Wireless connectivity is a double-edged blade. On the one hand, you can connect your printer to devices anywhere in your home. On the other, your connection is something that you can’t see. If your printer has dropped its Wi-fi signal, often you won’t be able to tell unless you troubleshoot the connectivity. If your printer’s Wi-fi is down, unplug it and reconnect it to your modem. It’s a bit of a trope these days, but powering down electronics can do wonders for fixing problems. If your device isn’t connecting to your printer, check to see that your Wi-fi and Bluetooth capabilities are up and operational.
A weak (or nonexistent!) connection between your computer and printer will prevent you from getting the documents you need. And because the issues lie between the two, often it can be tough to diagnose. If your printer was connecting wirelessly to your printer and then stopped, try restarting your computer and printer to see if they will reconnect. If no, here are some common questions you should ask when you suspect your WiFi connection may be to blame for your issues.
- Is your printer connected to your network? Printing a Wireless Network Test Report is the easiest way to check and see on HP printers. Go to your control panel and select Wireless Network Test Report (on some models, you can access this directly by hitting the wireless button). This report will give you insights into connectivity, the units connected to the network, and the Network Name (SSID address)—from which you can see if your unit is connecting to the network. Consider restarting your router and printer to reconnect.
- Is your computer connected to the network? For Windows users, select the HP Print and Scan Doctor discussed above to check. For Apple users, click on the Wireless logo in the top right-hand corner of your screen. Is your network checked?
- Was anything on your computer changed recently? Updates to your security software, firewalls, browser, and operating system can result in connection issues with your printer. You may need to reconnect your computer to the network, reconfigure your protection settings to include printers, or install an updated driver, depending on the nature of your updates. If you updated software, consider restoring your system back to the original settings/version to see if that reconnects you.
- Was your router replaced recently? Chances are you’ll need to reconfigure your printer and computer to reconnect with the network. Check to see if your new router is assigned a different ISP address, which will need reconfiguration.
How to Connect Your HP Printer to Wi-Fi
Since there are many HP printers, it’s hard to list a generic set of instructions that will work for all models. As a rule of thumb, when trying to connect you HP printer to your wireless network, look for this icon:
If your printer has this icon on a button, press down that button until the blue light next to the wireless icon blinks.
If you don’t see this icon as a button on your printer’s control panel, it’s probably something you need to get to from the printer’s display. Go to your printer’s display and look for the wireless symbol.
Press this icon on your display and follow the steps to setup your wireless settings. If you didn’t have success with the Wireless Setup Wizard, go to the Wireless Settings menu again but this time, select “Wi-Fi Protected Setup”. Then touch “Push Button”, and then “Start”. When you’ve done this, go to your router, and press down the WPS button for 3 seconds until the wireless light blinks. Check in a few minutes if your printer is connected.