macOS cannot communicate with the printer
The Mac tried to open a connection to the printer's address and got no useful answer. The queue shows a message about being unable to connect or communicate with the printer, and jobs sit waiting. It is a network reachability problem, not a driver or ink problem.
What causes it
- The printer's IP address changed after a router restart
- The printer is asleep in deep power saving and not answering
- Mac and printer are on different networks, bands or a guest SSID
- Local Network permission has not been granted to the printing system on recent macOS versions
- The printer's Wi-Fi dropped and it fell back to no connection
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.
Print a network configuration page
From the printer's own panel, print a network or Wi-Fi status report and note the IPv4 address. Compare its first three number groups with your Mac's address under System Settings › Network › Wi-Fi › Details. If they differ, the two devices are on separate networks and nothing on the Mac will fix that.
Check Local Network permission
Open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network and make sure the apps you print from, and any printer utility you use, are allowed. Recent macOS releases block local network traffic until permission is granted, and printers become unreachable without it. Toggle an entry off and on if it is already enabled but still failing.
Wake the printer and retry
Press a button on the printer panel so its display lights up, then resume the job in the queue. Deep sleep on some models drops the network stack until the device is physically woken, which looks exactly like an unreachable printer.
Delete and re-add the printer
In System Settings › Printers & Scanners, select the printer, remove it, then click Add Printer and select it from the Default list. This rebuilds the queue against the printer's current address, which fixes the very common case of a DHCP address change.
Reserve the printer's IP address
In your router's DHCP settings, reserve the printer's current address to its MAC address, which is printed on the configuration page. A fixed address stops the queue breaking every time the router or printer restarts.
Check the Wi-Fi band
Many printers only join 2.4 GHz networks. If your Mac is on a 5 GHz or 6 GHz SSID that is kept separate from the 2.4 GHz one, they cannot see each other. Join the Mac to the same SSID temporarily to confirm this is the issue.
Try a wired connection to isolate the fault
Connect the printer to the router with an Ethernet cable, or to the Mac with USB, and add it again. If it works this way, the printer's Wi-Fi radio or the wireless network configuration is at fault rather than the Mac.
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 my iPhone find the printer when my Mac cannot?
Different permission and discovery paths. Check Local Network permission on the Mac, which the iPhone handles separately.
Does a router restart break printing?
It can, if the printer is handed a new IP address. Reserving the address prevents it.
Should I use a static address on the printer itself?
A router reservation is safer, because it keeps the router aware of the address and avoids conflicts.
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