Is there a paper jam? Printers usually squawk about paper jams.

Does the printer have paper in it? No paper, no printout.

Consider restarting your router if there seem to be communication issues.

Is the printer connected? It should be connected via either USB or your Wi-Fi or Ethernet network-make sure the cables are plugged in and it’s on the same network as your Mac.

Also, try turning it off and back on-this resolves a surprising number of printing problems.

Is the printer turned on? Doh! If necessary, turn it on.

Check the Printer and Its ConnectionĮrror messages may have given you a hint about problems with the printer itself, but they’re not always helpful. That won’t work if the printer has paused itself due to a paper jam or low supplies-in such a case, resolve the problem first. If something has caused the printer to be paused, click the green Resume button. You may also see old print jobs stuck in the queue that are blocking the current job-delete them by clicking the X next to their names. The Print Queue app may also display a useful error message that tells you what’s wrong, such as the printer being offline or not connected. First off, if you print to multiple printers, does the app correspond with the correct printer? If not, cancel the job by clicking the X button to its right, quit the Print Queue app, print again, and choose the correct printer from the Printer pop-up menu in the Print dialog. In the Print Queue app, look at the status of the printer and the print job. (If it doesn’t, open System Preferences > Printers & Scanners, select the desired printer and click Open Print Queue.) Whenever you print, the printer’s Print Queue app appears in your Dock, named for the printer.

Now what? Try these troubleshooting steps. Or, worse, macOS looks like it’s printing, so you focus on some other task, only to realize 20 minutes later that nothing has come out of the printer. You choose File > Print, and nothing happens.

There’s little more frustrating than being unable to print a document when you need it.

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