Troubleshooting

The most common situations and their fixes.

Nothing happens when I print / no document arrives

Almost always the cause is that Deste is closed. Printing only works while Deste is running and the capture server is listening on localhost:631.

• Open Deste (run deste.exe if it’s not in the tray).
• Turn on run at startup so it’s ready every session.

The printer doesn’t show as “Deste” in Windows

• Is Deste running? The app must be running before you add the printer.
• Did you add the printer with the right address? http://localhost:631/ipp/print.
• Setup steps: Installation → adding the printer to Windows.

“Cannot print to the Deste printer” warning

You chose Deste as the output target. Deste can’t print to its own printer — that would re-capture the print and create a loop. Choose a real printer or use Save PDF.

“No real printer found”

There’s no printer installed other than Deste. Add a printer, or keep your job with Save PDF.

Why loop protection might be disabled

Loop protection compares the target printer’s name with “Deste”. If you added the printer under a different name (e.g. “Deste IPP”), the guard won’t recognize it. Remove the printer and re-add it with the name exactly Deste.

Port 631 is already in use

If another IPP/CUPS service is using localhost:631, Deste’s capture server can’t bind (Deste still opens, but capture won’t work). Stop the conflicting service or restart Deste.

No preview / can’t print (pdfium)

• Is pdfium.dll in the same folder as deste.exe? If it’s missing, preview and printing are disabled.
• Is the document a real PDF? Non-PDF raw formats (PostScript, PWG raster) are stored but may not be previewable.

Duplex prints come out one-sided

Real duplex is only achieved on printers that support double-sided printing in hardware. If your printer doesn’t support it, the driver ignores the request.

Compression isn’t available

If the Compress button or the Compress while saving toggle does nothing or is hidden, the cause is that the compression engine rustpdfcompressor.exe is missing from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Deste.

• Reinstall the full distribution — the engine ships alongside deste.exe and pdfium.dll.
• If the engine is absent, Save PDF still works; it just saves uncompressed, at the original size.

For all compression settings, see Compressing PDFs.

I lost a document

If a document disappeared from the list, it most likely wasn’t permanently deleted. Deleting a document from the stack, Clear All, and auto-clean all move documents to History, not the trash.

• Open the History tab and use Re-queue to bring the document back to the list.
• Documents are only removed permanently with Delete or Reset; those cannot be undone.

For details, see History.

Still stuck?

If the problem persists, you can open an issue on the GitHub repository.