Fix: Operation Failed With Error 0x0000011b

The 0x0000011b error occurs when you can’t connect to a printer on the network for the first time. It indicates that your system failed to download and install the drivers for the printer due to a directory mismatch while attempting to connect to the network server.

You will see the error message “Operation failed with error 0x000001b” in such cases. This issue first started on September 2021 due to bugs in the September 14 security updates. While Microsoft has already resolved the issue, it may still occur if you have an older system. Or, some other later updates may also be responsible for such issues.

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How to Fix Operation Failed With Error 0x0000011b?

Below mentioned are the probable solutions for the 0x000001b error. Any one of these should work. However, it’s better to follow them in order to prevent any other issues on your system.

Update Your System

Microsoft released a security feature in January 2021 to resolve Windows Print Spooler Spoofing Vulnerability, CVE-2021-1678. However, users needed to set the RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled registry entry to 1 to enable this feature.

The KB5005573 and KB5005565 security updates (September 14, 2021), which were also included on September 21 2021, cumulative update package, automatically set this key to enable the security feature. However, doing so also started the 0x0000011b error, along with many other network printer errors.

Microsoft has long since resolved these issues in the later updates, namely KB5005611, KB5006667, KB5006669, KB5006738, and KB5007189. So you need to install these updates to resolve the issue if you haven’t been updating your system for a long time.

Moreover, it is not impossible for similar issues to occur in the future. So, we always recommend regularly installing the updates along with optional ones.

Here’s how you can install the latest updates:

Open Run by pressing Win + R.
Type ms-settings:windowsupdate and press Enter to load Update Settings.
Click on Install now if updates are available or Check for Updates if they aren’t.

You also need to resume the updates if you had paused them previously. We recommend looking through our article on How to Stop Windows Update and performing the reverse steps if you don’t know how to resume Windows updates.

Add Network Printer Driver

You can also work around the error by installing the network printer driver for the local port on your end (client-side). This error actually results due to the client side failing to download the necessary drivers for the host printer and connecting to it. So, manually installing the driver should bypass the issue.

Here’s what you need to do on the client’s PC:

Open Run.
Type control printerscon and press Enter to open Devices and Printers inside Control Panel.
Click on Add a printer.
Select The printer that I want isn’t listed.
Check Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings and click Next.
Check Create a new port, set Type of port to Local Port, and hit Next.
Enter \\“Computer Name”\“Printer Name”, for example, \\DESKTOP-TTSIR65\Canon TS3522. Then, click OK.
If you get the Port already exists error, you must have created this port sometime in the past. In such cases,
- Click OK.
- Then, check Use an existing port and set it to this port.
Click Next.
Here, you need to select the driver. If the list doesn’t contain the necessary driver, click Windows Update. Select your Manufacturer and Printer.
If you still can’t find the driver you need,
Download the driver from the official website.
Extract it to get the .inf file.
On the listing page in the Add Printer window, click Have Disk > Browse.
Navigate to the .inf file, select it and click Open.
Now, click on Next > Next.
You can check if the driver is working by clicking Print a test page. After setting up everything, hit Finish.

Remove Printer Authentication Privacy Using Registry Editor

Since the error occurs because the update automatically sets a particular registry entry, you can resolve it by clearing it or setting it to zero (0) on the host or server side.

Nevertheless, doing so disables the mitigation for the CVE-2021-1678 security vulnerability. So it’s always recommended to update to the latest version instead of changing this setting.

Regardless, here’s how you can disable this entry using the Registry Editor on the host PC:

Open Run.
Type regedit and click OK to open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print
Look for RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled and double-click on it.
Set its Value data to 0 and click OK.
If you can’t find it, you need to create the entry as follows:
- Right-click on Print and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Set its name to RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled.
- Since you are creating the entry, your system should automatically set its value to 0. If not, you need to do so yourself.

If it doesn’t resolve the issue, make these changes on your client-side PC as well.

Uninstall Recent Updates

The last method you can try is to uninstall the buggy updates. If you are still experiencing the error due to KB5005573 and KB5005565 security updates, you can try uninstalling them. Nonetheless, these updates also contain other security patches, so only do so as a last resort.

On the other hand, while none of the other updates to the day of this article’s creation has caused similar issues, it would be unwise to deny that a future update may include similar bugs. In such scenarios, you need to check the update history and uninstall the latest update as soon as you encounter the error. Otherwise, you need to wait for further bug fixes.

You must uninstall the updates on both the host and the client computers. Here’s how you can do so:

Open Run.
Type appwiz.cpl and press Enter to open Programs and Features.
Click on View installed updates.
Search the recent or buggy update under Microsoft and select it. You can search the internet for more information if you need.
Click Uninstall and confirm with Yes.