OS X V10.7 Lion :: Downloaded Printer Drivers From Apple Website But Not Recognizing?
Jun 3, 2012
In grad school renting a furnished apt for the summer, and trying to hook up HP printer (4215) to my Macbook that runs Lion. I've noticed on the discussions there are weird things that go on with HP and Lion, so I followed the advice of another discussion and downloaded the software/drivers noted for HP from the Apple website (software update did not detect). Â
Now, when I go into system preferences to add the printer, the printer shows up to be added, but forces me to click "add" to add and download the software - which I don't need, having already downloaded it. As other people have mentioned, this results in an error "this software is not currently available?
Is there something stupid I'm missing? It's a USB connection, printer is recognized by the computer, but the automatic software won't download and I'm not sure what to do with the software I DID download to get it to be recognized. Â
Apple this week released new drivers for HP printers in its latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The file, labeled version 2.2., is a 383MB download available from Apple. A number of HP printers, including Photosmart, OfficeJet, DeskJet and LaserJet models, are affected by the driver update. A complete list with numerous HP printers is listed on Apple's Web site. The update requires Mac OS X 10.6.1 or later.
Since the release of Snow Leopard, Apple has advertised new printer-related features in the operating system upgrade. Apple's Software Update will automatically provide you with third-party printer software and updates, "Nearby Printers" is a list of available printers that will appear right inside your printer dialog box, and you can simply connect a USB printer and the print queue will be automatically created.
As part of Apple's plans to help trim the footprint of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the new system will cease the customary installation of several gigabytes of printer drivers and instead load only the files necessary for existing devices, relying on Software Update to obtain new drivers in the future as needed.
Prepared for anything
Back in the late 80s, Apple began bundling PPD files for various PostScript printers with its System Software. The files identified features specific to each model, making it simple for users to take full advantage of each model. However, as the consumer market for printers expanded, expensive PostScript licensing was left behind for simpler and cheaper alternatives that relied on custom driver software unique to each printer manufacturer.
Microsoft began installing lots of third party printer drivers with the installation of Windows to make it simpler for users to install their printer without needing to obtain printer software themselves, a practice Apple also adopted. However, as printer manufacturers have expanded their printer software offerings to differentiate their hardware with special software features such as ink management and other add on utilities, the size of driver software has expanded rapidly.
Additionally, printer drivers are being updated more frequently and new printer models are appearing quickly enough to make it hard for operating system releases to stay current. Both Apple and Microsoft now support the ability of printer installation software to search for new or updated drivers online; Leopard began handling updates for HP drivers in 2007.
Just in time downloads
With the release of Snow Leopard this spring, Apple will put an end to the default installation of tons of drivers, according to people familiar with the latest test releases of the software. Instead, it will only install a select subset of drivers, including support for any currently attached printers or those that had been installed on the same Mac under previous versions of Mac OS X.
Sources say the system will review devices attached via USB and will scan the network for any printers advertised as available via Bonjour in order to create a short list of drivers that need to be installed. Any new printers that are attached after the installation of Snow Leopard will cause Software Update to check for drivers online.
This new policy will shave several unnecessary gigabytes from the Snow Leopard footprint, compounding the savings related to the new HFS+ file compression for compacting read only files and the compression and/or removal of unnecessary NIB files that will result in a greatly reduced size of applications on the new system.
Skinny new software
A similar practice has been put into place in GarageBand 09, which offers a series of free video instructions for learning how to play instruments. Rather than installing all of the videos by default, the new app allows users to download just the lessons they want, saving considerable disk space.
The same policy could also be applied to foreign language localization files and fonts, which currently consume lots of disk space but are only used by relatively small portions of the Mac OS X user base.
While software developers have historically relied on the luxury of constantly expanding, cheap hard drive space to ignore any need to be conservative in the amount of files loaded during installation, Apple's interest in deploying systems that use more expensive but faster SSD devices has resulted in new efforts to make Snow Leopard smaller and leaner than the system it replaces.
I have a Canon Pixma Printer MP250 how do I get it to work with my Mac. The Canon site tells me this model should be picked up in the software upgrades from Apple though when I check Apple the MP250 isn't listed??
I just added a Time Capsule to my network and my printer was working fine this morning. Now Lion says it is not connected and when I attempt to download the software from Apple it says it's not available at this time.
Upgraded to Lion recently. Trying to update printer drivers. All attempts to open official Apple printer drivers packages result in: "The Installer can’t open the package. There may be a problem with file ownership or permissions."Â
Hi, my brand new iMac 21.5" (just 2 weeks old) does not have the appropriate driver for my printer. My printer is a Samsung CLX-3160fn. The iMac has lots of other Samsung drivers, including one that's close (for the 3170 series), but the close one does not work.
Went online to search for driver but was not able to find one for Mac. Does this mean my printer is just not compatible with my iMac?
So I installed xp via bootcamp just fine. One problem; no drivers! I inserted the OSX install DVD in, xp did not recognize it. Under 'properties' it said it was a blank cd with 0 megabytes on it and 0 megabytes of storage. If I opened the DVD there was nothing there. I did get this CD from someone else, it is the 'official' OSX Snow Leopard DVD copied onto another cd, but theoretically everything is there. I am running a non unibody macbook pro 15", might I be able to download these drivers elsewhere?
Just bought my first macbook last night, and after trying for hours I have still been unable to download any new widgets for my dashboard. I click on the utility in the dashboard to get more widgets, which redirects me to the apple website. After I find one I like, and click down [URL]
my MacBook Pro was stolen last year and retrieved recently. I erased all the data via disk utilities as I couldn't access the laptop - it was asking me for a username and password made during the period it was stolen. So the next step was to reinstall OS. But when I try reinstall it, it asks me for my Apple ID - which I give - and then tells me this ID wasn't used to purchase Mountain Lion previously, which I'm well aware of- it was installed on the laptop when I bought it in 2011! My Apple support has expired so I can't ask them either!
ps I have a disk with the software on it but can't get out of Restore mode on the laptop, even when I restart it. So I can't do it that way either it seems
I have a Canon PIXMA iP4200, and I want to use it to print things. I have it plugged in to my PowerBook G4 via USB, but it does not show up. When I "Add Printer" (via Print and Fax preferences, or from any print dialog), I cannot find any option for USB printers (it is not on the Canon IJ Network, it is not a Bluetooth printer, etc. it is plugged directly into the computer)
I know for a fact that I have the driver, and that the printer works, because I have printed using this printer via a network, back before my Mac Mini (into which the printer has always been plugged) died. I have also verified that the USB cable and my USB ports are in working order. And yes, the printer is turned on.
I have a HP Photosmart C4680 and my mac does not recognize this printer when its plugged in i cant add it to my list of printers. Here is what happened: Initially everything was fine but then for some reason the printer went offline. I turned off the printer unplugged the usb cord. Turned the printer back on let it load and then I re-connected the USB cord & after I did this my mac would recognize the printer and let me add it to the computer under the print & fax settings.
Then the printer went offline again after printing several things and now doing the whole power cycle thing proves to be ineffective. Now I am stuck with a printer that will scan but wont print. How can I get my mac to recognize the printer again? I even tried running the hp installer dmg file but when i get to the 3rd or 4th step it tells me that it cant find a printer.
3 iMacs on network (running Leopard) are not recognizing the printer that is connected to iMac running OS X 10.3.9. Attempted to make some changes in Terminal on the Leopard' macs in regards to the CUPS protocol that the 10.3 version of OS X uses to recognize networked printers but it didnt seem to work.
Note: I did attempt to add --- cupsctl BrowseProtocols='"cups dnssd" --- to the Terminal in accordance with an article on Apples support area but the Terminal responded with "unmatched".
I have a 13" Macbook that, all of a sudden, cannot find my HP 4280 printer on my network. The Printer is plugged into my 21" iMac, and I'm using a Linksys router. I never had any trouble until recently, and when I open up the "Printers and Faxes" option in System Preferences, my printer isn't listed. When I click "add a printer", it's not there. I have cleared my printers and reset everything, but it hasn't fixed it. I can plug it in via USB and it recognizes it, but it won't find it via airport.
I upgraded to Snow Leopard and now my printer scanner won't work. It says it cannot recognize my computer. I have installed a few updates available and restarted and it still won't work.
how do I make it so that if I download something from one site, it goes into a subfolder of downloads, but anything else I download would just go into the regular downloads folder?
I have just had to do a system reinstall on my iBook (G4 1.33MHz 512 RAM). I have updated Tiger to 10.4.11as it was available via 'software update'. I can't now print with my trusty Epson stylus color 740 or my Epson stylus photo 895.
When I go looking for drivers on the epson web site they seem to be for systems 7-9 for the 740 and for intel Macs running Tiger for the 895. Both of these printers worked fine with my previous version of Tiger.
I recently installed the widget iStat Pro. When i did, i discovered that the (what i presume to be) drivers from my printer are using up all of my processes. In the processes tab, it can go anywhere from 90% to +100%. I have nothing in my login items but iTunes helper and absolutely nothing in the start items. I don't know what to do about this.
I have quite a few printer drivers on my MacBook� USB printers, an AirPrint printer, a printer made AirPrint-compatible via Printopia, a printer hooked up to my AirPort Express, and printers at my university's library that go through the campus wifi connection. Rather than set these up from scratch, I was wondering if there was an easy way to transfer the printer settings from one Mac to another (but not transfer other documents or settings).
I have a Macbook with 10.5.8 on it, and I installed a driver for my HP Deskjet 5740 printer, but it doesn't give me all the options I used to have (such as grey scale or fast draft).
In reading through the forums I think there is a different driver that I need perhaps? I've tried deleting and re-adding the printer, and re downloading the driver as well.
I've seen some people have solved the problem with Linux drivers for other printers, but I have no idea how this works.
I installed leopard after upgrading the hard drive, didnt install any printer drivers, ive just found a 3gig printers folder in Library/Printers, whats happening?
I have a macbook and I wanted to install my old Lexmark 4300 series printer to it. It wouldn't work with Leopard but it did work for Tiger. So I put the Mac OS X install disc in and did the optional installation, but instead of installing just the lexmark drivers I accidentally installed all of the printer drivers. I want to get rid of all of them but don't know how. I can't find them under applications or the hard drive. I can only pull them up when choosing a driver out of the driver menu when hooking up the printer.
I'm attempting to connect to a work place (windows based) network printer, so downloaded and installed my drivers. Installer says it all installed fine, but when I go to search for it when adding the printer, it's nowhere to be found in the list of installed drivers??
I tried installing it again and rebooting but it still isn't in the list of printers. Can anyone think of why this might be, or just where it would most likely be installed to so I can manually choose the driver?
The driver came as an mpkg file so I tried "Show package contents" but didn't see anything that resembled a driver file either.
One other thing, I have a feeling the printer may be "Japan Only" but the installer contained both Japanese and English Instructions so I'm guessing that won't make any difference but thought I'd mention it just in case.
Right now, my printer drivers folder in /Library/Printers is taking up around 4 GB's. I am trying to clean it up and am wondering what is the best way to remove them? If they are removed.
I just installed Snow Leopard successfully, but it doesn't know my HP2600N network laser printer. It's not in the support document and the closest printer, a 2605N is supprted. But HP's site says "HP LaserJet - Software Information for Mac OS X 10.6" and "Obtain Software", but there's nothing there. Any idea of when HP will support the 2600N? (All other upgrades had no problem with the 2600N).
