HP Smart no longer connects with either of my two HP printers; cannot hide or set either of them up.

[IrvingR]

My All-in-One, connected via Wifi, loses connection with router; my other printer HP1606dn is connected via USB. Both appear as connected devices in Windows, but only the 1606 works--and only sometimes. HP Smart cannot connect with or manage either printer. Have tried the full set of HP self-help diagnostic steps. Both were working fine 2 days ago. I have made no changes in network settings since then, but have downloaded and installed the latest Windows 11 update--although both printers still worked immediately thereafter. HP Smart, however, seems to be basically disabled, and I cannot reconnect the All-in-One to the network successfully for more than a few minutes. Has anyone else experienced this problem? I've spent several fruitless hours trying to fix it myself. 

[Irfan_06]

Hi @IrvingR,

Welcome to the HP Support Community.

Thank you for posting your query, I will be glad to assist you.

I see that you are facing an issue with using your Printer with the HP smart app.

A) Please follow the steps below to perform a power drain.

1) Take out the cartridges

2) Unplug the power cord from the printer & wall.

3) Press and hold the power button down for 15 seconds and release the power button, wait for about 30 seconds.

4) Plug the power cord back into the printer and wall, ensure the printer is plugged into the wall & not into a surge protector.

5) Insert the cartridges back into the printer.

Remove the cartridges > Unplug the power cord > Wait for 30 seconds > Plug the power cord back in > Insert the cartridges

B) Kindly refer to the steps on this link to update the printer firmware and let me know if that resolves the issue.

C) If the issue still persists, uninstall the printer software by following the steps from this link and restart the devices.

D)  Install the printer software by clicking on the link again and let me know if that resolves the issue.

Note: Enable Bluetooth for an HP Smart app setup: Enable Bluetooth on your computer or mobile device so that HP Smart can detect the printer during the setup.

Please mark this post as “Accepted Solution” if the issue is resolved and if you feel this reply was helpful click “Yes”.

I hope this helps.

Take care and have a good day

Irwin6

HP Support

[IrvingR]

Hello, Irwin6. Thanks for your recent reply. Unfortunately, my 8720 is still non-functional. After following steps A1-A5 in your reply I was unable to update the printer firmware, step B of your reply. The obstacle is that I am still unable to establish a wifi connection between the printer and my computer (and thus to HP Smart) or the internet. Thus none of the methods for updating the printer software listed in your link are feasible at this point. 

As of this writing, when I attempt to connect the printer to my router using the printer's wireless set up wizard menu ,  it detects the existence of the network router but displays a yellow warning tag, shows 0 bars of service, and cannot connect. Nor does the protected wifi setup menu option work. A message indicating a connection is in progress does appear, but the attempt always fails. On rare attempts the printer has shown 3 or 4 blue bars next to the router symbol, but it cannot hold that for more than a few seconds before the yellow tag reappears.

At this point, it appears that the only remaining option is to uninstall and then reinstall the printer software. Perhaps that will work. I would hope so as at this point I have invested roughly a full day of my time on a fruitless attempt to resolve this issue. If there are no other options, I will give the uninstallation method a go when I have time available, which is not the case at the moment.

I note only that I had made no changes in the network or the printer settings when this problem first appeared. Increasingly, it appears to me that the only viable solution is a new printer. Sigh.