- Windows 11 provides several handy tools for dealing with its inability to recognize your printer, including troubleshooters and driver update mechanisms.
- Always try restarting your printer and your Windows device, in addition to checking your printer cables, before trying these fixes.
- Restarting your print spooler can be a good fix if troubleshooting doesn’t work.
It can be super annoying when your printer randomly decides to up and stop working in Windows 11. Nothing seems to be fixing the issue. You’ve restarted the printer and checked all the cables, but you still have the same problem – Windows 11 not recognizing printer availability. Let’s sort that problem out with a few fixes you might not have tried yet.
Fix 1 – Troubleshooting Your Printer
Sometimes, Windows 11 itself can tell you what’s wrong, even if it does bury its ability to do so in a troubleshooter that isn’t obvious to access. Follow these steps to find (and use) a printer-specific troubleshoot.
Step 1 : Open the “Settings” menu by typing “Settings” into your Windows search bar and clicking the appropriate icon.
Step 2 : Head to “System” and click the “Troubleshoot” option. You’ll find it about two-thirds of the way down the list.
Step 3 : Choose “Other Troubleshooters” from the list.
Step 4 : Find “Printer” in the list (it should be near the top) and click the “Run” button. Windows 11 will take some time to troubleshoot and lets you know if there are any device issues you need to fix to get your printer up and running again.
Fix 2 – Restart the Print Spooler
Windows 11’s print spooler handles every aspect of how the operating system communicates with your printer. That can be a problem – spooler corruption or even just accidentally turning it off means that Windows won’t recognize any printer you try to use. Check the spooler with these steps.
Step 1 : Press “Windows Key + R” to open the “Run” dialog box and type “services.msc” before hitting the “OK” button.
Step 2 : Double-click the “Print Spooler” option in the list, which is usually a little beyond halfway down.
Step 3 : Select “Stop” to prevent the print spooler from running anymore and hit the “OK” button.
Step 4 : Open your “This PC” folder and follow this path to reach the print spool folder:
C:\Windows\system32\spoolsv.exe
Once there, delete every single file you see in that folder.
Step 5 : Retrace Steps 1 through 3, with the only difference being that you hit the “Start” button instead of “Stop.” Click “OK” again and restart your PC. The restarting process should cause Windows 11 to recreate its print spool, getting rid of any corruption that cause it not to recognize your printer before.
Fix 3 – Update Your Printer’s Drivers
A missed driver update could cause conflicts between Windows 11 and your printer, which you can fix with these steps:
Step 1 : Right-click the “Start” button in the Windows toolbar and select “Device Manager.”
Step 2 : Click the little arrow next to “Print Queues” to expand the category.
Step 3 : Right-click on “Microsoft Print to PDF” and choose “Update Driver” from the list of options in the menu.
Step 4 : Choose the “Search automatically for drivers” option and wait for a while. Windows 11 will run some online searches to see if there are any missing drivers your printer needs and install them. If none are found, it’ll tell you that the most up-to-date drivers are already installed, meaning there’s another problem causing your printer woes.
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- Windows 11 provides several handy tools for dealing with its inability to recognize your printer, including troubleshooters and driver update mechanisms.
- Always try restarting your printer and your Windows device, in addition to checking your printer cables, before trying these fixes.
- Restarting your print spooler can be a good fix if troubleshooting doesn’t work.
It can be super annoying when your printer randomly decides to up and stop working in Windows 11. Nothing seems to be fixing the issue. You’ve restarted the printer and checked all the cables, but you still have the same problem – Windows 11 not recognizing printer availability. Let’s sort that problem out with a few fixes you might not have tried yet.
Fix 1 – Troubleshooting Your Printer
Sometimes, Windows 11 itself can tell you what’s wrong, even if it does bury its ability to do so in a troubleshooter that isn’t obvious to access. Follow these steps to find (and use) a printer-specific troubleshoot.
Step 1 : Open the “Settings” menu by typing “Settings” into your Windows search bar and clicking the appropriate icon.
Step 2 : Head to “System” and click the “Troubleshoot” option. You’ll find it about two-thirds of the way down the list.
Step 3 : Choose “Other Troubleshooters” from the list.
Step 4 : Find “Printer” in the list (it should be near the top) and click the “Run” button. Windows 11 will take some time to troubleshoot and lets you know if there are any device issues you need to fix to get your printer up and running again.
Fix 2 – Restart the Print Spooler
Windows 11’s print spooler handles every aspect of how the operating system communicates with your printer. That can be a problem – spooler corruption or even just accidentally turning it off means that Windows won’t recognize any printer you try to use. Check the spooler with these steps.
Step 1 : Press “Windows Key + R” to open the “Run” dialog box and type “services.msc” before hitting the “OK” button.
Step 2 : Double-click the “Print Spooler” option in the list, which is usually a little beyond halfway down.
Step 3 : Select “Stop” to prevent the print spooler from running anymore and hit the “OK” button.
Step 4 : Open your “This PC” folder and follow this path to reach the print spool folder:
C:\Windows\system32\spoolsv.exe
Once there, delete every single file you see in that folder.
Step 5 : Retrace Steps 1 through 3, with the only difference being that you hit the “Start” button instead of “Stop.” Click “OK” again and restart your PC. The restarting process should cause Windows 11 to recreate its print spool, getting rid of any corruption that cause it not to recognize your printer before.
Fix 3 – Update Your Printer’s Drivers
A missed driver update could cause conflicts between Windows 11 and your printer, which you can fix with these steps:
Step 1 : Right-click the “Start” button in the Windows toolbar and select “Device Manager.”
Step 2 : Click the little arrow next to “Print Queues” to expand the category.
Step 3 : Right-click on “Microsoft Print to PDF” and choose “Update Driver” from the list of options in the menu.
Step 4 : Choose the “Search automatically for drivers” option and wait for a while. Windows 11 will run some online searches to see if there are any missing drivers your printer needs and install them. If none are found, it’ll tell you that the most up-to-date drivers are already installed, meaning there’s another problem causing your printer woes.
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- Be sure to print in portrait mode instead of landscape mode by updating the printing preference.
- Paper size selection is important and should match the size of the physical paper.
- Adding the printer back to Windows can resolve the issue that prevented the printer from using the proper orientation.
1. Change the Default Orientation on the Printer Properties
Step 1: Press the Windows + I keyboard shortcut to launch the Settings app.
Step 2: On the left pane, click Bluetooth & devices , and on the right, click Printers & scanners and select the printer you want to fix.
Step 3: Click Printing preferences to open the printer’s configuration window.
Step 4: Select Portrait from the Orientation drop-down list, then click Apply and OK .
2. Change Orientation in Page Setup
You can make specific changes to the application or document you want to print from. For example, if you are trying to print from Microsoft Word, change the page orientation before printing, which will reflect when you print the page.
Step 1: Click the Layout section in the Word document, expand Orientation , and select Portrait .
Step 2: Proceed to print the document. It should automatically choose the orientation based on the document layout.
3. Change Layout in Print Setup
If you cannot change the orientation from the app as you would on a word processor, switch to Portrait on the print setup page before printing the document, as shown below.
Step 1: Press the Control + P keyboard shortcut to initiate the print process. This should open the print setup page.
Step 2: Under the Layout section, select Portrait > Print .
4. Check for and Correct Page Size Mismatch
One reason your printer prints landscape instead of portrait is a page mismatch. That means the printer may expect A4 paper even though you have loaded A5 sheets.
Go to Print Setup > expand More settings > select a matching Paper size > click Print .
5. Confirm Network Printer Settings Are Not Overriding Local Settings
This solution will apply if you are connected to a network printer. If the network printer has a set of print preferences different from what you want, you may need to contact the administrator to resolve the issue. Alternatively, switch to a local printer to perform the print job.
6. Re-Add the Printer to Windows
You can fix this problem by removing the printer from your computer and re-adding it. This is a valid fix because when the computer is re-added, it comes with a default set of configurations, and any misconfiguration that caused the problem would be removed.
Step 1: Go to the Printers & scanners in the Windows Settings app.
Step 2: Select the problematic printer and click on Remove .
Step 3: Restart the computer and return to Printers & scanners .
Step 4: Click Add Device and follow the wizard to complete the process. The issue should be resolved.
7. Factory Reset the Printer
If your printer keeps printing sideways or landscape, resetting it to factory settings can resolve the problem. A factory reset reconfigures all printer settings and restores them to default. The procedures for performing a factory reset vary depending on the printer brand. For instructions on properly executing this operation on your printer, consult your user manual.
