New Router? Here's How to Get Your Printer Back on the Wi-Fi

You swapped the router, changed internet companies, upgraded to a mesh system, or just renamed your Wi-Fi — and everything else in the house reconnected fine, but the printer sits there offline. Nothing is broken. When you first set the printer up, it saved that network's name and password into its own memory, and that is the only network it knows how to look for. The moment that network stopped existing, the printer was left calling out for a name nobody answers to anymore.

So this isn't a repair job — it's a ten-minute re-introduction. Below is the fastest path for a printer with a screen, the path for one without, the brand-specific menus for HP, Epson, Canon, and Brother, and the two gotchas that trip up most people: printers that can only see one of your two Wi-Fi bands, and a computer that keeps printing to the printer's old address long after the printer itself is back online.

The trick that skips this entire job

If you haven't finished setting up the new router yet, stop and do this first: give the new router the exact same Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and the exact same password as the old one, character for character. Every device in your home — printer included — will simply reconnect on its own, because as far as they can tell nothing changed. No re-setup, no wandering around the house retyping passwords into a TV, a thermostat, and a doorbell.

This is worth doing even if you have to dig the old name and password out of a device that still remembers them. It costs you two minutes in the new router's settings and saves you an afternoon. If you've already set the new router up with a different name, you can still go back and change it to match the old one — that's often faster than reconnecting a dozen devices one by one.

Before you start: have these three things ready

First, the exact new network name. Not "my Wi-Fi" — the precise spelling, including capital letters and any 5G or -5GHz suffix. Second, the new Wi-Fi password, again exactly. Network names and passwords are case-sensitive on every printer, and a capital letter typed in lowercase is the single most common reason a setup wizard says it can't connect. If you don't know the password, you can read it off any device that's still connected — our guide on finding your Wi-Fi password walks through Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, and the router itself.

Third, know whether your printer has a screen you can navigate. A printer with a touchscreen or a small menu display can be moved to the new network entirely from the printer itself, with no computer involved. A screenless printer — the little all-in-ones with just a row of buttons and blinking lights — has to be set up through the manufacturer's phone app or the WPS button. Those are two genuinely different procedures, so check before you start.

If your printer has a screen: use the setup wizard

Every major brand has the same feature under a slightly different name — a wizard that scans for nearby networks, lets you pick the new one from a list, and prompts for the password. On an HP, it's usually Settings (or the wireless icon) > Network Setup or Wireless Settings > Wireless Setup Wizard. On an Epson, press the home button, select Wi-Fi (Recommended), then Start Setup or Change Settings, then Wi-Fi Setup Wizard, and pick your network from the list. On a Brother, go to Settings (or Menu) > Network > WLAN > Setup Wizard; when it asks "WLAN Enable?" choose Yes, and it will search and show you the available network names. On a Canon, press Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) settings from the Home screen, or Menu > Preferences > Network > Wireless LAN settings, then have it search for your router and enter the network key.

Pick the new network, type the password carefully, and give it a moment. Most printers will print or display a confirmation, and the wireless light will go solid instead of blinking. If the wizard finishes but the printer still shows as offline on your computer, don't redo the wizard — skip down to the section on the computer still pointing at the old address, because that's usually what's actually happening.

If your printer has no screen: the app or the WPS button

The app route is the more reliable of the two. Install the manufacturer's app on your phone — HP Smart, Epson Smart Panel, Brother Mobile Connect, or Canon PRINT — join your phone to the new Wi-Fi network first, then open the app and choose to add or set up a printer. The app hands the new network name and password to the printer over a temporary direct connection the printer broadcasts for exactly this purpose, so you never have to type anything into the printer itself. Canon calls its version "cableless setup," started by holding the Wi-Fi button until the power lamp flashes twice.

The WPS button route is faster when it works and baffling when it doesn't. Press the WPS button on your new router, then within two minutes press and hold the wireless button on the printer until its light blinks; the two pair themselves without a password. The catch is that plenty of modern routers — especially internet-company gateways and mesh systems — have removed the WPS button or turn the feature off by default for security reasons. If your router has no WPS button, that's not a fault; use the app instead.

The trap: your printer can only see the 2.4GHz network

Here is the one that stumps people who did everything right. The overwhelming majority of home printers are 2.4GHz-only — they physically cannot see or join a 5GHz network. If your new router or mesh system broadcasts both bands under a single network name (most modern ones do, and it's usually the right setting to leave alone), the printer may never appear to find your network at all, or the setup may fail with no useful explanation. If the printer's wizard scans and simply doesn't list your Wi-Fi, this is almost certainly why.

The fix is temporary and undramatic: in your router's app or settings page, either turn on a separate 2.4GHz network name for a few minutes, or look for a "device setup" / IoT / compatibility mode that many mesh systems now include for exactly this situation. Connect the printer to the 2.4GHz name, finish the setup, then put the router back the way it was — the printer keeps working, because it stays joined to the 2.4GHz radio underneath the shared name. If your printer connects but then keeps falling off the network afterward, that's a related but different problem, and we cover it in depth in our guide on wireless printers that keep going offline.

If it refuses the new network: reset the network settings only

When a printer has old, half-remembered network settings stuck in it, the wizard can keep failing for no visible reason. The cure is to clear just its network memory — not to factory-reset the whole machine. On an HP, that's Settings > Network Setup > Restore Network Settings (on a screenless model, hold the Wireless and Cancel buttons together until the power light blinks). On a Brother, it's Settings > All Settings > Network > Network Reset, then Yes. Epson and Canon both have an equivalent "restore network settings" or "reset LAN settings" option under their network menus.

This wipes only the saved Wi-Fi details and network configuration; it leaves your other preferences alone. Once it's done, run the setup wizard or app again from the beginning — a cleared printer almost always joins on the first try. Save a full factory reset for a genuine last resort, since that also clears things like scan destinations, saved contacts, and tray settings you'd have to rebuild.

Printer's back online but the computer still won't print

This one catches almost everybody, and it makes people redo the Wi-Fi setup over and over when the Wi-Fi is already fine. When your printer joined the new router, it was almost certainly handed a different internal address than it had before. Your computer, meanwhile, still has the old printer saved — pointed at an address where nothing lives anymore. So the printer is genuinely online, and the computer is genuinely printing, just into thin air.

The fix is to remove the printer and add it back so the computer rediscovers it at its new address. On Windows 11, go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, click the printer, choose Remove, then click "Add device" and let it find the printer again. On a Mac, open System Settings > Printers & Scanners, select the printer, click the "–" (minus) button to remove it, then "+" to add it back from the list of discovered printers. It usually takes under a minute, and it's the last step of the job far more often than people expect.

If this keeps happening every few weeks — printer online, computer suddenly unable to reach it — the long-term fix is to give the printer a fixed address in your router (a DHCP reservation) so it stops moving. That's covered in our guide on wireless printers that keep dropping offline.

How we can help

Most of the time this is a genuinely doable job: get the new network name and password exactly right, run the printer's setup wizard or the brand's phone app, and remove-and-re-add the printer on your computer afterward. If the wizard can't see your network, the 2.4GHz section above is nearly always the answer.

Where it gets tedious is the bigger version of the same day: a new router or a provider switch that left the printer, the smart TV, the cameras, and the thermostat all stranded at once, a screenless printer whose app refuses to find it, a small office where several computers all need the printer re-added and scan-to-computer set back up, or a mesh system that won't cooperate with older gear. We set up routers, printers, and home and small-business networks across Southern California and the Coachella Valley, and we're happy to get everything back on the new Wi-Fi in one visit rather than one device at a time.