Causes and Solutions for Excel Stuck on "Accessing Printer"

Why Does Excel Freeze with "Accessing Printer"?

This issue occurs when the default printer set on your PC is not connected. It's frustrating when an application freezes just because there's no printer available, but Excel tends to be stubborn about fixing this.

Since this problem arises when the default printer is either not connected or not powered on, simply ensuring the printer is powered on and connected should generally prevent this issue.

What to Do if Excel Freezes?

As stated in Excel's dialog, pressing the ESC key on your keyboard can cancel attempts to connect to the printer, thus preventing Excel from freezing.

While inconvenient,

How to Avoid Freezing with "Accessing Printer"

However, Excel's automatic search for printers, even when not printing, can be quite bothersome in printer-less environments.

The problem lies in Excel attempting to access the printer that Windows has set as default each time, so setting the default printer in Windows to "Microsoft Print to PDF" can circumvent this issue.

Here's how to set the default printer in Windows:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Click on "Devices."
3. Click on "Printers & scanners."
4. Click on "Microsoft Print to PDF," then click "Manage."
5. Click "Set as default."
6. Return to "Printers & scanners" and uncheck "Let Windows manage my default printer."

Although cumbersome, Windows tends to add such meddling features with updates and might enable them automatically, so it's something to accept about Windows.

Once set, this configuration will prevent freezing with "Accessing Printer," so it's worth setting up.