Printer shows offline on the Mac after waking from sleep
Printing works until the Mac or the printer sleeps, after which the queue reports the printer as offline and jobs will not send. Either the printer's network connection dropped while idle, or the Mac's cached route to it went stale. It is a wake-up problem rather than a fault in either device.
What causes it
- The printer's power-saving mode disables its network interface
- The printer received a new IP address while asleep
- Wi-Fi power management on the Mac drops multicast state on wake
- The router dropped the idle client from its table
- The queue was created by discovery and cannot re-resolve the name after wake
How to fix it, in order
Work down the list and stop when the printer recovers. The steps are ordered from most likely and least invasive to last resort.
Wake the printer before printing
Press a button on the printer's panel and wait for the display to light up, then send the job again. If this alone restores printing, the printer's sleep mode is the cause and the fix is on the device rather than the Mac.
Lengthen or disable the printer's sleep timer
Open the printer's web page by typing its IP address into a browser, or use its control panel, and find Sleep, Power Save or Energy Saver settings. Increase the delay before deep sleep, or turn off the deepest mode. Modern printers use very little power while merely idle.
Reserve the printer's IP address
In the router, bind the printer's MAC address, shown on its configuration page, to a fixed IP. This stops it returning from sleep with a different address, which is the most common reason a previously working queue reports offline.
Rebuild the queue using the IP tab
In System Settings › Printers & Scanners, remove the printer, click Add Printer, choose the IP tab, enter the reserved address and set Protocol to AirPrint. A queue targeting an address recovers from sleep far more reliably than one relying on discovery.
Use a wired connection where possible
Connect the printer to the router by Ethernet if it has a port. A wired printer keeps its network presence through sleep and eliminates the wireless wake behaviour completely.
Check Wake for network access on the Mac
Open System Settings › Energy or Battery, depending on the Mac, and enable Wake for network access if offered. This keeps network state fresher across sleep, which helps queues resolve immediately on wake.
Resume the queue after wake
Open System Settings › Printers & Scanners › Printer Queue and click Resume if the queue paused itself while the printer was unreachable. Jobs sent during sleep often sit behind a pause that never clears on its own.
Stopping it happening again
When it is not worth fixing yourself
If you would rather not work through this alone, a printer specialist can take a look with you on a screen-share and tell you honestly whether the machine is worth saving.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the printer wake when I press a button but not when I print?
Its network interface may be powered down in deep sleep, so the print job never reaches it to trigger a wake.
Does a reserved IP really help?
Yes. Many offline-after-sleep cases are simply the printer coming back at a different address than the queue expects.
Should I leave the printer switched on all the time?
Leaving it in normal idle rather than deep sleep is usually enough, and modern printers draw very little power at idle.
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