How to fix error 0x0000011b “Windows cannot connect to the printer” in Windows 11/10

What is error 0x0000011b “Windows cannot connect to the printer”

When trying to use a network-shared printer, some users may become subject to facing error 0x0000011b with the following message Windows cannot connect to the printer. It may appear while adding a printer to the list of new devices or making a printout – both on Windows 10 and 11. Whatever it is, this issue can be manageable with the help of our instructions below. These instructions are quite generic to all guides you see on the web, which confirms their efficiency in resolving the error. Try each of them down below until one of them sorts outs the problem.

1. Run Windows Printer Troubleshooter

The first and probably the easiest method is to run the basic Windows Troubleshooter feature. The operating system designed by Microsoft has several troubleshooting tools for various devices to help detect and rectify basic issues related to them. We also recommend you try this easy solution before moving on to other ones below.

For Windows 11 users:

1. Right-click on the Start Menu button at the bottom taskbar of your desktop and choose Settings.
2. On the left pane, navigate to System and then to Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters on the right side.
3. Find the Printer troubleshooter and click on the Run button to launch it.
4. Let Windows figure things out and apply available fixes to the issue, if any.

For Windows 10 users:

1. Right-click on the Start Menu button at the bottom taskbar of your desktop and choose Settings. You can also press Windows Key + I buttons instead.
2. Go to Update & Security and then navigate to Troubleshoot > Additional troubleshooter.
3. Choose Printer and click Run the troubleshooter.
4. Wait until Windows finds possible solutions and applies them to the error.

2. Make sure your system is up-to-date

The solution for any errors including 0x0000011b may hide inside new updates delivered for Windows. We, therefore, advise you to check for pending updates and install all, if available. It is also possible that you already have had a faulty update installed before that broke something within the system. In this case, you can uninstall a recently installed update, which will also be discussed further below.

To install new updates in Windows 11:

1. Open Settings as we already did in the first method.
2. Navigate to Windows Update and click Check for updates.
3. Wait until Windows finds new updates and install them. If new updates were already pending, you can install them immediately without searching for them.

To install new updates in Windows 10:

1. Go to Settings and Update & Security as was done in the method above.
2. Then, navigate to Windows Update and click Check for updates.
3. If updates have already been found, simply Download and install them.

3. Uninstall recent updates

As said, we will also show you how updates can be uninstalled. You should do this if you suspect that the error started its appearance after some recent system update. Situations like these happen, and that is why it is worth putting the uninstallation of updates under the scope of consideration.

To uninstall updates in Windows 11:

1. Open Settings as we already did and go to Windows Update.
2. Click on Update history on the right pane.
3. Choose Uninstall updates on top and delete the most recent update by date of installation.
4. Now you can reboot your PC and try printing again.

To uninstall updates in Windows 10:

1. Open Settings and choose Update & Security.
2. Then, in Windows Update, click View update history on the right pane.
3. Choose Uninstall updates on top and delete the most recent update by date of installation.
4. Now you can reboot your PC and give printing another ambitious try.

4. Turn off Print Spooler RPC Encryption

The last option is to disable the so-called Print Spooler RPC Encryption. It is also sometimes referred to as CVE-2021-1678 mitigation, which can be the reason for facing the 0x0000011b error. When this setting is enabled, it may hinder proper communication between your printer and the network it is connected to. This method is almost identical on both Windows versions.

1. Press Windows Key + R buttons together and copy-paste regedit. Press Enter or OK afterwards.
2. On the left pane, navigate through this path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print.
3. Right-click on Print and choose New > DWORD-32 bit Value.
4. Name the just-created entry this way RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled.
5. Right-click on it and choose Modify. Change the number under Value data to 0 and click OK to save changes.

Lastly, we have to restart the Print Spooler service using these steps:

1. Press Windows Key + R buttons again and copy-paste services.msc.
2. Locate a service named Print Spooler, right-click on it, and choose Restart.
3. After this, you can reconnect your printer and try to use it again. You can also restart your PC to be sure.

Summary

There you go. We hope that the error 0x0000011b is now done and dusted and no longer bothers your regular printer usage. There is a huge variety of printer errors hitting people each day. Should anything similar or totally new pop up on your computer again, feel free to search it up on our website as well.