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Printers list blank in Print Management Console

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This article provides a solution to an issue that the list of printers will be blank when you view the printers on a remote server through the Print Management Console (PMC).

Applies to:   Windows Server 2012 R2
Original KB number:   2253813

Symptoms

When viewing the printers on a remote server through the Print Management Console (PMC) the list of printers will be blank, but the list of drivers and/or ports may display correctly.

Pinging the client FQDN (for example, client.subdomain.domain.com) from the print server results in a name resolution error.

Cause

Client system (the system running PMC) does not have a DNS A Record (forward lookup) or the record is incorrect.

Resolution

Add a DNS A Record for the system running PMC or correct the existing record.

More information

You may see the following request / response in a network trace. The reason this may or may not be in the network trace is because if the name resolution was previously attempted, the response will be cached on the server. To clear the cache, use ipconfig /flushdns and then capture the trace.

RpcRemoteFindFirstPrinterChangeNotificationEx Request, Local Machine = \\servername.company.com, Printer Local = nnnnnn
RpcRemoteFindFirstPrinterChangeNotificationEx Response, Status = RPC_S_SERVER_UNAVAILABLE

In a network trace from the print server, you may see a DNS query initiated then a response received:

DNS:QueryId = 0xB19B, QUERY (Standard query), Query for servername.company.com of type Host Addr on class Internet
DNS:QueryId = 0xB19B, QUERY (Standard query), Response - Name Error

Note

Short name resolution for the client name may work, either through the DNS suffix search lists (if the DNS record is in the wrong domain) or WINS. Try to look up the fully qualified domain name of the client on the print server. Internally, spooler uses the FQDN to call back to the client, so if the FQDN does not resolve, the callback will fail.