Devices cannot find HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw once it has gone to sleep

[cgray210]

Prints fine when the printer is "awake" but once the printer goes to sleep devices cannot find the printer. I can walk to the printer, wake it back up, and then it will print fine, but I would like to not have to do that every time I want to print. I have all the energy settings set for as long as they will go, but it will still go to sleep after awhile. I need the printer to either stay awake or for my devices to be able to find the printer when it is asleep. It seems like most people online are saying I need to assign the printer a static IP address, but I have not been able to figure out how to do that correctly. 

[TEJ1602]

@cgray210, Welcome to HP Support Community!

I see that the printer does not wake up to print when in idle mode. Let us try to isolate and resolve the issue. Follow the steps below-

Update the printer firmware

Download available firmware updates from the HP website

With the printer on and connected to the computer, go to HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads, and then identify your printer. Look for and install any available firmware updates. Refer to the document HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware

If you have already checked the printer's sleep mode settings, you can try assigning the static IP to the printer. Here is how you do it-

The steps on how to set a manual IP address can be found here.

For the DNS servers please use 8.8.8.8 for the Manual Preferred DNS Server and 8.8.4.4 for the Alternate DNS server. These are Google’s public DNS servers.

Static IP needs to be set up outside the DHCP range- If the default DHCP address range is between 100 and 149, you'll want to avoid all of the addresses between 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.149 when you're assigning static IP addresses. That leaves the ranges from 2-99 and from 150-254 wide open, which is usually plenty for most home networks.

Try printing.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accepted Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

[cgray210]

Hi. So I was trying to do what you suggested but am having some issues. Once I go to the IP address webpage and then to the Networking tab, I click on IPv4 configuration. I can switch from DHCP to Manual, but it only asks for an IP address, a subnet mask, and a default gateway. It does not say anything about DNS server, so what should I put in the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway fields?

[TEJ1602]

@cgray210

Thanks for replying!

Click on the Apple icon on the top left corner and select System Preferences.

Select Network.

Near the bottom of the window, select Advanced…

Your router’s gateway will be displayed under the TCP/IP tab, next to Router:

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accepted Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

[cgray210]

I do not think that worked. I set up the manual IP address, I did not change the subnet mask or default gateway though. They were already set to the number I got from my computer. The manual IP address works when the printer is awake, but not when the printer has gone to sleep.

[TEJ1602]

@cgray210

• Could you perform a ping test using the Mac Network Utility and let me know the results?

Use the printer IP address to perform a ping test, the printer IP can be located by selecting the wireless icon on the printer display.

The wireless status menu on your Mac should also give us quite a lot of information that would help us identify the issue. You can press and hold option-click the WiFi icon and then use shift-command-5 to take the screenshot. Press the space bar when the icon turns into a camera. Share the ping test results and the screenshot with us.

Also, check with your Internet service provider if your router is able to forward 'Bonjour packets'. 

Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records. The software comes built-in with Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems.

Please click “Accepted Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

[cgray210]

I am on a Mac, so I was not able to do these exact steps. But I think I did the Mac equivalent and it does not seem to have worked.