or you tin can connect information technology directly via USB to a computer on the network. Either connexion blazon can be shared with other users on the network by enabling print sharing on the server or on the figurer to which the USB printer is connected.

Windows’ “Add together a printer or scanner” sorcerer is accessible from the “Printers & scanners” section in the Settings Control Console. (In Windows seven, it’s the Add together Printer wizard accessible from the Devices and Printers Control Panel.) The specific details vary between Windows versions, simply the process is pretty much the same.

Even so, unlike earlier versions, Windows 10 doesn’t ordinarily require you to run a sorcerer in the first place. Instead, when yous plug your Ethernet cablevision into the printer or connect the printer to your wireless network, in most cases the printer will merely show up automatically in the list of installed devices.

When you install a printer on your LAN, information technology volition usually bear witness upward automatically in the list of installed printers and scanners.

(In Windows 7 and before versions, when you click the Add Printer link, Windows will automatically search for printers on the network. The printer proper noun(s) will pop upwards, and you can select 1. Add information technology, and with whatever luck, y’all will be fix to print.)

If your device is non listed here, click “Add a printer or scanner.” Windows starts searching your network for connected printers and lists its findings, as shown below. Simply click the printer you want to connect to, then click “Add device.”

Click “Add a printer or scanner,” and Windows starts searching your LAN for new printers.

Windows will motion the printer to the list of installed printers and scanners. From here, when you click the printer name in the list, you lot tin can manage the automobile as desired.

Troubleshooting a Missing Printer

Of course, a printer doesn’t e’er install as it should. It may not appear at all in the listing of available printers, or y’all might get a message that Windows tin can’t connect to it. The first steps would be to make sure of the nuts.

That means ensuring the printer is on and connected to the same network as the PC to which you want it added. You should also cheque that print sharing is enabled on the computer to which information technology’south attached. For a home network, that would exist the computer on which you lot installed the printer’southward software.

From here, you have ii options. Either click the option “The printer that I want isn’t listed,” located directly below the listing of printers discovered in the connected device search, or run the troubleshooter.

1 thing to know: Just considering you don’t come across a printer doesn’t mean it isn’t at that place. Some Information technology departments hide the names of all printers by default. Although It probable has skilful reasons for doing then, hidden printers can be an impediment when there is a legitimate need for someone to connect to a particular one. At that place are other bug that may prevent you from seeing an accessible printer, besides.

Adding an Unseen Printer

In the “Observe a printer by other options” dialog box, you’ll run across five ways to discover and connect to your printer. (Notation that this dialog box has only three options in earlier versions of Windows.)

“Detect a printer on your network,” with the “Discover a printer past other options” wizard.

My printer is a petty older. Help me find it:
When yous choose this option, Windows performs another search. If information technology finds your printer, it will display a 2d dialog box. Select your printer, and Windows will install the drivers. If your printer is not listed, endeavor one of the other options in this dialog box (which volition probably require another “Add together a printer or scanner” search from the Printers & scanners Command Panel).

Select a printer by proper name:
To use this pick, you must know the proper noun of the computer that the printer is connected to and the network name of the printer itself. If y’all’re doing this in an role for a network-fastened printer, and yous don’t know the printer name, you’ll have to ask some other employee who uses information technology, or get it from your IT department. Notice the naming examples directly below this option in the epitome above.

Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname:
Choosing this option brings upwards the “Type a printer hostname or IP accost” dialog box. Here, again, you’ll demand to obtain the hostname or IP address. Enter the address or hostname, and click Next.

On a home network, you lot tin become the printer’s IP address from its control panel by press a status study or from the printer’s built-in onboard spider web portal.

Connecting to the printer using its network IP address.

Windows volition query the printer, and then display a list of uniform devices, allowing y’all to select your printer by manufacturer and type. After making your selections, click Next, and it should connect your PC to the printer. If non, motion on to the Running the Troubleshooter section below.

Choose the manufacturer and device blazon to install the correct printer driver.

Add a Bluetooth, wireless or network discoverable printer:
With this selection, y’all can add peer-to-peer network devices that are not actually on your LAN. (Windows does a animate being search for all available protocols available to your PC.).

Add a local printer or network with manual settings:
Choosing this option runs a wizard that walks you lot through a series of steps for manually creating a printer port and installing the printer, which requires technical expertise beyond the scope of this entry-level guide.

At whatsoever point in the process, or if any one of these methods fails, you lot tin run the Windows troubleshooter to endeavor connecting to the printer.

Running the Troubleshooter

To run the troubleshooter, the printer you’re having trouble connecting or press to must exist displayed in the available devices list in the Printers & scanners Control Panel. To run information technology, click the printer in the list, then click Manage.

This brings up the “Manage your device” panel for that specific printer. In the listing of options well-nigh the bottom of the panel, click “Run the troubleshooter.”

Find “Run the troubleshooter” and click information technology.

Windows then starts searching for problems.

The troubleshooter, looking for issues.

If Windows detects a problem, it displays another dialog box informing you of the problem and, depending on what the problem is, provides an “Apply this set up” option and a “Skip this fix” choice…

If the troubleshooter finds a trouble, it offers you the option of fixing it or standing the search for problems.

If you choose the old, Windows will attempt to solve the problem and connect to the printer. If you choose the latter, the troubleshooter volition continue to run, searching for additional issues.

What happens next depends on a number of factors, including (simply not limited to) which pick yous selection and what problem(s) are detected. In the above example, Windows suggests that making the device the default printer will solve the problem.

If you click “Use the fix,” Windows makes the printer the default and asks you if this solved the trouble. If yous click “Skip this fix,” the troubleshooter starts looking for other issues, and, if it finds any, it displays another dialog asking you if you want to apply the ready or keep looking for problems.

Again, depending on what selection y’all choose and what problems the troubleshooter finds, your issue might exist solved right away, or it could take a few tries. In the rare chance these troubleshooting steps can’t solve the trouble, contact It or call customer service for your printer’due south manufacturer.

In most cases, though, the techniques discussed hither should eventually connect your PC to the printer. At present, if you know the printer is connected, just you
still
can’t print, information technology could be a completely different outcome that we can
help you troubleshoot here.