Help Can someone please help me with a print issue?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I have had my A5 for quite some time and have never had any problems with it. Recently though I find that I can no longer use the Print function, particularly if I select Print and then save an email to PDF. I used to be able to save an email to PDF then upload it to my Google Drive by simple using my phone.

I don't know what has changed, but when I click Print, the screen that allows me to Save as PDF pops up (like it should), but disappears almost immediately. An image of that screen can be found below.

I have tried various apps that should allow me to print to PDF, but none of them works. How can I restore the functionality that will allow me to select Print then save as PDF again?

Many thanks

(This menu should remain open in order for me to save as PDF, but it disappears after about 2 seconds)

 

[touringhaggis]

Hi,

Welcome to the site!

First of all, you appear to have posted this message to the wrong forum. The A5 and S5 are two different phones, so it could be that you are not going to get any answers from people experienced with your phone. That said:

Is this only a problem with emails (i.e. a problem with the email app) or does it also effect other applications? If it is just the email app, take a look in the google play store to see if you got an update for it recently. It could be that you have to contact the author and tell them about the recent problem (or install the older version again from apk mirror).

I hope that I have helped!

Regards,
Eric.

 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Welcome to the site!

First of all, you appear to have posted this message to the wrong forum. The A5 and S5 are two different phones, so it could be that you are not going to get any answers from people experienced with your phone. That said:

Is this only a problem with emails (i.e. a problem with the email app) or does it also effect other applications? If it is just the email app, take a look in the google play store to see if you got an update for it recently. It could be that you have to contact the author and tell them about the recent problem (or install the older version again from apk mirror).

I hope that I have helped!

Regards,
Eric.

Thank you for your reply Eric. I didn't notice that I had mistyped my phone model number. It is in fact an A5, not S5. I have added my original question to show this.

The problems occurs with other applications as well, not just Gmail.

 

[touringhaggis]

Hi,

Ok, since you do have an A5 then you have a newer version of Android than I do, so I am guessing here. For one thing, my print to PDF screen looks very different. Hopefully someone else can give you more guided advice... but:

My shot in the dark theory would be to clear the cache partition of the phone. If you got an OS update perhaps something in the cache is not 100% compatible with the new version causing the closing you are seeing. If this does not help, perhaps some app that you installed or updated recently is getting in the way. You could try booting into safe mode to see if the problem still exists with only system applications running.

Regards,
Eric.

 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Ok, since you do have an A5 then you have a newer version of Android than I do, so I am guessing here. For one thing, my print to PDF screen looks very different. Hopefully someone else can give you more guided advice... but:

My shot in the dark theory would be to clear the cache partition of the phone. If you got an OS update perhaps something in the cache is not 100% compatible with the new version causing the closing you are seeing. If this does not help, perhaps some app that you installed or updated recently is getting in the way. You could try booting into safe mode to see if the problem still exists with only system applications running.

Regards,
Eric.

Thanks again for the reply Eric. I tried both your suggestions, but neither worked. I just don't know what changed.

 

[touringhaggis]

Hi,

I did a little research and found that the screen shot you posted seems to be associated with Google cloud print (which is a separate download for my operating system). So, the next thing I would check is the Google play store. Try to update (or deinstall/install) the Google cloud print service. See if that helps.

Also take a look in you settings under connections->nfc and sharing->printing and try to play with the settings in there. Perhaps you can persuade it to work again...

Good luck!

Regards,
Eric.

 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

I did a little research and found that the screen shot you posted seems to be associated with Google cloud print (which is a separate download for my operating system). So, the next thing I would check is the Google play store. Try to update (or deinstall/install) the Google cloud print service. See if that helps.

Also take a look in you settings under connections->nfc and sharing->printing and try to play with the settings in there. Perhaps you can persuade it to work again...

Good luck!

Regards,
Eric.

Hi Eric,

I can not thank you enough for your willingness to help me. Unfortunately I still haven't found a solution.

I have borrowed a friends phone in order to take screen shots of what should happen when I want to save to PDF and upload to my Google Drive. I was also trying to compare his settings with mine, but there are so many places to check that I don't know where to begin really. I checked the obvious ones, but I can't see anything out of the ordinary.

If you look at this album, you will see what should happen -

http://imgur.com/a/bqOtP

And this is the situation on my phone (note the descriptions under each image) -

http://imgur.com/a/uCHJp

 

[touringhaggis]

Hi,

Despite my willingness to help, which I think you will find is not unique on this forum, we have sadly reached the limit of my knowledge. When I try to print, with the same settings as you, I also see the flow that your friends phone shows.

Since you have no active print plugins there must be something wrong with Android itself. You have already tried clearing the cache partition, so this leaves a factory reset and reflashing the system ROM. Both of these are very destructive and I wouldn't be quick to go down that route.

At this point I would try to open a support case with Samsung to see if they can help you (a long shot, but they know the hardware better than me). Remember to tell them all the steps we have performed here and link your two imgur posts. If this route fails, then you can determine if the factory reset is worth trying out. Remember to back up all your data first!

Regards,
Eric.

 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

Despite my willingness to help, which I think you will find is not unique on this forum, we have sadly reached the limit of my knowledge. When I try to print, with the same settings as you, I also see the flow that your friends phone shows.

Since you have no active print plugins there must be something wrong with Android itself. You have already tried clearing the cache partition, so this leaves a factory reset and reflashing the system ROM. Both of these are very destructive and I wouldn't be quick to go down that route.

At this point I would try to open a support case with Samsung to see if they can help you (a long shot, but they know the hardware better than me). Remember to tell them all the steps we have performed here and link your two imgur posts. If this route fails, then you can determine if the factory reset is worth trying out. Remember to back up all your data first!

Regards,
Eric.

Well, funny you should mention a factory reset. This afternoon, after spending most of the morning trying to get to the bottom of this, I decided to do a factory reset. It worked. Everything is the way it should be now. I can print and save to PDF.

I have no idea what happened and why it changed. Should it happen again, I will have to resort to a factory reset again, but I don't want to go througj that again really. Fortunately I habe everything backed up.

Thanks again for your suggestions.