Level 1

30 points

Printer job "On hold (authentication required)"

My set-up:

2 x iMac running 10.6.2 attached to AEBS via ethernet
1 x MacBook running 10.6.2 attached to AEBS via wireless
1 x HP PSC 1600 printer/scanner USB atached to one of the iMacs

Printer sharing is enabled: everyone can print can print from either iMac.

On the MacBook I can add the printer easily enough but, when I try to print, the job is held with the status: On hold (authentication required):

!http://idisk.me.com/charlie.whitfield/Public/Pictures/Skitch/HP PSC_1600_series_%40_bucky_%281Job%29-20100120-122550.jpg!

What's happening here. I've found the same problem in networks involving Windows machines, but I'm all OSX.

iMac: 2 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM. MacBook: 2.13 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 20, 2010 4:26 AM

Top-ranking reply

Hen3ry

Level 3

505 points

Posted on Jul 10, 2010 2:47 PM

Hello,

Trying to print from an iMac running 10.6.x to a shared Canon Pixma iP4500 printer USB-connected on another local iMac running 10.5.x, I encountered the "printing on hold (authentication required)" blockage.

I fixed it. At least for one test case.

Here is what I did:

After checking all the usual issues in the Sharing and Print-Fax Control panels without any improvement, and verifying that local printing functioned normally, I went to the local machine, opened a browser window, and entered this URL:

http://localhost:631

This is the control interface for the CUPS printing subsystem on that machine. (CUPS stands for "Common UNIX Printing System" and appears be the mechanism that makes printing work on MacOS X.) Then I chose the Administration tab. This revealed a button "Edit Configuration File". I clicked on that and got a editable window containing the configuration file. I located the following text sequence:

...
<Location />
Allow From None
Allow From @LOCAL
....

Interpretation: No printing request from a remote machine would be accepted. (Note: I neglected to write down the text I found there. I am fairly certain of the word "None" -- it was either that or something synonymous.)

I changed this to

...
<Location />
Allow From All
Allow From @LOCAL
....

and saved the edit. At that point I was informed of a printing subsystem reset.

I walked over to the "remote" machine and attempted to print on the Canon. It now worked.

Note 1: The configuration file is available on the local 10.5.x machines that I checked, but it doesn't seem to be accessible on my 10.6.4 machine. Clicking on "Edit Configuration File" has no effect. Why? I think it may be a permissions issue. Security has been tightened on 10.6.4, I think.

Note 2: There's an option to use the default configuration. But the default doesn't seem to say "Allow from None" or anything similar in the Location section.

Here's my interpretation of what I'm seeing:

Most, maybe all, adjustments that affect local printing end up modifying this configuration file. It accumulates changes over time, and gets progressively harder to read, and perhaps the printing subsystem becomes a bit confused. Maybe for that reason, or some completely different one, the text denying all remote accesses was inserted on the 10.5.x machine. Changes to GUI printing setup in the Print&FAX control panel or elsewhere may not be able to undo the damage, so a manual modification was required.

hen3ry

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109 replies

tommyl1m

Level 1

0 points

Apr 22, 2015 2:54 AM in response to matthewdebeyer

Hello Matt,

Thanks so much. It helped me.

Problem solved 🙂

May 17, 2015 4:06 PM in response to niuboshi

I have been trying to get my mac to work with my printer since MAY 2013! I'm already starting to give up and trade it in for a bran new Surface 3 with Office 2016 on it.

May 17, 2015 4:09 PM in response to sheonafrombrisbane

😟It does not fix the issue on my mac which runs OS X Yosemite.

May 17, 2015 4:20 PM in response to DowCo

How long should I hold the button "Hold for Authentication" if it even says that?

Nov 1, 2015 2:50 AM in response to matthewdebeyer

Thanks a lot was suffering from this issue for more than a year and it worked out like a charm.....

Jan 15, 2016 1:14 PM in response to matthewdebeyer

THANK YOU !!!

fmike7

Level 1

0 points

Jan 26, 2016 6:45 AM in response to tageek

This is the easiest solution and it worked for me.

Feb 18, 2016 1:05 AM in response to matthewdebeyer

Thank you so much Matt it worked for me..... you are a life saver 🙂

Mar 29, 2016 4:49 AM in response to matthewdebeyer

this is my first post, i just want to say thank you matt. its worked. god bless you. cheers 🙂

Apr 2, 2016 10:49 PM in response to matthewdebeyer

You're a saint! it's been 2 days of trying and it was that simple all along!! Thank you!

Apr 7, 2016 8:13 AM in response to tageek

Refreshing the icon does nothing... I cannot find in the keychain which entry corresponds to the printer..

this is so frustrating and just plain bad design and user experience - frustrating...

-ss-

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2016 4:46 AM in response to matthewdebeyer

In target!!

Thanks for shared.

i-Dave

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2016 1:27 PM in response to Macounette

Brilliant - such an easy fix. Thanks.

Dec 30, 2016 10:48 PM in response to matthewdebeyer

Thank you so much! Fixed my printer problem once I found the keychain app. Guest/guest didn't work, but I created a user account w/pass on my Win10 machine and that worked.

Sep 21, 2017 10:56 AM in response to caw35slr

Removing/adding printer didn't help
Clearing keyring/pressing "Refresh" and reentering username/password or guest/guest didn't help
Then I found http://servalpaul.blogspot.com.by/2015/01/mac-osx-hold-for-authentication-when.h tml - described solution worked for me

In short words:

Try to print something to this printer. Then open the print queue for the printer, and click on the refresh icon to the right of the job name. It should prompt you for your username and password for the print server, and then revert to "Hold for authentication". This is really important. If you don't try to send a print job and have it stuck in "Hold for authentication" first, strange things can still happen after following the procedure below.
Open a terminal window. Find out the name of the printer: lpstat -s
Force the mac to use "username,password" authentication for this printer: sudo lpadmin -p YOUR_PRINTER_NAME -o auth-info-required=username,password
Change YOUR_PRINTER_NAME to your real printer name found at step 2, and leave the rest of line as is (don't put your real username and password instead of words username,password). When you hit return after typing this command you will be asked for your mac password.
Attempt to print using the printer. It should now work. If it doesn't try deleting the printer and following the sequence again. If the print queue keeps pausing itself and saying the print job is "ready to print", read the important note on step 1.

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Printer job "On hold (authentication required)"