Third-party plugin "will damage your computer" errors on Mac

I posted an earlier solution, but it turned while it worked for me, it didn't work on my husband's computer. His MBP is a little bit newer than mine. He kept getting the HPDM.framework error, and when I finally got through that and could print, then the scanner wouldn't work. When scanning, the mac said "The scanner reported an error. The operation couldn't be completed. (com.apple.imagecapture error 4294957375.)"

• What finally worked was I had to reset his printing system in System Preferences and delete all the printers.
• Then i ran HP Easy Start. I let HP Easy Start add the Laserjet to System Preferences, and this time both the scanner and printer worked.

All this took me about 2 hours.

Hey there! If you’re still getting this error after updating, these steps worked for me:

First, let’s see if HP is still the cause, if you select “Show In Finder”, then in that window, select View > Show Path Bar, on the bottom of the Finder window it leads to /Macintosh HD/Printers/HP, then:

The HP drivers are out of date and need to be updated to work. If the Mac OS update or HP driver update didn’t work, Here’s what worked:

Open Finder, on the top menu hit Go > Computer > Macintosh HD (Usually) > Library > Printers.

Save (If you need to, and Delete the HP folder from there, (You’ll notice when clicking “Show in Finder” when you get the errors, these are where the files are, in this case old, outdated drivers and files).

Once deleted, open System Preferences > Printers and Scanners.

Right click (or Control click) select “Reset Printing System”, (This will delete any existing Printers and Scanners).

Once done:

If USB Printer, dis connect/re connect, you may see the option to “Install” the new HP software.

If a wireless “AirPrinter”, just hit the “+” sign to re-add the printer and select “Add”.

Do a test print to make sure it’s working again!

This is Gatekeeper, Mac’s security doing its job, most likely if you’re getting that error message, it’s a good thing to remove the older software.

Hope it all goes well!

Otherwise if you are getting this error from other locations besides Printers, there maybe something else going on.

This post fixed the issue on my macbook : ★ Helpful

User profile for user: DiZoE

DiZoE

User level:

Level 3

(707 points)

Oct 25, 2020 9:20 PM in response to jjsolarz

Hey there! If you’re still getting this error after updating, these steps worked for me:

First, let’s see if HP is still the cause, if you select “Show In Finder”, then in that window, select View > Show Path Bar, on the bottom of the Finder window it leads to /Macintosh HD/Printers/HP, then:

The HP drivers are out of date and need to be updated to work. If the Mac OS update or HP driver update didn’t work, Here’s what worked:

Open Finder, on the top menu hit Go > Computer > Macintosh HD (Usually) > Library > Printers.

Save (If you need to, and Delete the HP folder from there, (You’ll notice when clicking “Show in Finder” when you get the errors, these are where the files are, in this case old, outdated drivers and files).

Once deleted, open System Preferences > Printers and Scanners.

Right click (or Control click) select “Reset Printing System”, (This will delete any existing Printers and Scanners).

Once done:

If USB Printer, dis connect/re connect, you may see the option to “Install” the new HP software.

If a wireless “AirPrinter”, just hit the “+” sign to re-add the printer and select “Add”.

Do a test print to make sure it’s working again!

This is Gatekeeper, Mac’s security doing its job, most likely if you’re getting that error message, it’s a good thing to remove the older software.

Hope it all goes well!

Otherwise if you are getting this error from other locations besides Printers, there maybe something else going on.

[Image Edited by Moderator]

On Oct-28-2020, I tried various things in this thread without success. I got the hpPreProcessing.filter error, the hpPostScriptPDE.plugin error, and then the Matterhorn.framework error! I couldn't get the Mac catalina software update to refresh so that I could get a printer update.

Finally, what worked was a simpler process. I didn't need to delete the printers/hp folder or delete all my HP printers from the Printers & Scanners preferences. The problem only affected my laserjet, not my officejet. What i did was:

1. Install the latest version of HP Easy Start. I'm not sure this is necessary to get the latest drivers, but I found i should NOT re-install my laserjet from HP Easy Start. I did this 2 times and both times I got the Matterhorn-framework error. You might want to try just steps 2-6.
2. go to Preferences > Printers & Scanners
3. delete my laserjet by selecting it and clicking the "-" icon
4. Restart my mac
5. go to Preferences > Printers & Scanners
6. re-add the laserjet by clicking the "+" icon

It's not malware.

From sources familiar with the matter, HP Inc asked Apple to revoke its printer driver code-signing certificates. It appears this request backfired as it left users unable to print. An HP Inc spokesperson said on Friday night:

We unintentionally revoked credentials on some older versions of Mac drivers. This caused a temporary disruption for those customers and we are working with Apple to restore the drivers. In the meantime, we recommend users experiencing this problem to uninstall the HP driver and use the native AirPrint driver to print to their printer.

HP supplied a new driver on Friday to fix the issue:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software12/HP_Quick_Start/osx/Installations/Essentials/hp-printer-essentials-S-5_14_8_4.pkg

However, that "fix" is producing this error for some users:

"Matterhorn.framework" will damage your computer…

If you're seeing that, try this fix. Go to System Preferences, select Printers and Scanners. Select your printer from the list then delete (-) it. Then add (+) your printer back and select the generic driver to use.

Update: HP Printer Software 5.1 should now be becoming available through Software Update to fix this issue. (2220 UTC 23 October 2020)

Open  > System Preferences > Software Update      (Command R will reload and do a fresh check)

thanks, mr. toad. i had commanded R to update, didn't work earlier, but now it has. software updated, but now getting this message:

"pdftopdf.filter will damage your computer"

grrrr and more help, please!

Mr. Ti, this worked, bless you! I had run the system software update and was still getting the error messages. I then went and removed all the drivers using DiZoe's instructions, and also deleted them from my Printers & Scanners in sys prefs. i unplugged everything. then i downloaded the update from the Apple site. the installation took a while, be patient. i just was able to print a simple text file with my HP laser, for the first time since these idiots screwed it up last week.

Much obliged!!! Now we'll see if i can print from my all-in-one.

when i called both HP and Apple last week, they were blaming it on each other. The HP person told me i needed to buy a new HP laserjet. THANKS A LOT FOR THAT GREAT ADVICE, HP! yuch.

Yes. This worked for me! Thank you. Only updating withe the 5.1 update did not work for me, unfortunately.

Short summary:

1) Removing the HP folder from the Library/Printer folder. (/Library/Printers/hp)

2) Removing all HP printers from the systems/printer section/list.

3) Pressing "+" and re-installing HP printer (drivers). macOS recognises that the printer files are missing and downloads the latest ones automatically and (re-)installs the printer from scratch.

Easy fix, once you know what needs to be done!

This solution works, however I had to do it twice, as the first attempt to re-install the driver triggered a concurrent external software update to get the driver. I authorized the concurrent software update, which installed without problem, but the printer install failed, and repeated attempts would continue to fail.

I simply restarted the computer after the software update, reset the printing system again, and installed the printer. Worked like a charm. I appreciate apple trying to protect us, but breaking installed printers is a bit much... probably should have pushed something out to us instead.

After 4 days of trying, I finally discovered a fix. This is in regards to the horrific snafu between HP & Apple resulting in HP printers being unable to print with macOS Catalina or Mohave. If you have an old HP printer the following might help you.

I've tried all the fixes I could find for the last 4 days on many message boards and could not get a fix to work until today. This took about 6 hours of trial and error. I have a 12 yr old Color LaserJet 3600 and a 10 yr old PhotoSmart Premium multi-machine. I run a MacBookPro with Catalina 10.15.7.

Most fixes for old printers talked about deleting the printer in System Preferences/Printers & Scanners, then deleting the HP files in Library/Printers, rebooting, then downloading the HP Drivers Pkg 5.1 and then re-installing the printer thru System Preferences/Printers & Scanners. I tried multiple versions of that scenario and nothing worked.

My last idea before I gave up entirely worked. Here's what I did:

Try to print something again and when one of those annoying error boxes ("xxxx.xx will damage your computer") comes up, you have two choices -- "Show in Finder" or "OK". Choose "Show in Finder".

That will take you to a hidden part of the Library which will show you that file inside a hidden HP folder. 

Now with that Finder window still open, I went back to System Preferences/Printers & Scanners and deleted both HP printers.

THEN I went back to the open Finder folder to DELETE THE ENTIRE "hidden" HP FOLDER. That's the key. (Every time I tried it before I simply went to Library/Printers and there was only a single file to delete for each printer.

Once I had that entire hidden folder deleted -- the rest was easy.

Reboot again just to make sure everything comes up clean.

Open System Preferences/Printers & Scanner and wait a bit. Both my printers appeared on their own. (They were both attached via USB.)

When I tried to print to the first printer I was encouraged that no pop-up errors came up. However a dialog box did appear which asked if I wanted to download drivers direct from Apple. Definitely YES.

It took a minute for those to download.

Then I had to click on the printer icon in the task bar because it couldn't print without the new drivers. (I might have this part backwards because it's done now and I don't want to recreate the entire scenario. Maybe you have to click on the printer icon first to see the message asking if you want to download drivers direct from Apple. One way or another, it worked. You need the drivers direct from Apple.)

This snafu between HP and Apple is a nightmare scenario for HP users around the globe. I called HP support this morning and got no help from a very nice rep who basically said printers that old weren't worth the effort. I was ready to give up after that phone call, but that's when I had that one more idea about wondering where that "Show in Finder" choice took me.

Once I had my first printer running, I just had to reinstall the 2nd printer in System Preferences/Printers & Scanners and go through the same process to download drivers directly from Apple.

Good luck to everyone who is still struggling with this.

FYI, Thomas Reed of MalwareBytes has written a great explanation of the problem. He also points out that another issue is that scammers have capitalized on the problem. They have created youtube videos to tell you how to solve it, but the videos instead lead you to install scam software. In trying to solve this problem, I had actually looked at one of the youtube videos that had a computer-generated voice, but I realized right away that it was nonsense.

I got this message and I fixed the problem by going to the HP support page and downloading a new driver for my old HP Laserjet P2055dn printer. Here is a link to the page where I found the driver:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05900790

thanks DiZoE - - i just got frustrated and gave up printing for a while - the problem is that i have an older model HP Desk Jet printer - 1012 - so i think that means i am out of luck? my mac os software is up to date - and this is a new macbook air -retina 2020. interestingly enough my old macbook, circa 2013, seems to work now without doing anything.

I've had the same problem with my HP Photosmart Premium C310. I hadn't seen the Community posts but assumed this was something that slipped through the net when I upgraded to Catalina recently, so I located the HP Framework folder in my user library, zipped it, then deleted and restarted. On attempting to print again, HP prompted to reload Frameworks software, but same two files were flagged: pdftopdf.filter.app, ScanEventHandler. This time I just deleted them. This worked - I can print without these files it seems (I haven't yet tried using the scanner on the Photosmart). Thanks for all previous posts - I'll know where to look if further problems aren't fixed by Catalina updates.

The update can also be downloaded. With me the error has disappeared.

https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1888?locale=en_US