Technical Anshu
Tutorials Blog
🖨️ Network Printer Fix

Printer Not Found on Network Fix Windows Cannot Find Network Printer

The printer is on the same Wi-Fi as your PC, other people can print to it, but your Windows cannot find it at all. Here is how engineers hunt it down.

✍️ Technical Anshu🪟 Windows 10 / 11⏱️ 15 minute fix
🎥 The full printer training video — network checks and every other fix shown live

"Not found" has two very different shapes. Either the printer cannot be reached at all — wrong network, changed IP, a discovery service switched off — or it is reachable but Windows auto-search simply fails to list it. The second shape is far more common, and it has a bypass that works almost every time: stop searching and add the printer directly by its IP address. First prove reachability, then use the fixes in order.

Add a Printer — Search Finds Nothing
Select a printer

Searching for available printers... No printers were found.
Printer power and Wi-FiOn — same network
Other PCs in the officePrinting fine
When the printer works for everyone else, your PC is not "searching wrong" by accident — discovery is blocked or the address moved. Go direct with Fix 2.
1

Prove the Printer Is Reachable With Ping

Before changing any setting, get the printer's IP address from its own screen or a printed network configuration page, then test the path.

  1. Open Command Prompt and run ping 192.168.1.50 — replace with your printer's actual address
  2. Replies mean the printer is reachable; the problem is Windows discovery, so continue to Fix 2
  3. All timeouts mean a real network problem: confirm the printer and PC are on the same Wi-Fi name (SSID) and the same band network — a printer on the guest network or a different router will never be found
  4. Restart the router once if the printer recently dropped off after a power cut
2

Add the Printer Directly by IP Address

This bypasses discovery completely and is the standard office fix.

  1. Open Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners → Add device
  2. When your printer does not appear, click Add manually (in Windows 10: "The printer that I want isn't listed")
  3. Choose Add a printer using an IP address or hostname
  4. Set Device type to TCP/IP Device, type the printer's IP, and finish the wizard
  5. Print a test page. If it works, also reserve this IP in the router so the address never changes again
3

Turn On Network Discovery and Its Services

If you want auto-search to work — and shared printers to appear — Windows discovery must be allowed, and it depends on services that are often disabled.

  1. Open Control Panel → Network and Sharing Center → Change advanced sharing settings
  2. Under your current (Private) profile, turn on Network discovery and File and printer sharing
  3. Open services.msc and set Function Discovery Provider Host and Function Discovery Resource Publication to Automatic and start them
  4. Also make sure your Wi-Fi network profile is set to Private, not Public — Public blocks discovery by design
4

Printer Shared From Another PC? Open the Host Directly

For a USB printer shared from a colleague's computer, test the host PC itself, not the printer.

  1. Press Windows + R and type the host address like \\OFFICE-PC or its IP, then Enter
  2. If the shared printer is listed, double-click it to connect
  3. If you get a credential prompt, sign in with an account that exists on the host PC
  4. If the host does not open at all, the problem is the host PC — sharing off, host asleep, or host firewall — not your printer setup
5

Check the Firewall and Antivirus Last ⭐

Third-party security suites sometimes block printer discovery and file sharing silently.

  1. Temporarily pause the third-party firewall/antivirus network shield for two minutes and search again
  2. If the printer appears, add an exception for File and Printer Sharing in that software instead of leaving it disabled
  3. Honest limit: if the printer does not answer ping from any PC and its own Wi-Fi light is off or blinking in an error pattern, its network card may have failed — that is a hardware service case, not a Windows setting

🎥 Complete Knowledge and Installation in the Video

Watch the complete engineer method — reachability tests, ports, drivers, sharing and queues — in the full 25-minute training.

▶️ Watch Full Video
❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Why can other computers find the printer but mine cannot?

Because discovery is a per-PC feature. Your PC likely has network discovery off, its network profile set to Public, the Function Discovery services stopped, or a firewall blocking the search. Adding the printer by IP address bypasses all of that, which is why it works when search fails.

How do I find my printer IP address?

Print a network configuration or status page from the printer's own menu — it lists the current IP. You can also open your router's settings page and look at the connected devices list, where the printer appears by its model name.

The printer was found last week and disappeared today. Why?

Most often its IP address changed after a router restart or power cut, so the old saved connection points nowhere. Re-add it at its new address and then reserve a fixed IP for the printer in the router — that stops the disappearing act permanently.

This guide is based on the printer training video by Technical Anshu • Stuck on a step? Ask in the video comments — you will get an answer there 🙏