When using RDP or [RDS] (Remote Desktop) you use two forms of printers
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This is when you ask for a list of printers and your locally installed printers are showing on the list, effectively the server pushes the job to printer redicrection through your remote desktop client.
There are several reasons why this does not always work, these are controlled by your own network support team
The Client does not support RDP printing
If a user complains about RDP printer redirection not working while connected to a Microsoft RDP session in RDS, you can't assume that the user is working from a Windows device. The user could be working from a macOS device, a web client, a smartphone or something else.
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Microsoft provides a chart that illustrates which clients support printing and which do not. Simply put, macOS has limited support for printing and web clients only support PDF printing. Android, iOS and universal clients do not support printing.
Printer Redirection has been turned off
The Microsoft RDP client itself is what controls hardware redirection -- the terminal services do not. The client contains settings that make it possible to enable or disable the redirection of various hardware types. If an admin disables print redirection, then print jobs will be sent to the device's locally mapped print device rather than being sent to a remote print device via the RDP.
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Group Policy is blocking printer redirection
Not surprisingly, any modern version of Windows contains Group Policy settings related to device redirection. Among these settings is one that you can use to either allow or forbid printer redirection.
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This is controlled by the server administrator, we do not normally add this policy to block printer redirection. |
The remote machine is not acting as a print server
If you're redirecting printing through RDS, then you'll need to configure the remote machine to act as a print server, even if the print devices are not directly connected to that server. Windows Server is configured by default to act as a print server, but you should still make sure that this functionality has not been disabled.
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Next, open the Server Manager and select the Print Management command from the Tools menu. Make sure that the server is listed by name in the Print Servers section.
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The server does not recognise the printer
If RDP printer redirection is not working properly, then open the Print Management console on the remote server and expand the Printers container for the print server. It should list the printer that you are trying to print to. While you are at it, check the Drivers container to make sure that the correct driver is listed for the printer.
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Finally, check the Ports container. This container should confirm printer redirection from the client. For example, a desktop named Brien-Main is redirecting Microsoft Print to PDF to a remote print server through port number TS005.
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What to Do if you have an issue
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