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Rainbow wheel spinning for eternity when I try to print from safari or even preview

Hi all,


I get this annoying spinning wheel whoever I try to print from Safari. it's happened on from preview so it could be a print issue from OS; just a guess. Many times, I get the spinning wheel then when it finally see the thumb print of the print job through the print window, the printer selection is blank and I can't select any. This is quite annoying to say at the least. I try to see if this has happened before and it seems that there were similar complaints over decades ago so it looks like Apple never properly fixed this in the OS. What is the deal?!?


BTW, I am on a Mac mini Late 2014 running OS 10.14.6.


Help!



Posted on Mar 1, 2020 8:46 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 1, 2020 9:12 AM

Hello, long time no see!


Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


If no improvement...


Mac OS X: About the Reset Printing System feature ...


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1341?viewlocale=en_US


In System Preferences>Fax & Print, Right click or Control+click on the Printers list Sidebar, choose Reset Printing System.

if you hold option and click the "-" tab it resets the printing system.


http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031215144430486


Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup).

Any devices that previously appeared in your Printer List and Fax List will need to be added again after resetting the printing system.

Resetting the printing system in Mac OS X

1. To use the Reset Printing System feature in Mac OS X, follow these steps:

2. Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.

3. Choose Print & Fax from the View menu.

4. Control-click on list of printers on the left side of the window, then choose "Reset printing system" from the contextual menu. If you don't see a list of printers, Control-click on the text "Click + to add a printer or fax" and select "Reset printing system..." 
   
  As an alternative, if you currently have one or more printers listed, you can Option-click the "-" (Remove printer) button.


http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1341

Reboot.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 1, 2020 9:12 AM in response to Speed Racer

Hello, long time no see!


Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


If no improvement...


Mac OS X: About the Reset Printing System feature ...


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1341?viewlocale=en_US


In System Preferences>Fax & Print, Right click or Control+click on the Printers list Sidebar, choose Reset Printing System.

if you hold option and click the "-" tab it resets the printing system.


http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031215144430486


Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup).

Any devices that previously appeared in your Printer List and Fax List will need to be added again after resetting the printing system.

Resetting the printing system in Mac OS X

1. To use the Reset Printing System feature in Mac OS X, follow these steps:

2. Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.

3. Choose Print & Fax from the View menu.

4. Control-click on list of printers on the left side of the window, then choose "Reset printing system" from the contextual menu. If you don't see a list of printers, Control-click on the text "Click + to add a printer or fax" and select "Reset printing system..." 
   
  As an alternative, if you currently have one or more printers listed, you can Option-click the "-" (Remove printer) button.


http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1341

Reboot.


Mar 1, 2020 10:19 AM in response to BDAqua

Dude, you're awesome! Problem solved from your first solution. Yay!!! I was starting to hate Apple but I'm back thanks to you!


So that I understand what was done to solve the problem - As you stated safe mode attempts to repair disks and clear cache.

So, does this mean that most likely, I had an issue with my internal HD on my Mac mini and/or cache develops over the years. What is this cache and where is it? What can I do to be proactive so I don't run into this issue with my printer? Or is it just as simple to do a safe boot again whenever I see this sort of issue? Does doing a safe boot prevent other issues besides printing?

Thanks for your help! Yay Apple and you!


Happy camper.

Mar 1, 2020 12:41 PM in response to Speed Racer

Great news! :)


Tough to tell what it was, but I suspect Directory corruption, Directory s the pointers to files & folders, sort of like Street names & house numbers, if they get mixed up the House Demolition team may tear down the wrong house! :D


Caches, of which there are many, maybe hundreds, are pre-loaded info the OS uses to speed up things.


If you ever have untoward shutdowns or crashes it'd be wise to do aSafe Boot.


To see some possible impending problems run this App...


EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck


Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you need help...

https://pastebin.com/


Rainbow wheel spinning for eternity when I try to print from safari or even preview

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