Envy 4520 stuck showing offline in Windows 10

[RLNoonan]

My daughter's Envy 4520 printer was working perfectly fine before she came home for Thanksgiving break (had to turn off the printer over break).  When she returned, the printer was showing up as offline.  The reason was pretty obvious, the printers IP address had changed (she is in a dorm room, so she cannot configure the school's router to make the IP static).

We opened HP Smart software, which did not see the updated IP address right away.  We had to go to Printer | Select a Different Printer and then it seemed to "rescan" and found the new address.  So it looked like things were going to work because HP Smart now saw the correct IP address and showed the printer as ready.  Unfortunately, she still could not print.  Windows still seemed to think the printer was offline.  In Devices and Printers it still showed offline, and nothing seems to change this.  We have followed the steps that HP support provided for this issue, including powering off/on the printer, restarting the computer, setting default printer and unpausing, restarting the print spooler, adding a second printer, and finally reinstalling the driver.  Nothing has worked even though HP Smart seems to indicate that the connection to the printer is fine.  I'm actually afraid things are more screwed up than when we started because when we added the second printer, we added a direct print driver.  This seemed like it was going to work because it showed online in Device and Printers at first.  But we tried to print a test page and it failed and then the printer would not show up in the Devices and Printers anymore.

What can I try next?  This is ridiculous that we have to go through this much trouble to get a printer to show up as online.  Why doesn't the HP Smart status communicate with the device driver?  What use is it if it won't do that?

Thanks for any help on this.

[Dvortex · Accepted solution]

Hello, @RLNoonan - Hope you are well 🙂

Thanks for stopping by the HP Support Forums! I’d like to help!

I understand that you are printer offline issues on your HP Envy printer. Do not worry, we have a new HP Print Scan Doctor application which is capable of fixing the specific printer offline issues. This can also assign a static IP address. Download the PSDR and follow the steps below:

Download link: http://hp.care/2nFmPZE 

Steps:

1. Run PSDR v5.0.2
2. Once the PSDR detects the Printer, it will show up the IP address and Software Status.
3. Select the correct Printer and click on Next.
4. PSDR will check if the Printer is on the Network and communication between the PC and the Printer. Once the connection check is done, click on Fix Printing
5. Once PSDR goes through all checks and automatic fixes, click on Print a test page.
6. Regardless if PSDR printed the test page or not, click on “NO PRINT”
7. PSDR will then notify you that there is an update available, click on continue, and PSDR will apply the patch and ask for a reboot.
8. Post restart the PSDR will run automatically to check for more issue. If no issue found close PSDR.

If the issue persists, then let's try to disable the IPv6 on your printer and then assign a public DNS. Here are the steps:

•    Obtain the IP address of the printer – You can touch the “wireless” icon on the printer control panel to get the IP address.
•    Type the IP address on your web browser to obtain the printer EWS page on your computer.
•    Go to "Network" tab - General - Select "Network protocols" - Select "Enable IPv4 only" (or similar) - Apply the settings.
•    Go to the “Network” tab – Click on “Wireless (802.11) – Then click on “Network address (IPv4)
•    Click on the radio button which says “Manual IP” and then click “Suggest a manual IP address” to give a manual IP address to your printer.
•    Click on radio button which says “Manual DNS Server” and under manual preferred type 8.8.8.8 and under manual alternate type 8.8.4.4 (This is Google DNS server address)
 

Please let me know if this resolves the issue, or if you require further assistance!

Good luck 🙂

Please click "Accepted as Solution" on the post that solves your issue to help others find the solution. To show appreciation for my help, please click the "Thumbs Up Icon" below!

[RLNoonan]

Thanks very much for the information and steps.  I am definitely going to have her install PSDR because I think it will be useful for any future issues with the printer.

I had planned on updating this issue because I spoke with my daughter this morning and the problem is now fixed (at least for now).  I had the idea that since HP Smart was correctly communicating with the printer that she should try printing a document thru the HP Smart app.  When she tried that she got an error message:

"The selected printer is detected but not installed completely on your Windows system.  You must install the printer software to use the Print feature of this app."

It then listed the exact steps to follow to install the driver/software.  This made complete sense since I had mentioned that it seemed like we had screwed up the printer driver in the process of trying to re-install it.  My daughter followed those instructions and it fixed everything.  She is can now print from Word, etc like normal.

I think if she had had PSDR already that this would have been a much quicker/simpler process.  Also, I know that she is going to have to unplug the printer over Christmas break, so I'm sure she will have the problem again when she returns after the break.  I will have her install PSDR and I will also look at using your instructions for Manual DNS Server so that the problem doesn't occur anymore.  

One of my computers at home (I have this same printer at home too) has the HP Printer Assistant app, which includes the Print Scan Doctor as one of the tools.  Would it be better to try and install this to get all the other features of the HP Printer Assistant?  If so, can you provide a link to where to install that?  One my computer at home is just seemed to install automatically when it was updating the printing services.

Thanks again for the help on this.

[Dvortex]

Hello, @RLNoonan

Thanks for the update & Great stuff! Glad to know that you were able to fix the issue 🙂
 

Now, HP Printer Assistant is the printer application which is installed along with the full-feature printer software. So yes, it is better to have the HP Printer Assistant to be installed on your PC. For any printer, install the full feature printer software and the HP Printer Assistant will be installed automatically.

Visit us again if you have any concerns!

Thank you again and may you have a wonderful day and even better tomorrow 🙂