Word suddenly lost option for duplex printing

Question

Duplex printing has always been an option in the past. Suddenly that option is gone and is replaced with manual duplex. In the printer settings, the option for duplex printing is still there and the driver is the same driver from Microsoft. Only Word is unable to recognize the duplex feature.

Answer 1

Hi, Leong Wai Kay

This sounds like Word is reading the printer capability incorrectly, not that the printer itself has lost duplex support. Word is more sensitive to the printer driver/queue than other apps, so the issue can show up only in Word.

Besides the solutions provided by the Q&A Assist, here are some suggestions you can try:

If Windows shows two copies of the same printer, remove all copies of that printer, restart the PC, then add the printer again. Duplicate printer queues can confuse Word.

Try a different driver type from the printer maker’s site. For example, if you are using a PCL/PCL6 driver, it is suggested that you try the PS/PostScript driver, Universal driver, or even an older driver version if available.

If this started after a Windows or Office update, roll back the printer driver from Device Manager if the option is available.

As a workaround, save the Word document as PDF and print the PDF double-sided. If PDF duplex works, that confirms the printer is fine and Word is the part not detecting it properly.

Also try Office repair from Windows Settings > Apps > Microsoft 365/Office > Modify > Quick Repair. If that fails, try Online Repair.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment."    

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 

Answer 2

In this scenario Word is no longer exposing the printer’s built‑in duplex capability and is only offering manual duplex. This matches known issues where Word’s duplex and booklet options don’t appear or don’t behave correctly even though the printer driver still supports duplex.

Use these steps and checks:

1. Verify duplex is enabled in the printer driver
   • In Windows, open Control Panel → Devices and Printers.
   • Right‑click the printer → Printer Properties.
   • On the Device Settings/Advanced tab (name varies), confirm the duplex unit is enabled and that Print on Both Sides (or equivalent) is available in the printer’s own Properties dialog.
   • If the printer driver was recently updated by Windows Update, reinstall or repair the vendor’s driver, then restart Word and test again.
2. Avoid mixing Word’s “Manual duplex” with the printer’s automatic duplex
   • In Word’s Print dialog, if the printer is duplex‑capable and its Properties have duplex turned on, clear Word’s Manual duplex option.
   • The documented workaround when Word shows manual duplex prompts for a duplex‑capable printer is:
     1. In Word, open File → Print.
     2. Select the duplex printer and click Printer Properties.
     3. Clear Print on Both Sides (or equivalent) and click OK.
     4. Back in Word’s Print dialog, clear Manual duplex.
     5. Click Printer Properties again and re‑enable Print on Both Sides, then click OK and print.
   • This sequence forces Word to resync with the printer’s duplex capability.
3. Use the legacy Print dialog if certain options are missing
   • For some Office versions, Word’s Backstage Print view can hide or mis-handle manual/automatic duplex and booklet options.
   • The documented workaround is to invoke the legacy Print dialog (for example via a macro that calls Application.CommandBars.ExecuteMSO("FilePrint")) and use duplex options from there. This can restore access to duplex and booklet printing when they are missing from the Backstage Print tab.
4. Check for special layouts that interfere with manual duplex
   • If using Book fold in Page Setup together with Manual duplex, Word can misprint or only partially print documents. Avoid combining Book fold with Manual duplex; rely on the printer’s automatic duplex instead when possible.

If, after confirming the driver settings and applying the manual‑duplex workaround, Word still only shows manual duplex and not the printer’s automatic duplex, collect system and printing logs as suggested in the Windows printing troubleshooting article and contact support for deeper investigation.

---

References:

• You are prompted to remove printout when you print to a duplex-capable printer in Word
• Some print options are not available in Word 2010, in Excel 2010, or in PowerPoint 2010
• Two-sided (duplex) printing options cannot be set for applications in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
• The document cannot be printed as you expected when you use Manual duplex feature in Word