How to Do Canon Printer Wi-Fi Setup (WPS/Manual Connect)?

Audience: US home and home-office users connecting a Canon PIXMA, MegaTank or MAXIFY inkjet to a normal ISP gateway or retail router, who want to do it from the printer itself rather than through an app. Not IT staff joining printers to an enterprise network.

If your router has a WPS button and its security is set to WPA2 (not WPA3 only), use WPS. On a printer with a screen, choose WPS (Push button method), press and hold the WPS button on the router, then press OK on the printer within 2 minutes. On a printer with no screen, hold the printer's Wi-Fi or Network button until the network icon flashes, then press the router's WPS button within 2 minutes. No password is typed at any point.

If the router has no WPS button, runs WPA3 only, or WPS fails, use Manual connect: on the printer, go to Wi-Fi setup, choose Manual connect, pick your network name, and type the Wi-Fi password. That only works on models with a display. Screenless PIXMA models have no way to type a password, so their fallback is Canon's Easy Wireless Connect from a computer or phone.

The steps themselves take a few minutes. Where people lose an afternoon is the small print: the two-minute window runs in a different order depending on the model, WPS quietly refuses WPA3, and typing a 16-character password with two arrow buttons has traps Canon only mentions in a pop-up note.

Which method your printer supports

Canon's setup menus differ by how much screen the printer has. Find your row first, because it decides which of the sections below apply to you.

Three router checks before you start

Each of these will sink a setup that is otherwise done correctly, so check them before you touch the printer.

1. Is WPS available at all? Look for a button marked WPS, or the two-arrow WPS symbol, on the router or gateway. Some ISP gateways ship with WPS turned off in their admin settings, and some mesh systems don't support it at all. eero, for example, leaves WPS out for security reasons. If there's no button and no WPS setting, skip straight to Manual connect.

2. What security mode is the router using? Canon's own guides say it plainly: if the router's security includes WPA3, "you may not be able to use WPS," and on the TS3700 series, "if you are using WPS, you cannot use WPA3." The setting you want is WPA2-PSK (AES), or a mixed WPA2/WPA3 mode, which some routers call transition mode. Canon's current guides also say WEP, WPA-PSK (TKIP) and WPA2-PSK (TKIP) can't be used on newer models, so an old router still on TKIP needs changing whichever method you pick.

3. Which band will the printer join? Older models are 2.4 GHz only. The TS6400 series guide says flatly that the printer "does not support IEEE802.11ac, IEEE802.11a, or IEEE802.11n (5 GHz)." Newer models such as the G3270 add 5 GHz, but Canon's notes for those guides still say 5 GHz support depends on country or region. If your router uses one network name for both bands, that's usually fine with WPS. For Manual connect, it means you may see your network listed twice, and on a 2.4 GHz-only printer you want the 2.4 GHz one.

Do you need to reset the printer's network settings first? Not for a first-time setup. Canon's WPS steps start straight from the Wi-Fi setup menu. Resetting LAN settings only matters when the printer is still holding an old network from a previous router or a previous home.

WPS push button setup

On a printer with a screen (TS6420a, G3270, TR4720, GX6020)

The order here catches people out. On models with a display, Canon's guide has you press the router button first, then confirm on the printer.

1. On the printer, open the network menu and choose Wi-Fi setup. On the TS6420a: press OK on the Home screen, use the Up or Down button to select Wi-Fi setup, and press OK. On touchscreen models, tap the Network icon, then Wi-Fi, then Wi-Fi setup.
2. Select WPS (Push button method) and press OK. The TR4720 and G3270 word it WPS (Push button).
3. Go to the router and press and hold its WPS button until the WPS light starts blinking. How long to hold it depends on the router, so check its label or manual. On some gateways a long press of the same button does something else.
4. Back at the printer, press or tap OK within 2 minutes.
5. When the screen says Connected to the wireless router, press OK, then go back to the Home screen. The TS6420a uses the Back button, the TR4720 and G3270 use the COPY button, and touchscreen models use HOME. A Wi-Fi icon appears in the corner of the screen once the printer is connected.

Two minutes sounds generous. It isn't if the router lives in a basement and the printer sits in a bedroom upstairs. Start the printer side first, so the WPS screen is waiting before you walk to the router.

On a printer without a screen (TS3520, TS3320, MG3620)

Here the order flips. The printer goes into WPS mode first, and you then have 2 minutes to reach the router.

The MG3620 sequence is the one people get wrong. Holding the Wi-Fi button on its own isn't enough. The Black button press is what selects WPS, and a slow-flashing Wi-Fi lamp means it went into a different mode. Press Stop and start again.

What if the Alarm lamp lights up? That's the printer telling you WPS failed. The error table further down translates the lamp patterns and E codes.

WPS PIN method, for routers with no button

Some routers support WPS but only through their admin page, using an 8-digit PIN that the printer generates. It's slower than the button and depends on your router's admin page having a WPS PIN field, which plenty of current routers have removed.

On a model with a screen (TS6420a): go to Wi-Fi setup, select Other connection types, then WPS (PIN code method). The printer shows a PIN. Log in to the router's admin page on a computer, find the WPS section, and enter that PIN. When the printer shows Connected to the wireless router, press OK. If you take too long, the printer shows "Timeout error." Canon's fix is to start over and enter the new PIN the printer shows, not the old one.

On the TS3520: load two sheets of Letter-size paper and press the Information button. The printer prints a Network Configuration Page that includes the PIN. Then press the Setup button nine times, press the Color button, and enter the printed PIN in your router's admin page.

Unless you have a specific reason, Manual connect is the better fallback on any model with a screen. The PIN method is the part of WPS with a known security weakness (more on that below), and it asks you to log in to the router anyway.

Manual connect: typing your network password on the printer

The standard route (TS6420a, G3270, TR4720)

1. Open Wi-Fi setup as above and select Manual connect.
2. The printer searches and lists nearby network names. Select yours and press OK.
3. Enter your Wi-Fi password. It's case-sensitive.
4. Press the Start button to finish typing.
5. When Connected to the wireless router appears, press OK, then Back.

If the printer connects without asking for a password, the network is open. That's fine for a test, but your print jobs will be traveling unencrypted.

Typing a password with two arrow buttons

Canon's text entry rules for the TS6420a sit in a pop-up note most people never open. Read them before you start, because they explain most "Failed to connect" errors on the first attempt:

• The Wireless connect button cycles between four modes: lowercase, uppercase, numbers and symbols. The current mode shows as a character in the middle of the screen.
• Up and Down scroll through the characters, and OK enters the one shown.
• Back deletes the last character. The cursor can't be moved, so a typo eight characters back means deleting eight characters.
• The trap: if you switch modes and press OK before picking a character, the printer enters a space. Your password now has a space in it, and nothing on screen makes that obvious.

Write the password on paper in groups of four before you start, and count the characters as you go. If the count is right and it still fails, a hidden space is the likely culprit.

If your network isn't in the list

Canon's troubleshooting for "Wireless Router Not Detected" boils down to four things:

• You're looking for the wrong band's name. Canon notes that network names "differ between the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz frequencies" on routers that split them. On a 2.4 GHz-only printer, choose the 2.4 GHz name.
• The network is hidden. If SSID broadcast is off, either turn it on or choose Directly enter the router name and type the network name yourself (on the TS6420a this sits under Manual connect (adv.)).
• The router uses business-grade security. Canon inkjets don't support "WPA/WPA2 Enterprise." Switch the router to WPA2 Personal.
• Distance. For setup, put the printer and router in the same room. Canon's own WPS troubleshooting suggests within 3 meters (about 10 feet). Once it's connected, the printer can go back where it lives.

On a touchscreen model

Tap Manual connect, tap your network, and the printer asks which security type to use. Newer models such as the TS8700 series offer WPA/WPA2/WPA3, so a WPA3 router works here even though WPS won't. The TS6420a's advanced menu only lists WEP and WPA/WPA2, which is another reason to run a mixed WPA2/WPA3 mode rather than WPA3 only if you have older Canon models in the house.

What about printers with no screen?

They have no Manual connect, because there's nowhere to type a password. Canon's guide for screenless models sends you to Easy Wireless Connect: start it from ij.start.canon on a computer or from the Canon PRINT app on a phone, and the software passes your network name and password to the printer. If WPS is off the table and you don't want to use an app, a USB cable is the only other option.

What the error messages and lamps mean

Every message below comes from Canon's own setup guides. The wording varies slightly by model.

If none of these match what you're seeing, our Canon printer not connecting to Wi-Fi guide covers the router-side causes in more depth.

Prove it worked: print the network settings page

A steady Wi-Fi icon tells you the printer joined something. The network settings printout tells you what it joined, which band, and how strong the signal is. It takes 30 seconds, so do it before you install anything on your computer.

• TS6420a and similar screen models: load three sheets of Letter-size paper, press OK on the Home screen, then Device settings > LAN settings > Print details > Yes.
• TS3520 and other segment-display models: load paper and press the Information button.

The item numbers below come from Canon's TS6400 series manual. Other models use the same layout with minor differences.

Keep the printout somewhere safe. Canon warns that it "contains important information about your network," and on models with Wireless Direct it can include that network's password.

Is it safe to use WPS?

The push button method is fine for a one-time setup. It only works for 2 minutes after someone physically presses the button, and that's a narrow window for anyone to abuse.

The PIN method has a real, documented weakness. In December 2011, CERT/CC published vulnerability note VU#723755. It showed that a router checks the 8-digit PIN in two halves, and the last digit is a checksum, so an attacker needs at most about 11,000 guesses rather than 100 million. Many routers patched this with lockouts, but not all.

The practical advice: use the button, finish setup, and if your router's admin page lets you turn WPS off afterward, do it. The printer stays connected because it now holds your normal Wi-Fi credentials. WPS was only the delivery method.

Once the printer is on Wi-Fi

Connecting the printer to the router is only half the job. Your computer or phone still has to find it:

• Windows and Mac: download the driver or setup software for your exact model from ij.start.canon and choose the wireless connection option. If you started setup from that software, return to it and it picks up where it left off.
• iPhone and iPad: most current Canon models support AirPrint and show up in the Print menu with no extra software.
• Android: install Canon PRINT, or use the Mopria print service built into most Android phones.

If the computer can't see a printer that the settings page says is connected, the two are usually on different networks. A guest network, or a router with client isolation turned on, are the usual suspects. And if the printer connects fine today but shows offline next week, that's a separate problem, usually an IP address that changed. Our Canon printer offline guide covers that fix.

Related guides

• Canon printer not connecting to Wi-Fi: router-side causes and fixes when neither WPS nor Manual connect will complete.
• Canon printer offline: for a printer that connected fine and later dropped off the network.
• Canon printer setup issue: driver installation and adding the printer on Windows and Mac after it's on Wi-Fi.
• Canon printer error codes and messages: for support codes that point to a hardware fault rather than the network.
• How to connect a Canon MG3620 printer to Wi-Fi: the full walkthrough for that model's button sequences.