How To Fix Driver Unavailable For Canon Printer

There is no shortage of errors you can run into when using your Canon printer on a Windows PC. It’s a common scenario – you’re trying to print out pictures of your latest trip or the most recent birthday, and suddenly, the printer refuses to cooperate. I am often tempted to give up the project in circumstances like these, but there might be a solution for the ‘Driver Unavailable’ error with a Canon printer.

To fix the Canon printer ‘ Driver Unavailable’ error, you must check your system settings and verify your account. Then, you can try and fix the issues by reinstalling the required drivers. However, if that doesn’t work, you might have to update the Windows operating system to resolve the issue. If you try all of these methods and none work, it might be time to contact a professional.

To make matters easy for you, we’ve written up a detailed guide on fixing the issue with drivers on your computer. So, to get the gist of the issue and resolve it promptly, you will need to read through our step-by-step guide on how to resolve the Canon ‘Driver Unavailable’ error.

What Does The ‘Driver Unavailable’ Error Mean?

The ‘Driver Unavailable’ error is pretty self-explanatory. This term means that the driver your Windows PC needs to run the printer is no longer available. The issue could happen for many different reasons, but the most common is that the printer driver isn’t updated to the most recent version.

However, this could be pointing toward a more severe problem in some cases. This problem could be that the Canon printer driver is now corrupt and can no longer function on your computer. Therefore, you need to take steps to address this problem as soon as possible.

How To Fix The ‘Driver Unavailable’ Error

Getting a ‘Driver Unavailable’ error is usually incredibly frustrating because it stops you from being able to print anything. No matter what you do, there are no settings you can change on the printer to fix this issue. However, there are ways to troubleshoot on your computer to resolve the problem. First, you need to make sure you have fulfilled some basic requirements.

Requirements To Fix ‘Driver Unavailable’ Error

As mentioned above, there are some requirements you need to fulfill to fix this error. If the first requirement does not work for you, you can move on to the next. However, you do not need to do both.

User Account Control Settings

On any version of the Windows operating system after Windows 7, there is a User Account Control setting that lets you know of any upcoming system updates. This is mainly related to your rights as an admin of the PC. You need to update the settings in such a way that they do not prevent you from reinstalling printer drivers. Here’s how to do this:

Sign in as the Windows computer Administrator.
Open up the Control Panel.
From here, navigate to User Accounts, and then select ‘Change User Account Control Settings.’
On the slider, select Level 3.
Click ‘OK,’ and then select ‘Yes’ when asked for permission.

Now, you have the ability to update and change Windows drivers as needed. You can revert the permissions back after installing the driver if you want to take it back to the default level.

Verify Your Administrator Account

The first step might not work if your Administrator account for windows is not verified. So, if you need to do this, verify the account before you move forward:

Sign in as the Windows computer Administrator.
Open up the Control Panel.
Go to the User Accounts settings and choose ‘Make Changes To My Account in PC Settings.’
Under Your Info, select the option ‘Verify.’
When prompted, add in your email address.
Microsoft will send a code to your email address.
Enter the code in the space provided, and then select ‘Next.’
Windows can now verify your account.

Now that you have verified your account, you can get ahead and start fixing the issue at hand with your printer driver.

Reinstalling Printer Drivers

Now that you have finally gotten all of the permissions, you can go ahead and try and solve the ‘Driver Unavailable’ issue on your computer. The first step is to get rid of all of the software related to the printer and reinstall the driver again on your Windows PC. Here’s how to do this:

Switch on your computer, and open up the Control Panel.
From the window that opens up, go to Hardware and Sound and click on Devices and Printers.
From here, open up the Device Manager.
Then, click on ‘Print Queues’ to open up the list.
Now, find your printer, and right-click on the name.
Choose the option ‘Uninstall device’ from the popup window.
Also, remove the printer from the list in ‘Devices and Printers’ in the Control Panel.
Now, go online and reinstall all of the printer’s drivers again.

Updating the Windows Operating System

If the first few steps described don’t work, you have another way to try and solve this problem. Sometimes, your drivers aren’t able to function because the Windows operating system is out-of-date. You will now need to update the operating system so you can solve the problem. The steps to do this are:

On your computer, click on the start menu on the left-most side of the taskbar.
In the search bar, look for the term Windows update.
Select the option Windows Update from the results.
Now, click on the button ‘Check for Updates.’
Now, the Windows operating system can start looking for any new updates.
If updates are available, the operating system will download them automatically.
Restart your computer, and try printing again.

Conclusion

With all of these steps, you can now print again and not have to see a ‘Driver Unavailable’ error. However, if none of these steps help you out, you can reach out to Windows support for help. There is also an option to reach out to a Windows service center and take your PC in for repair.