Disappearing Printers

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Not sure if this has been posted already but does anyone else have a problem with printers “disappearing” in Windows 10 1909 64bit?

I have 2 printers – an Epson XP-6100 inkjet and a Brother HL-1110 mono laser and after several weeks both printers “disappear” from both Devices > Printers and scanners in Settings and Devices and Printers in the ‘old’ Control Panel and Microsoft Print to PDF becomes the default printer (I have “Let Windows manage my default printer” unticked in Printers and scanners in Settings, don’t know if that matters?)

The drivers and software for both my printers is still installed and if I turn the printers on they reappear in Devices > Printers and scanners in Settings and Devices and Printers in the ‘old’ Control Panel but after a few weeks they “disappear” again.

Not really a major drama but I’m just curious to know why this happens (its happened several times since I did this clean install of 1909 in early November last year).

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If you leave them turned off it isn’t surprising that Windows changes the default printer – it’s probably assuming the devices no longer exist.

cheers, Paul

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Carl D

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Thanks, Paul.

It is rather unusual though, I’ve always left my printers turned off and only turn them on when I need to print something. Never had this issue in Windows 7 or earlier versions of Windows.

Not really a huge problem. As I said, I just turn the printers on and they “reappear”. And, I have to change the default back to one of my two printers, of course.

I usually notice it when I go to print something after not using the printers for some time and nothing happens because the default printer has changed to Microsoft Print to PDF. If I’m really paying attention before that I’ll notice that my two printers are missing from the list of available printers when I’m asked which one I want to use.

@anonymous, I’ll check back and read your reply later. Can’t see it at the moment because its awaiting moderation.

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This is normal if the printer is switched off as PaulT has stated, I’ve encountered this on both Win8.1 and Win10. There is nothing to be concerned about, from my own experience when the printer is switched on, the OS picks it up again with custom settings still in place.

I tend look at it it as ‘OS device saving’, after all, why load device drivers if is the device is not visible to the OS.

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Carl D

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My Laser AIO printer is never switched off but goes into sleep mode.
It gets operational quicker from sleep.

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Carl D

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Interesting, but I think the coorect behavior is really that printers do not disappear. It should have “Offline” notice underneath.

My bet is, that there is some setting, that hides offline printers in GPO or regedit, but all I can find is “Deny removig printers”, but my setting is “No” and printers do not disappear. I will investigate later, lot of work to do now.

Is your printer loaclly installed, or do you use print server?

My last idea is to look, if there is set “available all the time” in printer server setttings.

Maybe my ideas are dead ends, but maybe they are worth trying, or microsoft did this “update”, so you wont be bothered by offline printers and we are wasting our time.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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Carl D

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Hi, printers are locally installed.

Here’s a screenshot of my printers:

Now, this is what happens when I turn on the two printers:

And, when I turn the two printers off:

It will stay like that for maybe a week if I don’t turn on either printer and then they just “disappear” and I end up with screenshot 1 again until I turn the printers on.

But, I can live with it. All I need to do is turn the printers on and they “reappear”.

Does seem a little odd though because, as I mentioned earlier, this never happened with Windows 7 or earlier Windows versions.

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doriel

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If it works just by turning on, I would leave it as it is.

If you want to, try to investigate, if port of that printer changes, if your printers disappear and reappear. If the port remains, the printer is somehow hidden, not reinstalled. If there are more ports for the same IP with different name (_2, _3 on the end), printers were reinstalled.

But more and more it sounds to me like some “functionality” that hides printers, that are “gone for a while”.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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Carl D

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So we are all right, the printer is shown as offline until Windows decides it’s been offline too long and is removed.

cheers, Paul

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Carl D, doriel

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