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Printer Troubleshooting


This page provides troubleshooting information for printers and may not apply to non-supported printers. See Zebra Thermal Printers or TSC Thermal Printers for information on supported printers. The test steps listed below may also work for non-supported printers; however, this topic is directed to supported printers. See also Dymo Printer Setup.


Testing Printer from PC (Windows) Operating System

  1. Confirm the printer is turned-on and connected to the computer.

  2. Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers.

  3. Right-click the printer's icon, and then click Printer Properties.

  4. Click Print Test Page. Your printer should print the test page.

Note: If the printer did not print the test page, see Additional Troubleshooting.


Testing Printer from Mac Operating System

  1. Confirm the printer is turned-on and connected to the computer.

  2. Go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Printers & Scanners.

  3. Click the printer's icon, and then click Open Print Queue.

  4. On the Printer menu (top of screen), click Print Test Page. Your printer should print the test page.

Note: If the printer did not print the test page, see Additional Troubleshooting.


Additional Troubleshooting

If the printer did not print the test page (see the above sections), confirm that:

  • The printer is installed and visible to the operating system. If you do not see your printer listed at the operating system level, see these pages for assistance on installing the printer drivers:

  • The printer is not paused. This state will keep items in the print queue and prevent them from printing.

  • No documents are in "error" status in your print queue. This state also prevents any queued documents from printing.

  • The printer itself does not display an error code, error message, or error light. (On most Zebra printers, this is indicated by a red status light.)

If the test label was printed successfully, continue to the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox section.


Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox

If you are printing directly to a physical printer from Descarts ShipRush Web, you are using the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox.

If you are not using the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox, skip to the Descartes ShipRush Test Label Printing section; otherwise continue at step 1 below.

  1. Confirm the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox is installed. If it is installed, its icon is on the taskbar. In this Windows 10 screenshot, the upper red arrow is pointing to the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox icon.



    Here is where you can find the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox on a Mac:


  2. Confirm that the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox is up and running; double-click its icon (in Windows) to launch it.

  3. Perform a test print. If the application was just launched, you should have received test labels. Please take note of the printer name(s) on these labels, as they are recognized as Thermal Label Printers.

Note: If you did not receive any labels, see Additional Troubleshooting.


Descartes ShipRush Test Label Printing

To test label printing directly from the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox:

  1. Click the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox icon located on your taskbar.

  2. Click Detect Thermal Printer. This step should print a label to each thermal printer installed on the computer.

  3. You are then prompted to select the printer listed on the dropdown as your default printer for all shipping accounts. If you want to do this, click Set printer for all accounts; otherwise, click Cancel.


  4. Click the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox icon again.

  5. Click Print Test Label.

  6. On the dropdown, select the printer to which you want to print the test label.

  7. Select Thermal Label or Laser Label to specify the type of printout (based on your printer).

If you test labels were printed from the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox, then perform this second printing test from Descartes ShipRush Web:

  1. Click SETTINGS (in the main menu at left).

  2. Your Carrier accounts are listed on the left. Click a Carrier account name, and then click Printer: Shipping Label.


  3. On this page, confirm the settings are configured as needed. If you are using the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox, you should set the Printing Method to ShipRush Cloud Print (see graphic below).


  4. Confirm the Printer Name (see above graphic) does not have (Offline) appended to it. If (Offline) is shown, see Re-Cycling the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox.

  5. Click Print Test Label (highlighted in the above graphic).


Re-Cycling the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox

This process requires following all steps in the order presented:

  1. Click the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox icon. Click the Logout option.

  2. Click the icon again, and then click Exit.

  3. Re-open the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox.

  4. A green pop-up is displayed, requested an email and a password. Use the same email and password that you use to login to your Descartes ShipRush Web account.


Printer Calibration

To calibrate a Zebra GK420 printer:

  1. Ensure that the printer is powered-on.

  2. Hold down the feed button.

  3. Wait until you see the "two-flash" sequence from the status light (the printer will first flash once, then twice).

  4. After the two-flash, release the feed button.

To calibrate a Zebra ZP-450, ZP-500, or ZP-505:

  1. Ensure that the printer is powered-on.

  2. Hold down the feed button.

  3. Wait until you see the "four flash" sequence from the status light (the printer will first flash once, then twice, then three times, then four times).

  4. After the four-flash, release the feed button.


FAQs

My printer is hooked-up, but when I press print it says the printer not connected.

Go through the steps outlined in Testing the Printer from the Operating System to confirm the printer is visible to the operating system. If the printer is visible (or had to be re-added to the Operating System), see Re-Cycling the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox.


An error states "Desktop toolkit is not running or printer is offline". What do I do?

Go through the steps outlined in the Testing the Printer from the Operating System section to confirm the printer is visible to the Operating System. If the printer is either listed, is online, or had to be re-added to the Operating System, see Re-Cycling the Descartes ShipRush Desktop Toolbox.

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