Printing devices disappear from time to time

When my computer is working properly, "Printing devices" under "Printers & Scanners" look like this:




After a while (without restart nor reboot), all of "printing devices" disappeared", like this:





Windows doesn't response if I click "Add device". Trying to print from applications result in applications frozen. While I could get the "printing devices" back by multiples "restart', the "printing devices" keep disappear from time to time.

Any idea to resolve the problem?


Thanks

Welcome to the forum.
When the devices do not show to be detected, I would first start with the troubleshooter. Start>settings>system>troubleshoot>other troubleshooters>Printer>RUN (accept to proceed with the diagnostic)

Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer

(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

Let us know the outcome.

Thanks Glasskuter!

The troubleshooter returned the following error message:



SFC scan returned the following message:

"Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag."

I then ran DISM and it completed successfully.

Running SFC again returned the following message:

"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

However, printing devices are still missing in "Printers & Scanners"


Are there any things that I could try?

Here are things to try:
I am assuming your printer is wireless, correct? If so, per Canon, make sure it is set to connect to the 2.4 GHz frequency band of your router. (Match the network name (SSID) set for the printer with that for 2.4 GHz frequency band SSID of the wireless router.)

While maybe not necessary, if it were me, I would also assign the printer a static ip address. (this is an ip address that never changes) The method is different for each printer and done within the printer's interface under a categorey of network or something similar. I'm sorry I can not give specific instructions for your printer but your printer manual may provide information specific to your device. If not, call Canon support. Once a static ip is assigned within the printer, uninstall all instances of the printer in Windows. Restart and reinstall the printer.

If you are unable to do this or you do it and it doesn't fix the dropping out issue, the next suggestion I would give is to completely uninstall all instances of the printer and any apps pertaining to it.
Restart, Then do a repair install of Windows. Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial
Reinstall printer again.

Hope it helps.

Just to add to glasskuter's recommendations, if your router supports DHCP Reservation, you can use that instead of setting up a static IP address for the printer.

DHCP Reservation asks you to input the MAC address of the printer and your preferred IP Address. The device in question will then get the same DHCP IP Address every time it connects to your router. You do not have to do anything with the printer network settings, just leave them set to DHCP.

trumpy81 said:

Just to add to glasskuter's recommendations, if your router supports DHCP Reservation, you can use that instead of setting up a static IP address for the printer.

DHCP Reservation asks you to input the MAC address of the printer and your preferred IP Address. The device in question will then get the same DHCP IP Address every time it connects to your router. You do not have to do anything with the printer network settings, just leave them set to DHCP.

Click to expand...

I use DHCP Reservation with my NETGEAR Orbi Mesh System. It's quick and easy to do and works beautifully!