Have you ever got the error message ‘Another computer is using the printer’ while you are in the course of printing something? It happens to other printer users as well. With a few guidelines, you can fix the issue. First thing, restart your printer and reconnect it to your PC.
In case the issue doesn’t go away, follow these 6 solutions below to try to resolve the issue. Any of them can solve the problem as you go from one to another.
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Solution 1 – Do the Print Spooler Service Restart
When you restart the Printer Spooler Service, it fixes most issues in the printer. Begin by canceling every print job in process and then follow each of these steps:
- Press your keyboard Windows key and R both at once, and the Run box will open.
- Type in msc, then click, OK.
- On the list, pick Print Spooler.
- Go to the upper left and click Restart and the Printer Spooler service will restart.
- Print something to check the fix.
2. Solution 2 – Perform a Complete Power Cycle
One other effective solution is to simply turn the computer, WiFi, and printer off and on. That may reinitialize the configurations of your printer as well as its parameters sets. It can also help to recover it from a state of unresponsiveness. Turning off can also reset the network configurations lost when the device is turned completely off.
It is worth trying. Go ahead:
- Turn off your printer, computer, and Wi-Fi.
- Unplug your printer and computer.
- In 5 minutes, plug both devices in. Have them turned on and connect. Try printing something.
3. Solution 3 – Update the Driver of Your Printer
If these steps above fail to solve this issue of ‘Another computer is using the printer,’ a faulty or outdated driver in your printer may be the cause.
In that case, go to Device Manager and update the printer driver:
- Press Windows+R on your keyboard to see the Run box.
- Now type msc, then click, OK.
- Click to open Printers Next,right-click on the printer and pick Update driver.
- Click on Search automatically for updated driver software.
Note: You may find a message saying that Windows could not find any driver updates and that the best drivers for your printer are already installed. Then you can try a tool like Driver Easy which will detect downloads for you to install the driver updates needed by your PC.
4. Solution 4 – Set Your Printer as the Default Printer
A Canon printer is suitable for this solution.
Canon printers come with a normal printer and another one with ‘WS’ at the end. The ‘WS’ may be causing the problem if your device is connected to it. Now, set the normal printer as your default printer to solve the problem. Remove the ‘WS’ printer entirely.
If your PC uses Windows 10
- On Windows search box, type printers. Then, choose Printers & scanners.
- Go to the right pane and uncheck Let Windows manage my default printer.
- Under that very Printers & scanners, select any printer you need and click the manage
- Next, Click on Set as default.
If your PC uses Windows 8
- Click on the Start button and the upper right Search
- Type printers and choose Devices and Printers.
- Go to the section with Printers and right-click your selected printer and click on Set as default printer.
If your PC uses Windows 7
- Click on the Start button, and next on Devices and Printers.
- Right-click on any printer you want to pick Set as default printer.
Now you can close the windows to test if the problem is solved.
5. Solution 5 – Check for Windows Updates
You may need to solve the problem by simply updating your device system.
- Go to the Windows search box, type update, and pick Check for updates or Windows update.
6. Solution 6 – Scan Your System
Sometimes the issue may be a malware infection. Use Windows Defender in scanning your PC. In the Windows search box, type windows defender to run a scan.
Our recommended solutions above are practical guidelines to solve the ‘Another computer is using the printer’ problem. You can leave a question or comment below about your experience with these solutions above.
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