"Printer not responding" on macOS: what to check.

The "Printer not responding" message on macOS is what your Mac shows when it tried to talk to the printer and didn’t hear back in the expected time. It doesn’t mean the printer is broken — it means something between your Mac and the printer isn’t completing the handshake. The cause is usually network state, a stuck job, or a paused queue.

Here are the checks in order, starting with the quickest.

How macOS print queues actually work

A quick mental model helps. On macOS, each installed printer has its own print queue. When you print, the document goes into that queue, and macOS sends it to the printer one job at a time. If the printer doesn’t accept a job — because it’s offline, busy with another job, or unreachable — the queue can stall. Until the stall is cleared, every subsequent job sits behind it.

"Printer not responding" usually means the queue tried to send a job and didn’t get the expected acknowledgment back. Sometimes the printer is genuinely unreachable; sometimes it’s reachable but the queue is in a bad state.

Step 1: Check the printer itself

Before assuming a Mac-side problem, confirm the printer is actually ready to print:

• Is it powered on?
• Is the display showing any error message (paper out, low ink, paper jam, cover open)?
• Is the wireless indicator (if applicable) showing a stable connection?
• Has it gone into a deep sleep state? Press a button on the control panel to wake it.

Resolve any printer-side issue first. The "not responding" error often clears on its own once the printer is back in a ready state.

Step 2: Open the print queue and look for stuck jobs

Open System Settings → Printers & Scanners. Click your printer, then click "Print Queue" or "Open Print Queue."

What you might find:

• Jobs in the queue with error states. A job marked with an exclamation point or red icon is stuck. Click the X next to it to cancel, or right-click and choose "Delete Job."
• The queue itself is paused. You’ll see a "Resume" button at the top. Click it to restart the queue.
• Multiple jobs piled up. Cancel all of them, then try sending just one fresh job.

If the queue had stuck jobs or was paused, clearing them resolves the issue in many cases.

Step 3: Toggle the printer off and on

Power-cycling the printer clears any stuck state on the printer’s side:

1. Turn the printer off using its power button.
2. Wait 30 seconds.
3. Turn it back on.
4. Wait for the printer to fully boot and report ready.
5. Try printing again.

Step 4: Remove and re-add the printer

If the printer is still not responding, the cleanest fix is to remove it from macOS and add it back. This rebuilds the print queue from scratch.

1. Open System Settings → Printers & Scanners.
2. Click your printer.
3. Click "Remove Printer" or the minus button.
4. Confirm the removal.
5. Click "Add Printer, Scanner, or Fax" and add the printer back through the standard flow. See our macOS setup guide if needed.

This addresses any corruption in the print queue or driver configuration without affecting the printer hardware.

Step 5: Reset the entire macOS print system

If individual printer removal doesn’t resolve the issue, macOS includes a more thorough reset that clears all print queues and printer configurations.

Note: This removes all your installed printers and their print history. You’ll need to re-add each one afterward. Don’t use this step lightly — only when the targeted steps above don’t resolve the issue.

1. Open System Settings → Printers & Scanners.
2. Right-click (or control-click) inside the printer list area — not on any specific printer.
3. Choose "Reset printing system."
4. Confirm. macOS removes all printers and clears all queues.
5. Add your printers back as if setting up new devices.

The "Reset printing system" command is a thorough fix for stubborn print queue issues. It’s the macOS equivalent of restarting the Windows Print Spooler — but more comprehensive, because it clears configuration as well as state.

Step 6: Network checks (for network printers)

If the printer is on the network rather than USB, the "not responding" error may be a network connectivity issue rather than a print-system issue. Check:

• Is the printer’s IP address still the same as when you added it? Print a network configuration page from the printer’s menu to verify.
• Is your Mac on the same network as the printer? Check Wi-Fi network names.
• Try pinging the printer’s IP address from Terminal: ping [printer-ip-address]. If pings don’t go through, the network connectivity is the issue, not macOS.

For broader Wi-Fi-side troubleshooting, see our printer not on Wi-Fi guide.

Step 7: Reinstall the printer driver

If "not responding" persists after all of the above, the driver itself may be the issue:

1. Remove the printer from System Settings.
2. Go to the manufacturer’s official support site and download the current macOS driver for your specific printer model.
3. Run the installer.
4. Re-add the printer; the new driver should be selected automatically in the "Use" dropdown.

For driver downloads, always use the manufacturer’s official site. See our finding official drivers guide for the specific URLs and how to avoid look-alike sites.

When to seek help

If the printer is still unresponsive after a full print system reset and a fresh driver install, the issue is likely either a hardware problem with the printer or a macOS-specific issue with your installation. At that point, contact the manufacturer of your printer through their official support channels, or consult a qualified local technician.