Hey everyone! I'm hoping someone here can help with a frustrating issue. One of my users is experiencing an incredibly slow response when trying to access the Print dialog in Word. It gets stuck on 'Connecting to printer...' for as long as five minutes, regardless of the printer being used. This includes both our office printer through PaperCut and the Microsoft Print to PDF option.
Here's what's happening:
1. When printing from Word, it hangs for a long time on the connection, even though the actual printing works fine once the printers finally show up.
2. The printer list in Windows Settings takes forever to load, and it seems like only the default printer shows up right away; the rest trickle in slowly.
3. The only workable solution right now is to save documents as PDFs and print them from a PDF application, which isn't ideal.
This problem started right after a Windows update, and everything else aside from Word continues to print normally. Here's a list of things we've tried so far, but nothing has worked:
- Running Word in safe mode
- Disabling 'print in background'
- Resetting the Word template
- Turning off 'let Windows manage my default printer'
- Cleaning the spooler and restarting the service
- Quick repairing Office
- Completely reinstalling Office
- Modifying the Microsoft Print to PDF port settings
We're using Windows 11 with the latest updates and Microsoft 365 Apps for Business alongside PaperCut for network printing. Any help would be awesome!
3 Answers
Before trying anything else, double-check your printer settings and connections. Sometimes, a simple reboot of your router or the printer itself can clear up connectivity issues. Also, since this started after a Windows update, it could be worth checking for additional updates or hotfixes that address printing issues.
You might want to consider trying out LibreOffice instead. I've heard Microsoft Office has had quite a few issues lately, possibly due to changes in their development team. Switching to LibreOffice might provide a smoother experience for printing. Plus, it's worth giving it a shot to see if the problem persists with a different program!
Are the Word documents saved in OneDrive? If they are, try moving a copy to a local storage location that's not linked to OneDrive. Sometimes, syncing issues can cause delays like this, and it might solve your problem. Let me know if that makes a difference!
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