Secure Print Failover FAQs

You can enable Offline Print in the Secure > Settings page under Offline Print by toggling the Allow the system to temporarily switch to offline printing if print issues are detected to ON.

Note: Don't see the Offline Print section? This feature is currently only available upon request. Submit a support ticket to have it enabled.

How do I force my users to go into Offline Mode?

Switching all users into Offline Mode is easy. If for any reason an administrator wishes for all users to go into Offline Mode they only need to do one thing: hit the big yellow button (Switch all users to offline print). Between 2-7 minutes later, all users will be offline.

Note: The very first print after offline mode has been forced will still appear as if the system is online. Any subsequent prints by any user will be offline.

If my office loses internet will my users still be able to print?

Secure Print Failover was designed to keep users printing. In the event of a localized internet outage the Print Scout should detect the problem and automatically switch users into Offline Printing mode. As long as the IT administrator has opted into users being allowed to go into offline mode, no additional action is required on their part. This will allow IT administrators to keep their focus where it needs to be, without needing to worry about users that need to print.

Once a problem is detected or I've forced offline printing, how long will it take for the change to take effect?

In the event that all users are forced into Offline Mode, it can take up to 7 minutes for the status change to be communicated to all Print Scouts. In order to ensure optimal system performance, the health of the systems critical services are checked every 5 minutes. On top of that, each Print Scout checks in with the cloud each time the user prints (max. of once every 2 minutes) to determine if the user should be in Offline Mode. This means an individual user can take between 2-7 minutes to go offline.

What if a user hasn't printed yet and printing goes down?

Unfortunately at this time, if the user has not released a document when the system is online they would be unable to print once the system has gone into Offline Mode. Work is underway to introduce search capability into the offline printing mode. This would allow users to search for a printer if they either have none in the list or wish to release at a different device than what is listed.

I just opted into Secure Print Failover and wanted to test the feature by forcing Offline Mode, but its not working...

Changes to the global opt-in setting for Failover are checked by each Print Scout once every 24 hours or on system reboot. If the setting was just enabled, try rebooting your machine to force the Print Scout to pick up the change.

Additionally, Sentry Print Failover requires the following versions of the Print Scout:

• Windows Scout 7.19.20.5000 (or later)

• Mac Scout 2.13.11.5000 (or later)

I'm in Offline Mode and I don't see any printers in my recently used printers in order to release my document, what do I do?

In anticipation of this feature, the Print Scout began collecting data about recently used printers with the June update, Windows version 7.18.0.3245 and Mac version 2.12.0.12. Once users are running the applicable Print Scout, any release activity will be tracked and used to populate the list of frequently used printers when the user goes offline.

Unfortunately at this time, if the user has not released a document when the system is online they would be unable to print once the system has gone into Offline Mode. Work is underway to introduce search capability into the offline printing mode. This would allow users to search for a printer if they either have none in the list or wish to release at a different device than what is listed.