No AirPrint printers found on iPhone? 9 fixes

You tap Share, tap Print, and tap No Printer Selected. Then your iPhone searches for a while and tells you No AirPrint Printers Found. The printer is sitting right there and the lights are on. The message sounds technical, but the cause is usually simple: your iPhone and the printer are not seeing each other on the same network. Apple's own pages give two firm requirements, and most cases come down to one of them. Below are nine fixes, starting with the two that Apple names and moving to the ones that people report most often.

What does No AirPrint Printers Found mean?

AirPrint is Apple's built in way to print without installing a driver. Your iPhone looks for printers on the local network that say they support AirPrint. When it finds none, it shows No AirPrint Printers Found. That can mean the printer is off or asleep, the printer is not on your Wi-Fi, your iPhone is on a different network, the printer does not support AirPrint, or something such as a VPN is hiding it. The message itself does not tell you which.

Fix 1: Put the iPhone and the printer on the same Wi-Fi network

This is the first requirement in Apple's AirPrint article: the printer and your iPhone must be on the same Wi-Fi network. Open Settings, tap Wi-Fi and note the network name your iPhone uses. Then check the printer's display or its network report and make sure it is on that same name. Many routers have two names, one for 2.4 GHz and one for 5 GHz, and some printers can only use one of them. Some routers also put visitors on a guest network that is separate from the main one, which hides devices from each other. Make sure both are on the main network.

Fix 2: Check that the printer supports AirPrint

The second requirement is that the printer supports AirPrint and connects over Wi-Fi or a wired network. Apple's printer list lets you search by brand, model or category, and Apple says to check with the manufacturer if your printer is not listed. A printer that only prints over USB, or an older model, may not support AirPrint at all. If yours does not, the printer maker's own app is usually the way to print from an iPhone, and we cover that near the end.

Fix 3: Wake the printer and clear its errors

A printer in sleep mode, switched off or showing an error may not answer. Turn it on, press a button to wake it and look at the display. Fix anything it reports, such as an empty paper tray, a paper jam, low ink or a network error. Some printers stop answering on the network until the error is cleared. Wait a minute after it wakes, then try again.

Fix 4: Turn off Airplane Mode, VPN and Private Wi-Fi Address

Airplane Mode must be off and Wi-Fi on. AirPrint works over your local network, so a phone that is on cellular data alone will not find a printer. A VPN can also send your traffic away from the local network, so turn it off while you print. Some guides report that Private Wi-Fi Address can interfere. To try that, open Settings, tap Wi-Fi, tap the info button next to your network and turn off Private Wi-Fi Address, then reconnect. Turn it back on later if it makes no difference.

Fix 5: Restart the router, the printer and the iPhone in order

A community answer suggests a careful power cycle, and it works for many people. It clears stale network records.

Fix 6: Reconnect the printer to Wi-Fi

If the printer lost its connection, it will not show up. Apple's Wi-Fi setup guide for AirPrint printers describes the main ways to join a printer to a network: through its own display, through a USB cable to a Mac with the printer's setup assistant, through an ad hoc network, or with WPS if the printer supports it. The simplest for most people is the printer's control panel. Choose your Wi-Fi network, enter the password and wait for it to confirm. Print a network report if the printer can do it, and check the network name on it.

Fix 7: Update iOS and the printer firmware

Old software can break discovery. On the iPhone, open Settings, tap General, tap Software Update and install what is offered. See our guide on how to update an iPhone if you are not sure. Printer makers also release firmware updates. Check the printer's display menu, its app or the maker's website, and install any update. This is especially worth doing if the printer worked before and stopped after a recent change.

Fix 8: Reset the network settings

If nothing helps, reset the iPhone's network settings. This removes saved Wi-Fi networks and passwords, so have yours ready. Open Settings, tap General, tap Transfer or Reset iPhone, tap Reset, then tap Reset Network Settings. Reconnect to your Wi-Fi and try printing again. If the Wi-Fi itself is the problem, see our guide on an iPhone that will not connect to Wi-Fi.

Fix 9: Use the printer maker's app or another way to print

When AirPrint will not work, the printer's own app is often the easiest way around. Many makers offer an app that sends a document straight to the printer. You can also email a document to a computer that is connected to the printer, or save the file to cloud storage and print from the computer. These are workarounds, and they do not fix AirPrint, but they get your page out.

Why did the printer work before and stop now?

A printer that used to show up and now does not usually had something change. The router may have been replaced or reset, so the printer lost the network and needs to be joined again. The router may have given the printer a new address, or switched bands. An update on the iPhone or the printer may have changed how they find each other. Think about what changed just before the problem started, and start with that. If you moved house or changed your internet provider, the printer almost certainly needs to join the new Wi-Fi from its own control panel.

What does AirPrint not work with?

Apple's AirPrint articles list two setups that do not work: a printer plugged into the USB port of an AirPort Base Station or AirPort Time Capsule, and a printer connected to a computer by Bluetooth. A printer that is only connected to a computer by USB, and not to the network, will not show up either. If your printer is shared from a computer, it may need to be set up on the network directly.

I found the printer. How do I print the right size?

Once the printer shows up, tap Print, choose the printer, set the copies and pages and tap Print. If the page comes out too small, too large or on the wrong paper size, our guide on how to change the print size from an iPhone explains the options, and the one on printing text messages covers a common use. If an app does not show a Print option, it may not support printing. Check the app's help.

Still no AirPrint printers found?

Try printing from another device on the same network. If that fails too, the problem is the printer or the network, not your iPhone. If another phone prints and yours does not, repeat the network reset and check for a VPN profile or a content filter. At that point, the printer maker's support page for your model is the best next step. Keep the model number and a note of what you tried.