Google Won't Print but You Can Print From Other Applications

Wow!  This has been a big week for blog entries, and it isn't over yet.  I found I could not print from any Google application; eg, gmail, gdrive.  The printer was "offline."  Yet, when I went to the printer driver and selected the Print a Test Page, I could print.  In fact, I could print from any non-Google application.  I finally found this post on the Google forums that explained what is going on.  It is at the bottom of this blog, but I'll explain the solution in a few words.  When the power goes out and,

if

• you don't have a static address for the printer,
• you use Google Print to print from any device

then

Google Print loses its place in the etherworld, even when you are just printing to a network attached printer from Google.  To fix the problem, go into Settings, click on the Show Advanced Settings link at the bottom of the Settings, and find the Google Cloud Print button Manage.  Click on it and all of a sudden all your printers work again.  I didn't even have to click on an individual printer's Manage button.  I did change one printer's Port before I started this last bit of instruction, but I don't think it would have mattered.

So, here's the original entry from the Google forum:

Your printer's IP address probably changed. Print out a new status page from the printer to see what it;s current IP address is. You will probably have to set up Google Cloud Print again. It;s a known issue with some printers due to the way the manufacturers implemented GCP. See this explanation:

We have recently learned that some brands of printers (Canon and Brother are two) lose their connection to Google Cloud Print (GCP) whenever the printer is assigned a new network IP address. Some brands do not have this issue. For example, if the printer was initially registered with GCP when it had address 192.168.1.51, but later was reassigned to 192.168.1.64, then it can't communicate with GCP.

If you had a power outage, turned off your printer, rebooted your router, or if the router reassigned the IP addresses as part of its routine process, then your printer may lose its GCP connection.

You will have to go through the GCP registration process again, and then you should be back in business.

To prevent this from happening in the future, you will have to adjust your router's DHCP settings to not use a small  block of IP addressed and then set the printer to use one of those reserved (fixed) addresses. For example you could tell the router to use DHCP for 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.199. Then you could use 192.168.1.200 through 192.168.1.254 for devices that need a fixed IP address.

Please note that this issue is the result of how the printer manufacturer implemented Google Cloud Print, not GCP itself.