Secure air print wi-fi connection keeps dropping

[Helzepops]

My new printer regularly (like every day) drops its connection to my mac. If I power off and on again it's fine until sometime the next day or later the same day when it drops.
My wi-fi is stable and on a mesh system - all other devices are fine.
I may print once or several times in between it dropping.
Re-setting doesn't work.
The printer power switch doesn't work. 
I have to power off and on at the mains.
I cannot rely on being able to print off anything quickly and the hassle factor is too high.
Anyone have any experience or suggestions as to how to achieve a stable connection please?

[Jay_G24]

Hi @Helzepops,

I'd like to help!

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. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

And, Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

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[Helzepops]

Thank you for a fantastic reply with lots of things to try.
It would appear that what I need to do before printing is click on my desktop printer icon to wake the printer up and it has been working fine for about a week now if  do this. I didn't have to do it with my previous HP printer and haven't seen it as an instruction anywhere but for now it seems to work.
I am however keeping a copy of your reply just in case!

[Jay_G24]

Try the below suggestions to resolve the offline issue-

Try updating mac and printer firmware

To update the printer's firmware, refer - HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware 

 To update Mac, try these steps - How to update the software on your Mac

Add the AirPrint printer to the Mac printer queue

Confirm you are using AirPrint by adding the printer in System Preferences.

1. Click the Apple menu, click System Preferences, and then click Print & Scan or Printers & Scanners.

   Figure : Example of the Printers & Scanners window

   

2. Check if your printer name displays in the Printers list, and then do one of the following steps.

   • If your printer is listed, remove and re-add the printer to confirm it is set up for AirPrint. Click the printer name, click the minus sign  to delete the printer, click the plus sign , click Add Printer or Scanner, click the printer name and then continue to the next step.

   • If your printer is not listed, click the plus sign, click Add Printer or Scanner, click the name of your printer, and then continue to the next step.

3. Confirm AirPrint or Secure AirPrint displays in the Use or Print Using menu, and then click Add.

   Figure : AirPrint displays in the Use menu

   

4. Open a document or photo, click File, and then click Print.

Keep me posted!