MG2922 stuck offline despite computer being connected

[em1336]

Canon MG2922 is a great printer in general, but has a serious networking flaw that causes the printer to go offline seemingly for no reason, and stay offline despite repeated efforts to put it back online.  I found a solution so I'm copying-and-pasting my (super-long) notes here that might help other users experiencing the same problem.  TLDR:  Create restore point, nuke Canon entries from the registry, reboot, reinstall drivers, profit.

When I first installed this printer wirelessly on each of my computers, everything worked fine.  Several weeks later (I don't print that much), I tried to print something on one of my computers and strangely, the status window reported "Printer is offline".  The other computer was fine.  Both computers run Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and both were connected to the printer's wireless LAN in Access Point mode.  I hadn't even touched the printer in weeks - Why would it go offline on one computer, but not the other?

No matter what I did, for the life of me, I couldn't make this printer go back online until I took drastic measures.  I tried everything from uninstalling and reinstalling the printer drivers, to reinitializing the printer's network settings, to changing my wireless network card's TCP/IP settings.  The only way that I was finally able to put the printer back online was to hack (and I mean hack away at) the registry, which I will explain towards the end of this long post.  I took extensive notes while troubleshooting and I'm copying-and-pasting them here for the benefit of anyone else who encounters this serious bug.  Much of these notes are paraphrased from Canon's 735-page manual from which I tried to distill the most useful knowledge into 2 or 3 pages.

Tips for installing the Canon MG2922 printer in Windows 7 Professional x64:

Make a folder somewhere on your hard drive called Canon MG2922 drivers or something to that effect, to store the drivers, the manual, your printer's serial number, and miscellaneous notes.

Don't use the CD included with the printer.  Instead, go to Canon's website and download the newest drivers.  I suggest using mp68-win-mg2900-1_01-ejs, not win-mg2900-1_1-ucd.  The former contains the core drivers and is about 26 MB.  The latter contains the full drivers (the drivers plus needless bloatware and fluff) and is about 49 MB.  The core drivers are perfectly sufficient.

You may want to also download the manual.  The one that I downloaded is named MG2900ser_OnlineManual_Win_EN_V02.pdf and is a massive 735-page tome!

The printer's serial number is on the back of printer and should look something like this:  KKCH12345.  Create a text file and save the serial number.  You will need it for Access Point mode.

If you want to be able to print from either USB cable or wireless LAN, you will need to install the printer drivers TWICE.  Select USB cable for one installation, and wireless LAN for the other.  Whether you install USB first or wireless first shouldn't matter, but USB is *much* easier so you may want to do that first.

When installing the drivers for USB, install the drivers *before* plugging in the USB cable.  Plug in the cable once instructed to do so.  Once the USB drivers are installed, try to remember to turn off the printer before disconnecting the USB cable to keep Windows from complaining about improper device removal.

When installing the drivers for wireless LAN:
1. You need to turn on wireless LAN.  Hit Control-F and search for the phrase "18 times" to find the instructions, below.
2. You need to connect the computer to the printer's wireless LAN connection.  You can do this either before installing the drivers, or when the drivers start searching for the printer.  The default password for Access Point mode is your printer's serial number.

To help distinguish which printer installation is which, you can rename them after installation:
Click on Start – Control Panel – Devices and Printers.
Right-click – choose Printer Properties.
Append USB or wireless to each printer's name to distinguish which one is which.

The printer supports two Wireless LAN modes (once you activate the wireless LAN):

1. Infrastructure mode = Connect the printer to the wireless LAN using an access point that is not the printer.  When in this mode and the computer or the printer are not connected to the access point, the printer is invisible wirelessly.  To see and configure the printer from Canon IJ Network Tool, either
(A) connect the computer and the printer to the access point,
or,
(B) temporarily use a USB cable.  The benefit of using a USB cable:  You stay connected.  Without the USB cable, you could lose connectivity after changing a wireless setting.  To temporarily connect to the printer with a USB cable and change the wireless network settings:  
    (a) Turn on the printer.
    (b) Connect the printer and computer with a USB cable.
    (c) Open Canon IJ Network Tool.
    (d) Select the printer USBnnn (where nnn is a number) in the IJ Network Tool window.
    (e) The software will probably ask for a password.  The default password is canon.
    (f) Go to Settings – Configuration.
    (g) Click on the Wireless LAN tab.
    (h) Change the settings or confirm.

2. Access Point mode = Connect to the printer using it as the access point; that is, connecting directly from the computer to the printer.  When in this mode, you should see the printer as one of the wireless network selections in Windows.  If you're already connected wirelessly to something else such as your cell phone's mobile hotspot, you will drop that connection when you connect to the printer.  Likewise, the printer's connection will drop when you connect to the mobile hotspot.

How to enable Access Point mode:
    (a) Turn the printer on.
    (b) Press and hold the Wi-Fi button until the Alarm lamp flashes 3 times.
    (c) Release the Wi-Fi button.
    (d) The On lamp changes from flashing to lit.
    (e) You may not immediately see the printer in the networks list.  Keep clicking on the networks icon in the Windows taskbar and after some time (say, 10 seconds), you will see the printer.
    (f) If Windows asks you whether the network should be Home, Work, or Public, choose Public.  That is the most secure setting of the three.

The default Access Point Mode settings are:
SSID = [Last 6 digits of printer's MAC address]-MG2900series.
Security setting = WPA2-PSK (AES).
Password = serial number of the machine.
Supposedly (according to the 735-page manual) you can change the security setting and password using IJ Network Tool, but I couldn't see any way to do this when in Access Point mode, except during setup when there is a Set Port Name button towards the end of the setup process.

When in Access Point mode, the following sections are grayed out in Canon IJ Network Tool:
Settings – Configuration – Wireless LAN tab.
Settings – Configuration – Admin Password tab.
Settings – Associate Port.
As a result, when in Access Point mode, you can't specify a static IP address or change the printer port associated with the printer.

How to disable Access Point mode and return to Infrastructure mode:
Turn the printer on.
Press and hold the Wi-Fi button until the Alarm lamp flashes 4 times.
Release the Wi-Fi button.
The On lamp changes from flashing to lit.

Note that the USB-based Infrastructure mode wireless LAN printer installation installs a separate instance of the printer (by virtue of using USB) and will not be the same installation as the Access Point mode installation.  I don't think there is any way to set up the printer in Access Point mode using a temporary USB cable.  I could be wrong.

Miscellaneous neato features and tricks:

To turn off the printer from your computer:
Click on Start – Control Panel – Devices and Printers.
Right-click on the printer.
Click on Printer Properties (normally between "Printing preferences" and "Create shortcut", NOT the Properties at the bottom of the menu underneath "Remove device").
Click on the Maintenance tab.
Click on Power Off.
Note that when you turn off the printer in this way, it doesn't actually turn off completely and its status will say "Standby".

How to enable or disable Quiet Mode:
Turn the printer on.
Press and hold the Stop button until the Alarm lamp flashes 9 times.
Release the Stop button.
Press the Color button to enable, or the Black button to disable.

How to switch between A4 and Letter size:
Turn the printer on.
Press and hold the Stop button until the Alarm lamp flashes 10 times.
Release the Stop button.
The On lamp starts flashing.
Press the Black button to select A4, or Color to select Letter.
The On lamp stops flashing and stays lit.

How to enable or disable turning off the machine automatically after a set period of time:
(If you connect to and print using a network, the printer disregards this setting.)
Turn the printer on.
Press and hold the Stop button until the Alarm lamp flashes 13 times.
Release the Stop button.
Press the Color button to enable, or the Black button to disable.
To specify the amount of time before automatic shutoff, go to the printer driver settings.  The lowest setting for me was 15 minutes.

How to enable or disable turning on the machine automatically when you print or scan from the computer:
Turn the printer on.
Press and hold the Stop button until the Alarm lamp flashes 14 times.
Release the Stop button.
Press the Color button to enable, or the Black button to disable.

How to see or copy the network setting information:
Turn the printer on and connect to the network.
Open Canon IJ Network Tool.
Click on the printer name (Canon MG2900 series Printer).
Click on View – Network Information.
If you want to copy the information to a file, click on Copy All Information.

How to print out the machine's network setting information:
Load a sheet of paper.
Press and hold the Stop button until the Alarm lamp flashes 15 times.
Release the Stop button.
The machine will print the network setting information.

How to restore the machine's network settings to factory default:
Turn the printer on.
Press and hold the Stop button until the Alarm lamp flashes 17 times.
Release the Stop button.

How to enable the wireless LAN function of the machine:
Turn the printer on.
Verify that the Wi-Fi lamp is off (indicating Wireless LAN is disabled).
Press and hold the Stop button until the Alarm lamp flashes 18 times.
Release the Stop button.
Press the Color button.
The Wi-Fi lamp goes on.

How to disable the Wireless LAN function of the machine:
Turn the printer on.
Verify that the Wi-Fi lamp is on (indicating Wireless LAN is enabled).
Press and hold the Stop button until the Alarm lamp flashes 18 times.
Release the Stop button.
Press the Black button.
The Wi-Fi lamp goes off.


OK, now for the networking bug.  Concise description of bug:
For unknown reasons, the Canon MG2922 drivers suddenly report the connected printer as offline despite the user not having made any printer configuration changes in Windows 7 or in IJ Network Tools (at least not deliberately).  All efforts to put the printer back online are met with unhelpful messages, confusing dialog boxes, settings that can't be changed, or instructions that don't put the printer back online but instead send the user on a one-way trip into Canon Wi-Fi hell.

Troubleshooting notes (I edited the MAC and serial # slightly to not match what mine really are):

I checked the wireless LAN connection, and see 099E26-MG2900series Connected.

When I checked the printer's status:
I clicked on Canon MG2900 series Printer Properties – Maintenance tab.
Clicked on the button "View Printer Status".
Printer is offline.

I clicked on Canon MG2900 series Printer Properties – Ports tab.
Clicked on the Canon BJ Network Port, and clicked on Configure Port.
The resulting window reported, "Canon BJNP Port.  No item to be set for this port."
Now isn't that precious?!

I uninstalled the printer drivers, tried to reinstall, and came to this window:

Wireless LAN Setup of the Printer.
For the method to change the printer settings to cableless setup mode, click Instructions.
After changing to cableless setup mode, click Next.
To set up the wireless LAN, you need to change the printer settings to cableless setup mode.
You will not be able to use the network connection temporarily during setup.

What the heck is "cableless setup mode"???  The same as normal wireless setup mode?  I clicked on the "Instructions" button and came to a confusing hodgepodge of networking steps.  I exited out.

I tried reinitializing the printer and reinstalling the drivers, and saw:

Detected Printers List
The following printers were detected on the network.
Model Canon MG2900 series
MAC address F8:0D:60:09:9E:26
IP Address 192.168.114.1
Check Printer Settings (I checkmarked the checkbox and clicked Next).

The next screen (this is crazy – after detecting my printer, the next window says never mind!):
The printer could not be detected on the network.  If the printer's network setup has not been completed, complete the network setup, and then click Redetect.
To learn how to set up the network, click Instructions.

I clicked on the Instructions button again and came to the same hodge podge as before.

I tried fiddling with the wireless network card's TCP/IPv4 settings but that didn't seem to have any effect on the printer.  Still printer is offline.

I tried reinstalling a second instance of the printer in Access Point mode.  The problem was that one instance had the right port but was offline.  The second instance was online but had the wrong port.  There didn't seem to be any way to reconcile or merge the two of them.  Uninstalled both of them.

Finally I opened regedit and spelunked down, searching for and systematically deleting anything Canon printer related.  Warning:  You could make your computer unbootable if you mess up the registry.  Create a restore point and use F8 - Last Known Good Configuration if you run into a snag.  Don't change anything in the registry if you don't know what you're doing or you're not comfortable.  You have been forewarned.

What seems to happen is that the Canon drivers become stuck on a certain IP address like 192.168.114.1, but something (maybe a patch from Windows Update?) stirs things up and now the Canon port is not assigned there anymore, but somewhere else, say 192.168.114.2, and the Canon drivers don't let you put the port name and IP address back together – even when you uninstall and reinstall, and even when you manually change the IP address in the registry.

So what I did is, in the registry, I searched for every instance of anything whatsoever that contained my printer's name (searched for the last 6 digits of the MAC address), searched for anything whatsoever that contained Canon or MG2900 or MG2922 or 192.168.114 and deleted the parent key(s) up to and including whatever key was the highest one to say Canon this or Canon that.  Then I rebooted, reinitialized the printer, reinstalled the drivers, and made some progress.

When I tried to reinstall, I saw the same contradictory screens as before, saying the network was detected, then not detected, but this time, paradoxically, when I clicked on Redetect, there was unexpected success after the "not detected" screen.  Go figure.  The next screens:

Setup has been completed.
Model:  Canon MG2900 series
SSID:  099E26-MG2900series

View Setup Results.

Model:  Canon MG2900 series.
Network setup of the printer:  Completed.
Name:  Canon MG2900 series Printer.
Port name:  CNBJNP_F80D60099E26.
Network setup of the scanner:  Completed.
Name:  Canon MG2900 series (F8.0D.60.09.9E.26).
Network Type:  Access Point.
SSID:  099E26-MG2900series.

Set Port Name

Printer status window.
Canon MG2900 series Printer – CNBJNP_F80D60099E26
Printer is online.
(Yeyyy finally!!!)

Wireless LAN Setup Information
Below is information about the access points detected from your computer.
Access Point Name (SSID) = 099E26-MG2900series.
Network Key (Encryption Key) = KKCH12345.

Several days have passed and both computers can still print to the printer in Access Point mode.

Canon U.S.A. Inc., if you're reading this, you REALLY need to fix your horrible Wi-Fi printer driver code for the MG2900 series printer that becomes unsettled and for some reason, knocks the printer semi-permanently offline.