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macOS 10.15 Catalina

I have a Macbook Pro Laptop 2017. My HP 5746 keeps going offline. Here are the steps I have to take (rebooting won't work).

My iPhone X looses connection when it goes offline.

 

On Macbook Pro:

  • Remove the printer from Macbook Pro
  • Shut printer off
  • Unplug my Wi-fi
  • Shut down my Macbook
  • The printer is also hardwired to my office computer, a Mac Mini, which doesn't lose connection.
  • Shut down the Mac Mini
  • Unconnect the Mac Mini from the printer

 

Once everything is shut down:

  • Restart the Wi-fi
  • Turn on the printer and wait for it to connect. to Wi-fi
  • Turn on Macbook Pro
  • Reinstall the printer
  • Then it works
  • Reconnect the printer cord to the Mac Mini
  • Start up the Mac Mini
  • The iphone X is now also connected

This keeps happening once or twice a week. What I have tried:

  • It happened before I installed Catalina, which is why I did install it, but didn't help. 
  • Updated the printer drivers from the website (before I did this, I couldn't find the printer at all.

What can I do to stop this from happening?

1 REPLY 1
HP Recommended

@flowergirl2020, Welcome to HP Support Community!

 

I see that you're experiencing printer offline issues. Let's try the below steps to see if that helps - 

  

1.) Remove All Barriers: Certain building materials can get in the way of weaker signals like Bluetooth. Metal, bulletproof glass, concrete, and plaster are particularly bad, and marble, plaster, and brick aren’t great easy. So if you’re really struggling with interference, your first step should be to move your Bluetooth devices away from these materials. That means no brick walls between you and your devices, and definitely no metal desks! 

  

2.) Change Router Channel: If you have an Apple router and you’re constantly getting interference with your WiFi, try rebooting it. Upon restart, the station will search for a new channel. Specifically, a different channel than the one your Bluetooth devices is using to communicate. If you don’t have an Apple router, you may need to instead go into your router settings and try changing the channel manually. Experiment with different channels to see which one works best. 

  

3.) Move Closer to Your Router: If you often find that you’re getting interference when talking on a wireless headset while on a WiFi call (you’ll know because you’ll hear static), try moving closer to your router. This will give you a more robust WiFi connection, so the Bluetooth frequency can’t overpower it. 

  

4.) Get Away From Microwaves and Fluorescent Lighting: Both emit frequencies of 2.4GHz, and moving away from them will distance you from the source. 

  

I'd like to know the following to isolate the issue further- 

  

1.) Are the printer and Mac connected to the same network? 

2.) Is your router dual-band enabled i.e., both 2.4GHz and 5GHz? If yes, make sure the dual band has different SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G networks. 

3.) What is the distance between the router and the printer? 

4.) Is there an antivirus software installed on your Mac? 

5.) 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.  

 

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!

TEJ1602
I am an HP Employee

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.