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Can't print a web page to my printer

  • 12 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by Tonnes

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I'm using Firefox Quantum 59.0.2 (64-bit) on Windows 10. When I attempt to print to my Canon PIXMA MX870 printer, I get a less-than-useful message: "An error occurred when printing". Then the printer prints blank pages.

Note: Printing works from the Microsoft browser and from other applications.

What to do?

I'm using Firefox Quantum 59.0.2 (64-bit) on Windows 10. When I attempt to print to my Canon PIXMA MX870 printer, I get a less-than-useful message: "An error occurred when printing". Then the printer prints blank pages. Note: Printing works from the Microsoft browser and from other applications. What to do?

All Replies (12)

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Did you uninstall and reinstall the Printer Driver/Software?

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Sorry -- I uninstalled the old driver & downloaded the latest from the Canon web site. I still can't print from Firefox. Since I can print from other applications (including the Microsoft browser), I suspect that this is a Firefox problem.

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Hi, please check these :

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

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No -- The problem still persists!

I've uninstalled & reinstalled the printer driver, and I've done all the incantations & ritual dances in the above article.

I still get the "An error occurred..." message when attempting to print a web page, a blank page gets printed. The printer works with other applications (including other browsers).

Interesting enough, if I choose to print to a PDF file from Firefox, the PDF file is also blank.

I think I need to consider using other browsers. Quantum has been problematic for me since Day One.

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Does it happen with all pages and documents or document types, or just some of them?

Unfortunately some printing bugs still exist, some leading to different errors. It would therefor help if you named such an URL or document type (in case the issue occurs for some of them only), so we could compare behavior and provide better help.

Nevertheless, one of the existing bugs mentions you can try this:

  1. In the address bar, enter about:config and press Enter
  2. In the Search: field, type or paste security.sandbox.content.level
  3. Double-click the entry found (or right-click and choose Customize) and change the value to 0 (null) or 1
  4. Restart Firefox and see if you can print

Note that this would be a workaround affecting security. In case it helps, make sure to follow the same steps and choose Reset instead of Customize in order to restore the default value as soon as the bug gets fixed in a newer release.

In case the above doesn’t help, also reset the value to its default value (which should be similar to the value before you changed it so take note of that before you do). Then refer to this question and see if toggling browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 to false and restarting Firefox helps.

I’m not sure but these methods should no longer be necessary in current releases. If one of them works for you however, your feedback may help solving an existing bug.

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None of these ideas worked. I still can't print from Firefox Quantum.

To answer a question -- it seems that any page displayed in Firefox won't print. That includes this page we are on here.

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Sorry to hear. Would you be willing to create a new profile as a test and see if you can print from Firefox running that profile? Do not install any add-ons or make other changes after creating and launching Firefox with that profile.

If that doesn’t work for you either (or beforehand), try removing the printer entry rather than uninstalling and reinstalling the driver, then reinstall it in Windows. Do so while Firefox is not open, and if creating another profile didn’t help, perform that step beforehand too.

If that doesn’t fix it either, you could consider taking a look at these currently open bugs for this issue and see if any of them are of help, as well as consider registering for a Bugzilla account and add useful info to the one that you think may apply. Please do not add comments limited to "I have this problem too" but add helpful info if you think you have any. You could think of specific hardware, service packs, and if possible, regression info, until what Firefox version the issue did not occur for you.

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I was getting that message in Firefox 57 if I tried to print after waking Firefox from hibernation; Firefox 58 was worse, in that it would just crash; fortunately that particular issue has been fixed in Firefox 59. But enough about me.

The frustrating thing about this error message is that there's so little detail. How were you doing the following -- using a printer driver or an add-on?

looknsee said

Interesting enough, if I choose to print to a PDF file from Firefox, the PDF file is also blank.

One possible thing to try would be to switch to 32-bit Firefox. There could be a 64-bit driver incompatibility issue that your updates did not resolve. If you want to try that:

Clean Reinstall

We use this name, but it's not about removing your settings, it's about making sure the program files are clean (no inconsistent or alien code files). As described below, this process does not disturb your existing settings. It's not essential to uninstall Firefox, but you can if you like, saying No to any request about removing personal data.

It only takes a few minutes.

(A) Download a fresh installer for Firefox to a convenient location:

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ (choose Windows 32-bit)

(B) Exit out of Firefox (if applicable).

If you use Microsoft Office, please change your default browser to Internet Explorer temporarily before the next step.

(C) Using Windows Explorer/My Computer (hold down the Windows key and press E to launch it), right-click > rename the program folder as follows (you might have one or both):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox =to=> C:\Program Files (x86)\OldFirefox

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox =to=> C:\Program Files\OldFirefox

(D) Run the installer you downloaded in step (A). It should automatically connect to your existing settings.

Any improvement?

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Tonnes said

Sorry to hear. Would you be willing to create a new profile as a test and see if you can print from Firefox running that profile? Do not install any add-ons or make other changes after creating and launching Firefox with that profile.

I'm not sure -- I've never created a new profile before. Can you point me to someplace where I can get started? Also, I've run out of time for today & probably tomorrow. I might be able to dive back in on Friday, and if not, definitely the weekend.

Thanks for the assistance so far.

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jscher2000 said

The frustrating thing about this error message is that there's so little detail. How were you doing the following -- using a printer driver or an add-on?

These ideas -- I'll try them in a day or two. Thanks for your patience.

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Note that the previously used opt-in pref browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 is no longer supported in Firefox 58+ and there is now only browser.tabs.remote.autostart to enable or disable multi-process mode.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.

Do you have a network printer or a printer directly attached to your computer?

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Any news? Look at the link for using the Profile Manager - it should take less than a minute to create one and test using that profile.