Your printer won’t connect to the new Wi-Fi after moving house

/02 — WHY IT HAPPENS

Why your printer won’t connect after a house move

A printer isn’t like your phone or laptop, which cheerfully offer to join whatever Wi-Fi is nearest. Once a printer has been set up on a network, it stores that exact name and password and keeps trying to reach it — forever, if you let it. When you move house, the old network is gone, but the printer doesn’t know that, so it sits there flashing, hunting for a router that’s now miles away.

Nothing is broken. There’s no fault to repair and you haven’t lost anything. The printer simply needs to be told about the new network, and that instruction has to happen on the printer itself — through its screen, its buttons, or the maker’s app on your Android phone. Changing the Wi-Fi on your computer does nothing for the printer; the two hold their own separate connections.

This is also why plugging in a USB cable or reinstalling drivers rarely helps on its own — the missing piece is the printer’s own Wi-Fi settings. Get those pointed at the new router and everything else usually falls into place. If your printer has a habit of dropping off even on a settled network, our guide on why printers keep disconnecting covers the longer-term fixes.

/04 — THE NEW-ROUTER BAND TRAP

The new-router trap: 2.4GHz, 5GHz and band steering

A new house usually means a new router — and modern routers have a habit printers hate. Most home printers, including nearly every Brother and many HP, Epson and Canon models, can only use the 2.4GHz band. Newer routers broadcast 2.4GHz and 5GHz under one name and quietly steer devices between them (often called ‘Smart Connect’ or band steering), which can leave the printer unable to grab the band it needs.

If the wizard sees your network but never finishes, or the printer connects then drops, try these:

• Make sure 2.4GHz is switched on in your router settings — occasionally it’s disabled by default.
• If your router allows it, give the 2.4GHz band its own separate name and point the printer at that.
• Set security to WPA2 rather than WPA3-only — many printers, Brother especially, won’t join WPA3 or older TKIP encryption.
• Keep the printer near the router during setup; 2.4GHz reaches further, but band steering can still trip it up at distance.

Router menus differ wildly between BT, Sky, EE, Virgin, Plusnet and the rest, so if you’re not sure which setting is which, our home network setup help — or a quick remote session — will get it sorted without you touching a thing.

/06 — WHEN TO CALL US

When to call us — and how we fix it remotely

Plenty of people crack this in ten minutes with the steps above. But if the printer won’t hold the connection, the wizard keeps failing, or you simply don’t fancy poking around menus after the stress of a house move, that’s exactly what we’re here for.

Because it’s all about settings, we can almost always fix it remotely — you don’t need to unplug anything or bring the printer anywhere. We connect to your computer with your permission, reconnect the printer to your new broadband, re-add it in Windows and print a test page while you watch. Most jobs are done in one short remote session, usually the same day, and it’s no-fix-no-fee — if we can’t sort it, you don’t pay.

We can just as easily reconnect the rest of your moving-house tech in the same sitting — email on your phone, the family laptops, smart TVs and so on. And if it turns out the printer’s Wi-Fi hardware has actually failed, we’ll tell you honestly and, if you’re local, arrange a look in person. We’re a family-run team in Kinson, helping homes across Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and Dorset — and remotely right across the UK. Call 01202 775566 or see our printer support page.