Printer stuck on "The printer is in use" forever

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Level 1

14 points

Printer stuck on "The printer is in use" forever

Have had this problem for many months, but just realized today that its affecting both my 2018 Mac Air (corporate owned), and my older 2013 Mac Air (personal). Had presumed it was my corporate EPP product causing the problem and never bothered to troubleshoot. However just now realizing the personal Mac also has same symptoms.

My corporate owned Lenovo PC prints just fine.

The two Macs are unable to print via IP Printing, or Bonjour. Both also unable to use the Scan feature. The printer is on the network, and the print status progresses through connecting and starting, but then gets stuck and stays at "The printer is in use" and stays this way forever. This is with the printer setup via Bonjour.

Setup for IP Printing using the HP JetDirect driver, the print job seems to go through and disappears from the queue, but nothing comes out of the printer. It stays motionless.

Rebooting of the Canon TR8500 series printer and Macs makes no difference. Confirmed the Canon software on the Mac is up to date, as well as the IJ Scanner utility from Canon from scanning.

I've had this Canon for perhaps two years and originally it did print fine, and I was able to scan using the IJ Scanner utility app. I don't recall ever being able to use the Mac builtin scan function.

The printer is wifi connected. Same subnet and SSID as the Macs and PC. I've gotten by with having the Canon scan directly to my Google Drive.

Asus Wifi router. It was unable to upgrade firmware for 6+ months, but just fixed that. Its not up to date, and hasn't fixed my printing problem.

I have an IT background in network engineering. Doesn't seem to be network or wifi problem. Especially since PC prints fine (though it can't scan).

Smells something with these Macs since both have the same symptom. PC prints fine, seems to indicate there is nothing stuck in-process on the printer itself.

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on May 24, 2020 7:07 AM

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Answer 1

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georg224

Level 1

9 points

Jun 2, 2020 8:51 AM in response to lotten81

I have or perhaps have had a very similar problem. I am not sure whether I just fixed it, finally. I also own a canon printer - a brand new MF742cdw - which always got stuck after a few hours after installation in the status "The printer is in use" or sometimes just "offline".

I have also an IT background but am not really in that matter of printers and network. What I figured out is that my printer has changed its mDNS name inexplicably by its own... I assumed that this could cause the problem I have with the canon printer or rather the connection to the printer from my different Macs. Since mDNS seems to be a crucial attribute in configurations based on bonjour.

I opened the CUPS web IF and saw that the connection to the printer still pointed to the "old" mDNS name of my printer. I disabled on the canon printer through the web IF of the printer all DHCP functionalities, hoping that the printer no longer changes its mDNS name on its own. Afterwards I updated on every single one of my Macs through the CUPS web IF the connection to the canon printer. Immediately after updating the connection I was able to print again. And the printer - also immediately after connection update through CUPS - was shown as inactive but available in the printer&scanner pane of the prefs app.

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Answer 2

lotten81 Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 9, 2020 6:29 PM in response to georg224

Accessed the CUP interface and poked around.

Changed my Canon so it is manual IP, and not DHCP. Rebooted it, removed and readded the printer to the Mac. Don't see any conflict with the Bonjour name which is the default "Canon TR8500 series". Same problem.

For those interested, here's easy instructions on accessing the CUPS interface on the MAC.

(https://cdn.website-editor.net/289f2b5d8761467499277c01e5ac0366/files/uploaded/Mac%2520Print%2520Defaults.pdf)

That is a nice way to look at the configuration versus doing it in Systems Preferences.

Still unable to print from Mac to Canon printer.. Tried IP Printing, and no good.

However I can print to it using Google Cloud Print, and I am able to access the WEBUI of the Canon printer. It seems to be on the home network just fine.

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Printer stuck on "The printer is in use" forever

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