SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

1216840 - Warning: 'This report uses an invalid printer. The default printer will be used instead.' when opening a report in Crystal Reports

Symptom

  • Invalid printer error.
  • When opening a report in Crystal Reports, it displays the warning message:

    "This report uses an invalid printer. The default printer will be used instead."
        
      
       Invalid Printer.png
     
       
  • Why does this error appear and how do you resolve it?

Environment

  • SAP Crystal Reports 2013
  • SAP Crystal Reports 2016
  • SAP Crystal Reports 2020 

Reproducing the Issue

  1. Start Crystal Reports.
  2. Open a report.
  3. It displays the warning message: 
      
    "This report uses an invalid printer. The default printer will be used instead."   

Cause

  • Crystal Reports format the report based on the printer selected for the report. 
  • If the printer driver on which the report was designed is not installed on the computer, it will display the warning message.

Resolution

  • This is only a warning message indicating the printer on which the report was designed is not installed on the local computer where Crystal Reports is installed. It will use the default printer driver set in MS Wndows, or if there is no printer installed, it will use no printer to format the report when previewing it. The warning simply indicate the report formatting could potentially be a little bit different when previewing the report, since the printer driver used to originally desiged the report is not on the computer.
                       
       
  • If you do not want to see the warning message, set the report to use "No Printer":
      
    1. In Crystal Reports, open the report.
        
    2. Under the menu "File", select "Page Setup..."
        
    3. In "Page Setup", check the option "No Printer (optimize for screen display)"

        No_Printer.png 


    4. Click "OK"
        
    5. Save the report.

Keywords

CR, PRINTER ERROR WARNING INVALID OPEN REPORT OPENING DEFAULT Crystal Reports Printers Opening a report na , c2014672 , KBA , BI-RA-CR , Crystal Reports designer or Business View Manager , Problem

Product

SAP Crystal Reports 2013 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2016 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2020