Not everything can live on a screen forever, sometimes you need a physical copy instead. That’s why we still have printers and that’s why Safari lets you print websites from your Mac. At least, it normally lets you do that.
With a printed website you can keep permanent records, make easy notes, or follow paper instructions instead of relying on your computer. Safari offers a few different ways for you to print websites on your Mac. But for some users, none of them seem to work.
In this article we’ve explained every single method you can use to print websites from Safari, and exactly how to fix it if there’s a problem.
Make sure you’ve connected your printer in the System Preferences.
There are four different ways to print websites from Safari. Well…three-and-a-half ways really, since the last one involves opening a PDF of the website in a different app. But each method delivers the same result: a paper copy of everything from that particular page on the Internet.
Before you can print anything, you need to make sure your printer is connected to your Mac. Open the System Preferences and go to Printers & Scanners. If your printer isn’t in the sidebar, contact the printer manufacturer for more support.
If your printer is listed in System Preferences, use any of the four methods below to try printing a website from Safari.
Method 1. Access the File menu
Open Safari and navigate to the website you want to print.
From the menu bar, go to File > Print.
Select your printer and edit the print settings.
Click Print.
Most apps let you print the active page from the File menu.
Method 2. Use a keyboard shortcut
Open Safari and navigate to the website you want to print.
On the keyboard, press command+P.
Select your printer and edit the print settings.
Click Print.
Press and hold command first then quickly press the P key.
Method 3. Access the control-click menu
Open Safari and navigate to the website you want to print.
Control-click in a blank space on the page.
Click ‘Print Page…’ from the pop-up menu.
Select your printer and edit the print settings.
Click Print.
The control-click menu varies depending on what your mouse is hovering over.
Method 4. Print from an exported PDF
Open Safari and navigate to the website you want to print.
From the menu bar, go to File > Export as PDF.
Choose a name and destination for the exported PDF file.
Open the PDF file using Preview. If you need to, take this opportunity to annotate the page using Preview’s toolbar.
Use any of the previous methods to print the website from Preview: go to the File menu, use a keyboard shortcut, or control-click in a blank space.
Select your printer and edit the print settings.
Click Print.
Exporting as a PDF allows you to annotate a website in Preview before you print it.
What if I can’t print websites from Safari on my Mac?
Many users hear a “bonk” sound instead of seeing the print window appear.
Typically, after trying to print a website, users hear a system alert sound — described as a “bonk” — but no print options appear. They don’t even get a system alert pop-up telling what went wrong.
What’s more, Safari seems to randomly decide which websites you can and can’t print. It often lets users print once in a session, but refuses to cooperate the next time they try printing anything.
Follow each of the steps below — checking if you can print from Safari again after each step. Let us know how you got on in the comments.
Step 1. Update Safari with macOS
Since this problem is often the result of a software bug, Apple usually releases a new update aiming to fix it. Apple built Safari into the operating system on your Mac, so to update Safari and get the new fix, you need to update macOS.
How do I update macOS and Safari on my Mac?
Connect your Mac to a working Internet connection.
From the menu bar, go to > System Preferences > Software Update.
Wait for your Mac to check for new updates.
Download and install any it finds.
Check the box to automatically keep your Mac updated.
Of course, it’s possible Apple hasn’t released a new update for Safari yet. In this case, your best bet is to use the workarounds below and keep checking for updates in the System Preferences.
Step 2. Use a different method to print websites
Several users told us they can bypass this problem with Safari by using one of the other methods to print websites. This is an easy solution to try yourself. Although it isn’t a permanent solution, it can save a lot of grief when you need to print something quickly.
If you already tried printing from the File menu, for example: try using a keyboard shortcut, try the control-click menu, or try exporting the website as a PDF. We explained how to use each of these methods above.
Step 3. Restart Safari and try printing again
When any app misbehaves, you should restart it. The act of quitting and relaunching an app can do wonders for resolving any software issues. Many users found that restarting Safari allowed them to print websites on their Mac again.
But before you restart Safari, decide if you want it to automatically reopen your websites. You can choose to make Safari do this from the Preferences or you can manually reopen websites from the History menu.
How do I reopen websites when restarting Safari?
To make Safari automatically reopen websites:
From the menu bar, go to Safari > Preferences > General.
Next to Safari Opens With: choose ‘All windows from last session.’
To manually reopen websites in Safari:
From the menu bar, go to History.
Select the specific website you want to reopen or choose to ‘Reopen All Windows from Last Session.’
Change your preferences to make it so Safari always reloads your websites.
How do I restart Safari on a Mac?
From the menu bar, go to Safari > Quit.
If Safari is not responding, press option+command+escape. Select Safari in the pop-up window and click ‘Force Quit.’
Take this opportunity to restart your Mac, go to > Shut Down. Then wait at least 30 seconds for your Mac to power off before restarting it.
After your Mac restarts, open Safari as you normally would.
Use the Force Quit app for any apps that are not responding.
Step 4. Reset the printing system in your System Preferences
You can fix various printing problems on your Mac by resetting the printing system. When you do this, it removes all printers and scanners from your System Preferences, forcing you to reconnect them again.
Resetting the printing system deletes any jobs waiting to print. You will need to send them to your printer again after reconnecting it.
How do I reset the printing system on my Mac?
From the menu bar, go to > System Preferences > Printers & Scanners.
Control-click in the sidebar and select ‘Reset printing system.’
Confirm you want to ‘Reset’ the printing system.
After the reset finishes, click the plus (+) button to add your printer again.
Confirm you want to reset the printing system in the pop-up alert that appears.
Step 5. Clear your cache, history, and preferences from Safari
Safari isn’t the only browser to collect browsing data, they all do.
Safari collects various packets of data as you browse the Internet. These cookies and caches allow websites to save your preferences, reload in less time, and remember if you visited before.
Removing this data changes how websites behave when you visit them. We also suggest deleting your Safari Preferences, which changes how Safari behaves when you use it, restoring it to its default settings.
From the menu bar, go to Safari > Preferences > Privacy.
Click ‘Manage Website Data’ and select ‘Remove All.’
Restart Safari and try printing a website again.
Remove your Safari website data from the Privacy Preferences.
How do I clear my cache from Safari?
From the menu bar, go to Safari > Preferences > Advanced.
Turn on the option to ‘Show Develop menu in menu bar.’
In the menu bar, go to Develop > Empty Caches.
Restart Safari and try printing a website again.
Emptying your caches from the develop menu might remove even more cached data.
How do I clear my browsing history from Safari?
From the menu bar, go to History > Clear History.
Select ‘all history’ from the drop-down menu.
Confirm you want to ‘Clear History.’
Restart Safari and try printing a website again.
Choose to clear all your browsing history to fix bugs in Safari.
How do I delete my Safari preferences?
Open a new Finder window.
Hold option and from the menu bar, select Go > Library.
Open the ‘Preferences’ sub-folder.
Find and delete the following file: com.apple.Safari.plist.
Restart Safari and try printing a website again.
Safari automatically creates a fresh plist file when you delete it.
These instructions probably would have been easier to follow if you could have printed them out in the first place. But hopefully you managed to fix Safari and you can print websites from your Mac without any issues now.
Dan writes tutorials and troubleshooting guides to help people make the most of their technology. Before becoming a writer, he earned a BSc in Sound Technology, supervised repairs at an Apple Store, and even taught English in China.
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