Printer keeps disconnecting wirelessly

[Ness10]

Hi, I've been having a hard time with my pri ter. Each time I go to print, it says its connected to the network but on my mac it says printer not found or idle. I have to manually connect by entering the ip address each time and adding the printer. I feel like I've tried so many things. Please help!

[Jay_G24]

Hi @Ness10,

I'd like to help!

I understand you are facing a printer offline issue.

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.

Perform a ping test to check the connectivity

1.        Obtain the IP address of the printer by clicking on the Wireless icon on the printer

2.        On the MAC Go to Spotlight > search for Network utility > select Ping tab > enter the IP address of the printer in the box

3.        Check the second box that says Send only > 10 pings

4.        Click on ping > Check the results at the end if any packets are lost

5.        Note: There should be 0% packet loss, share the results in your next post.

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.

Click the “Yes" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping

[Ness10]

  Thanks for trying to help. I'm still having troubles. It shows the printer and my mac are connected to the same network. But it's still not recognizing the printer. So I have to manually put in the printer IP address again and add the printer. 

[Jay_G24]

It says 0 packets received,try the below suggestions to resolve the connectivity issue

Connect the printer to the Wi-Fi network (printers with a touchscreen)

use the Wireless Setup Wizard to reconnect your HP printer to the wireless network of your choice.

1. Place the printer near the network router.

2. Make sure paper is loaded in the main tray, and then turn on the printer.

3. From the Wireless  or Setup  menu, select Network setup or Settings, and then select Restore Network Settings.

4. Get the network name and password. Go to Find the wireless network password or PIN to connect an HP printer for more information.

5. From the Setup, Network, or Wireless settings menu, select Wireless Setup Wizard.

6. Select your network, and then enter the password.

   NOTE: 

   If the Wireless Setup Wizard is not listed, select Wi-Fi Protected Setup or WPS, select Push Button, and then follow the steps to connect to the network

Set a manual IP-

To set a manual IP and try the steps below -

--->Touch on the wifi icon ((i)) on the printer, and take down the IP address 

--->Open a web browser (ex Chrome or Mozilla) and type in the printer's IP

--->then go to network ---> general ---> network protocols ---> select IPV4 only-->apply 

--->go to wireless ---> wireless 802.11---> select manual ip ---> apply

--->Enter 8.8.8.8 for the first DNS and 8.8.4.4 for the second DNS.  

--->then go to settings on the main ews page --> power management ---> select sleep mode to max 15min

Now try and add the printer and try and print.

Let me know how this goes!