USB Printer Port Missing in Windows 11 and 10 (USB001): Every Fix, and How to Stop It

If your USB printer port is missing in Windows 11 or 10, so USB001 is not listed under the printer's Ports tab or in Print Server Properties and the printer will not print, the fastest fix is the order of power: shut the PC down fully (hold Shift while choosing Shut down), turn the printer on and connect its USB cable, then start the PC. Windows creates the USB port when it finds a powered-on printer during startup. If that does not bring it back, open Device Manager, show hidden devices, uninstall USB Printing Support and the printer, unplug and replug the printer, and let Windows reinstall them. Then select USB001 on the printer's Ports tab. If the port is stuck "in use" and cannot be deleted, restart the Print Spooler service first.

Ethan's office has an old but sturdy USB laser printer on the front desk PC. Every few weeks it stopped printing for no clear reason, and when Jake looked, the USB001 port it used was simply gone from the list. The pattern turned out to be simple: the receptionist switched the printer off at the wall every evening, and on mornings when the PC started before the printer was on, Windows did not recreate the port. Jake fixed it that day by restarting in the right order, then made it stop happening by changing a power setting and replacing the printer's old driver. This page explains why the USB printer port disappears, every fix from quickest to most thorough, and how to stop it coming back, for Windows 11 and 10.

Why the USB printer port disappears

When you connect a USB printer, Windows creates a virtual printer port for it, usually named USB001, with USB002 and so on for additional USB printers. The printer's driver sends print jobs to that port, and Windows passes them over the USB cable. The port is not a physical socket; it is a software link between the printer queue and the device on the cable, created and checked each time Windows starts.

If Windows cannot see the printer when it starts, because the printer is off, the cable is unplugged, or the USB connection fails to wake, it may not recreate the port. The printer queue then points at a port that does not exist, and jobs sit in the queue or fail. This became widely known in 2020, when Microsoft acknowledged that on Windows 10 versions 1903, 1909 and 2004, a USB printer port could go missing if the printer was disconnected or switched off while Windows shut down, particularly with printer drivers that include a component called a language monitor. Microsoft gave the power-on-first workaround and said a fix would come in a future update.

Years later, the same symptom still turns up on Windows 10 and Windows 11, mostly with older printers and older drivers, and the same workaround still works. It is less a single bug now than a family of causes that all end with Windows not finding the printer at the moment it builds its list of ports. The sections below go through them in order.

Who runs into it most? Small offices and homes with an older USB printer that is switched off at the wall when not in use, front desks and shops where the PC starts automatically before anyone turns the printer on, and laptops that are docked and undocked with the printer attached to the dock. If that sounds like your setup, the prevention section at the end matters as much as the fixes.

Printer ports explained: USB, TCP/IP, WSD and the rest

The Ports tab lists many entries besides USB001, and knowing what they are makes it much easier to see what is wrong. Each printer queue in Windows sends its jobs to exactly one port, and the port decides how the data leaves the PC.

A common mistake after a missing-port episode is a USB printer accidentally assigned to LPT1, which is the first port in the list and is sometimes chosen by default when the USB port is missing during installation. Jobs then vanish without an error, because Windows happily sends them to a port with nothing on it. If your USB printer's Ports tab shows LPT1 checked, that is the problem; check the USB port instead.

Network printers do not use USB ports at all, so this page's problem never affects them. If a printer is listed twice, once with a USB port and once with a WSD or TCP/IP port, it is connected both ways, which happens with printers that have both USB and Wi-Fi. Use one and remove the other to avoid confusion about which queue your jobs go to.

Fix 1: restart in the right order

This fixes most cases in two minutes, and it is the fix Microsoft recommended.

1. Save your work and close programs.
2. Hold down Shift while you select Power, then Shut down. Holding Shift makes Windows do a full shutdown instead of the faster hybrid one used by fast startup.
3. Wait until the PC is completely off.
4. Turn the printer on and wait until it is ready, with no warning lights.
5. Connect the printer's USB cable to the PC, if it is not already connected. Use a USB port directly on the PC, not a hub or monitor port, for this test.
6. Start the PC and sign in.
7. Check the port: open Settings, Bluetooth & devices, Printers & scanners, scroll to Related settings and select Print server properties, then the Ports tab. USB001 or another USB port should be back.

A plain Restart also performs a full restart and usually works too. What does not work is choosing Shut down without Shift on a PC with fast startup on, because the next start resumes a saved state rather than rebuilding everything, and the port may stay missing. Our guide to fast startup explains why shut down is not a full restart on most PCs. If you would rather not remember the Shift trick, turning fast startup off makes every shutdown a full one, at the cost of a few extra seconds at startup.

Why does the order matter so much? At startup, Windows builds its list of connected devices and matches each printer queue to the device behind its port. A printer that is switched on later is detected as newly connected, and with many drivers Windows does recreate the port then, which is why simply turning the printer on sometimes works. With drivers affected by the 2020 problem, it does not, and only a start with the printer already present brings the port back. Doing it in the right order once tells you which kind of setup you have: if the port returns only with the printer on first, you know to make that the routine, or to fix the driver.

Fix 2: assign the printer to the USB port again

Sometimes the port comes back, but the printer queue still points at the wrong one, or Windows created the port with a new number, such as USB002 instead of USB001. Assign it.

1. Open Settings, Bluetooth & devices, Printers & scanners, and select your printer.
2. Select Printer properties (not Printing preferences).
3. Open the Ports tab.
4. Check the box for the USB port, for example USB001 Virtual printer port for USB. If there are several, choose the one whose description mentions your printer or whichever is unused.
5. Select Apply, then go to the General tab and select Print Test Page.

On Windows 10, the path is Settings, Devices, Printers & scanners, select the printer, Manage, Printer properties. The Ports tab is the same. If the test page prints, you are done. If not, the port may be listed but not connected to the device, and Fix 3 rebuilds it.

If you have more than one USB port listed and are not sure which belongs to the printer, try them one at a time with a test page after each change. Only one will reach the printer; the others belong to devices no longer connected, or to a second USB printer. Once you find the right one, note its number, because the same printer usually comes back on the same port after future restarts, as long as it stays plugged into the same USB socket on the PC.

How to see which port a printer is using

Before changing anything, it helps to see what each printer currently uses. The quickest view is in PowerShell: open it and run Get-Printer | Select-Object Name, PortName, DriverName. It lists every printer queue with its port and driver in one table, so you can spot a USB printer pointing at LPT1, a duplicate queue, or two printers sharing one USB port. Get-PrinterPort lists every port Windows knows about. Neither command changes anything, so they are safe to run whenever you are unsure.

Fix 3: reinstall USB Printing Support in Device Manager

Behind every USB printer port is a device called USB Printing Support. If it is stuck, the port cannot be created. Reinstalling it is safe, because Windows sets it up again automatically.

1. Connect the printer and turn it on.
2. Right-click Start and choose Device Manager.
3. Select View, then Show hidden devices. Hidden devices include ones Windows remembers but cannot currently see, which is often where a lost printer is.
4. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers. Right-click USB Printing Support and choose Uninstall device. If there are several, including faded ones, uninstall them all.
5. Expand Print queues and Printers if present, and uninstall faded or duplicate entries for your printer. Do not check the box to delete the driver at this stage.
6. Unplug the printer's USB cable, wait ten seconds, and plug it back in.
7. If nothing appears, select Action, then Scan for hardware changes.

Windows reinstalls USB Printing Support and recreates the USB port. Then assign the printer to it as in Fix 2. Our guide to uninstalling drivers in Device Manager shows these menus with more detail, including when to check the delete-driver box.

If the printer does not appear in Device Manager at all, even under Universal Serial Bus controllers as an unknown device, Windows is not seeing the hardware. That points to the cable, the USB port, a hub or the printer itself, covered in Fix 7.

What to expect: after the rescan, Device Manager briefly shows the printer being installed, a notification may say the device is being set up, and within a minute the printer appears under Printers & scanners. If Windows asks for a driver, point it to the maker's driver or let Windows Update search. If the printer reappears but as a second copy, such as "Printer (Copy 1)", print a test page from the copy; if it works, remove the old one and rename the new one to keep things tidy.

Fix 4: "printer port in use" and ports you cannot delete

When you try to delete a USB port, or change a printer to a different one, Windows sometimes says the port is in use, or the requested resource is in use. A port cannot be deleted while any printer queue uses it or while the print system has it open.

1. Assign every printer that uses that port to a different port first, in Printer properties, Ports.
2. Restart the Print Spooler: press Windows + R, type services.msc, find Print Spooler, right-click it and choose Restart. Or, in an administrator Command Prompt, run net stop spooler and then net start spooler.
3. Open Print Server Properties, Ports, select the port and select Delete Port.

Virtual USB ports are managed by Windows and often cannot be deleted at all, which is normal; Windows removes unused ones on its own over time. You rarely need to delete a USB port. Assigning the printer to the right one is what matters. If duplicate printers clutter the list, our guide to completely removing a printer and its driver cleans them up properly.

A shortcut for administrators: printui /s /t1 in the Run box opens Print Server Properties directly on the Ports tab, saving several clicks when you are working through these steps repeatedly.

If the spooler will not stay running, or old jobs keep reappearing after a restart, clear the stuck jobs. Stop the Print Spooler, open C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS, delete the files inside that folder only, and start the spooler again. Those files are queued print jobs, and a damaged one can hold a port busy indefinitely. Deleting them cancels any waiting jobs, so warn anyone who is printing first.

Fix 5: update or replace the printer driver

Many cases of a USB port that keeps disappearing come down to an old driver, especially the full software packages that came on a CD with older printers. Those drivers often include a language monitor, a component that talks two-way with the printer for ink levels and status, and that was exactly the kind of driver behind the 2020 problem.

1. Note the exact printer model from the label on the printer.
2. Download the current Windows 11 or 10 driver from the printer maker's support site. If there is a choice between a full software package and a basic driver, try the basic driver first.
3. Remove the old printer and its driver package, then install the new driver with the printer connected and on.
4. Print a test page, then shut down fully, start the printer later than the PC once, and check whether the port survives.

For many printers, Windows' own built-in driver works too: remove the printer, reconnect it, and let Windows add it automatically. You lose some maker features such as ink-level pop-ups, but basic printing is often more reliable. Our full guide to installing printer drivers in Windows 11 and 10 covers both routes.

Make sure the driver matches your Windows. Windows 11 is 64-bit only, and many printer sites still list separate 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 10 drivers; the 32-bit one will not install on a 64-bit PC. If the maker offers no driver for Windows 11, the Windows 10 64-bit driver usually works, since printer drivers changed little between the two.

Printer stopped working after a Windows update

Windows updates can change printing in three ways: they can install a newer driver for your printer through Windows Update, change parts of the print system, or, on Windows 11, introduce features such as Protected Print Mode. If your USB printer stopped right after an update, start with the driver. In Device Manager, find the printer under Print queues or Printers, open Properties, and on the Driver tab check the date and version. If Roll Back Driver is available, it returns to the previous driver, which is often the quickest fix.

If rolling back is not available, install the maker's current driver as described above. Only if a specific update is clearly responsible, and the maker has no fixed driver, consider uninstalling that update temporarily while you wait for a fix; our guide to uninstalling Windows updates explains how, and why it should be temporary. Ethan's printer stopped once after a feature update had swapped the maker's driver for a generic one that did not include the USB status component; reinstalling the maker's basic driver fixed it in minutes.

Fix 6: stop USB power saving from dropping the printer

If the port disappears after the PC sleeps, rather than after shutdowns, Windows' USB power saving may be switching the connection off. Two settings control this.

1. In Device Manager, expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, and for each USB Root Hub and Generic USB Hub, open Properties, the Power Management tab, and clear Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
2. In Control Panel, open Power Options, select Change plan settings for your plan, then Change advanced power settings. Under USB settings, set USB selective suspend setting to Disabled. On some Windows 11 PCs this option is hidden; the Device Manager setting is then the one to change.

On a desktop, the extra power use is negligible. On a laptop on battery, leave selective suspend on and accept reconnecting the printer after sleep, or connect the printer through a powered dock. Our guide to power plans shows where these settings live.

Sleep problems are easy to confirm. Print a test page, put the PC to sleep for a few minutes, wake it, and print again. If the second job fails and the port has vanished, power saving is the cause. If both print, sleep is not the problem, and the cause is more likely the startup order or the driver.

Fix 7: cable, hub and USB port checks

If Device Manager does not see the printer at all, the problem is physical. Printer USB cables are usually USB-A to USB-B, the squarish plug on the printer end, and they wear out, especially in front-desk printers that get moved. Try these in order: a different USB port directly on the PC, preferably on the back of a desktop where the ports connect straight to the motherboard; a different cable, ideally shorter, since long cables over about 15 feet cause problems; removing any hub, extension or monitor USB port from the path; and restarting the printer itself, since some printers need a power cycle to reset their USB connection.

If Windows ever shows a message about a power surge on the USB port when the printer is connected, unplug it and see our USB power surge fix before reconnecting. If the printer works on another PC with the same cable, the problem is the first PC's port or USB drivers; updating the chipset driver from the PC maker often helps.

Finding clues in Event Viewer

When a USB printer keeps misbehaving and the cause is not obvious, Windows can keep a log of every print job and error. It is off by default. Open Event Viewer, go to Applications and Services Logs, Microsoft, Windows, PrintService, right-click Operational and choose Enable Log. From then on, each print job and each failure is recorded, with the printer and port it used.

After the next failure, look at the most recent entries. Errors that mention the port not being found, or a driver failing to load, point to the fixes above. Entries that show jobs printing successfully on a different printer than you expected show that the job went to the wrong queue. You can turn the log off again afterward the same way. For USB connection problems themselves, the System log under Windows Logs sometimes shows device errors when the printer is connected or disconnected, which confirms a cable or port problem.

The printer troubleshooter and Get Help

Windows includes an automated printer troubleshooter. On Windows 11, open Settings, System, Troubleshoot, Other troubleshooters, and run Printer, which opens the Get Help app's printer checks. It restarts the Print Spooler, checks for stuck jobs and driver problems, and can catch simple issues quickly. It does not usually fix a missing USB port, because the port depends on the device being found at startup, but it is worth running if a printer stops for reasons you have not identified, and it takes only a minute.

On older Windows 10 versions, the troubleshooter appears under Settings, Update & Security, Troubleshoot, Additional troubleshooters. Microsoft has been moving these older troubleshooters into Get Help, so the look varies between versions, but the printer checks are similar.

Windows Protected Print Mode in Windows 11

Windows 11 version 24H2 introduced Windows Protected Print Mode, an optional security setting that makes Windows use only its own built-in printing system, based on the Mopria standard, and blocks third-party printer drivers. Printers that support Mopria, which includes most network and many USB printers sold in recent years, keep working. Older USB printers that need the maker's driver stop working, and can look exactly like a missing port problem.

To check, open Settings, Bluetooth & devices, Printers & scanners, and look for Windows protected print mode. If it is on and your printer needs a third-party driver, turn it off, restart, and reinstall the printer. On work PCs, IT may have turned it on deliberately for security, in which case ask before changing it. Microsoft is gradually moving printing toward its built-in class driver, so if you are buying a printer, one that supports Mopria or works with Windows' built-in driver will cause the fewest problems in future.

Multifunction, label and receipt printers

A multifunction printer, one that also scans or copies, appears in Windows as several devices on one USB cable: a printer, a scanner and sometimes a memory card reader. That gives you a useful clue. If scanning still works but printing does not, the USB connection is fine and the problem is the printer queue or its port, which points to Fixes 2 and 5. If nothing works, not even the scanner, the connection itself is the problem, which points to the cable, the USB port or power saving.

Label and receipt printers, common in shops and warehouses, often use their own drivers and sometimes older connection methods, including virtual COM ports over USB rather than USB printer ports. For these, follow the maker's setup guide closely, and note which port the driver creates during installation, since moving the printer to a different USB socket can create a new port number and break the setup until you select the new one. Writing the working port number on a label on the printer saves time next time.

USB printers on Windows on Arm laptops

Laptops with Arm processors, such as those with Snapdragon chips, run Windows 11 well, but older printer software may not install on them, because the driver must be built for Arm. If your USB printer works on an Intel or AMD PC but shows no port or no driver on an Arm laptop, the driver is the likely gap. Check the printer maker's site for an Arm64 driver, and try Windows' built-in driver by removing the printer and letting Windows add it automatically. Printers that work with Windows' own driver are the safest choice for Arm laptops, and the same is true for Windows Protected Print Mode.

How to stop the USB printer port going missing

Once the port is back, a few habits keep it there. The most effective is simply to leave the printer on, or at least to switch it on before the PC in the morning. Modern printers use very little power in sleep mode, and switching them off at the wall every night is what caused Ethan's office problem in the first place. If the printer must be switched off, plug it into the same power strip as the PC so both come on together, with the printer ready by the time Windows starts.

Beyond that, keep the printer on a USB port directly on the PC rather than a hub, turn off USB power saving for the hubs in Device Manager, keep the printer driver current or use the built-in Windows driver, and consider turning off fast startup on a PC that shares a USB printer, so every shutdown is a full one. Jake did all five on the front desk PC. The port has not gone missing since, and the receptionist still switches off the printer at night; the power strip now does it for both devices together.

For a PC that many people use, a printed note beside the printer helps more than any setting: printer on first, then the PC. It takes five seconds to read and saves a call to whoever looks after the computers. If the port ever does go missing again, the fix is the same restart in the right order, and the rest of this page is there for the rare case where that is not enough. Ethan keeps a copy of the printer driver in a folder on the office file share, labeled with the printer model, so a reinstall never depends on finding the right download again.

A USB printer shared with other PCs

Some homes and small offices connect a USB printer to one PC and share it with others on the network through Windows printer sharing. In that setup, a missing USB port on the host PC breaks printing for everyone, and the other PCs show the printer as offline. Fix the port on the host PC first, using the steps above, and the shared printer comes back for everyone without any change on the other PCs.

Sharing also means the host PC must be on, awake and signed in, or at least running, for others to print. If the host sleeps, the printer disappears for the network until it wakes. For a printer used by several people, the cleaner solution is to connect it to the network directly, or use a small print server, so no PC needs to stay on. That is what Ethan's office did with its second printer, the one in the back room, and the shared-printer complaints stopped.

Consider connecting the printer over the network

Many printers that are connected by USB can also connect by Ethernet or Wi-Fi. A network connection does not use a USB virtual port at all, so this whole class of problem disappears, and other PCs can print to it too. If your printer has an Ethernet socket or Wi-Fi, connect it to your network, then add it in Windows from Settings, Printers & scanners, Add device; Windows usually finds it automatically.

Network printers have their own occasional problems, such as changing IP addresses, but for a printer shared by several people or one that moves between rooms, the network is usually the more reliable choice. For a single PC with a printer on the desk beside it, USB is still simple and fine once the port behaves.

A missing USB printer port looks alarming, because the printer seems to vanish, but it is one of the most predictable printer problems in Windows. Start the PC with the printer already on, rebuild USB Printing Support if the port still does not appear, assign the printer to USB001, and then remove the cause: power saving, an old driver, or a printer switched off at the wrong moment. Ethan's front desk printer has printed every morning since, and nobody has had to think about ports again.

Revision note. Written October 3, 2026, expanding our June 2020 post about the missing USB printer port after Windows 10 updates into a complete guide for Windows 11 and 10. It covers why the port disappears, the power-order fix, assigning USB001, rebuilding USB Printing Support, ports stuck in use, drivers, USB power saving, hardware checks, Windows Protected Print Mode, prevention, and moving to a network connection. May your printer always be ready when you are.