Big Sur and HP printer drivers

Hi Jan

Thank you for your suggestion. I tried all the options you suggested with no luck, but I finally solved the problem last night. I downloaded and installed Gutenprint as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, and then - this is the important bit - I turned on printer sharing in the system preferences menu. After than the 6l driver appeared and was auto-selected in the driver options menu when re-installing the printer. I hope this helps others to solve the problem. Thanks everyone!

leroydouglas, thank you So Much for showing this screenshot referencing the HP Printer Software Update 5.1. I'd checked System Preferences for Software Updates (I'm running MacOS Big Sur, Version 11.2.3) and though it showed there were no updates needed, I went ahead and typed "HP Printer Software Update 5.1" into a Google search, found the download, and restarted my MacBook Pro mid-2015 after installing it. It worked!

I'd spent almost the entire day reading thru various suggestions on many websites, uninstalling and reinstalling for an HP 5600 series All-in-One (which Mac kept re-adding on its own, but without the scanning function), and your suggestion worked flawlessly. Thank you so very much!

I had a similar problem when a High Sierra update wrecked communication with my old HP F4580 inkjet printer.

Tried all Apple advice, nothing worked. Per advice on HP forum, I uninstalled all HP printer software and reinstall the latest package of drivers (HPPrinterDrivers5.1.dmg).

FYI Links to both the HP uninstaller and HPPrinterDrivers5.1.dmg package of drivers are on the HP forums here:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Setup-Software-Drivers/Driver-Package-Deskjet-F4580-3-3-2-for-Mac-OS-urgently/m-p/8034850/highlight/true#M222508

Spent half an hour with an apple tech trying to fix this - basically HP ain't updating older printer drivers for Big Sur - and there is no transfer of existing drivers to Big Sur. My HP is from 2014 and the drivers only go up to OS 10.x not 11.

Your choice... ? either a new printer or go back to previous OS - sorry to let you know. Didn't fancy seeing my OS gradually becoming obsolete - So I bit the bullet and ordered a printer even though nothing wrong with existing one.

Shame on HP and Apple - no prior warning at all - and no awareness in customer services - had to work it out from scratch -

It cost me a contract no being able to scan and send my passport - Neither apple nor HP are interested in environment or customer costs - just profit - perfectly good printer going in the bin. Shame on them!!!

Same problem with two old HP LaserJet printers (HP LaserJet 2605dn and 1320dn).

I uninstalled all HP driver software using the utility I downloaded from HP Support.

Deleted the printers from Mac OSX.

Re-installed the printers with the Generic Postscript Driver

Now all working again, although Mac no longer recognises the actual printer model so not sure whether any functionality has been lost.

Weirdly both printers continue to work OK (without any changes) on one MacBook Pro, but not on any iMacs. Both went from Catalina to Big Sur same day.

I also had this very same problem with Canon printers a few Mac OS releases ago and scrapped two expensive printers and moved to HP.

Something needs to change between Apple and Printer Manufacturers.

Connect the Printer to the Macbook

System Preferences / Printers and Scanners / go to the "Add a Printer" window. Click on "+"

I could see my old HP 3050 printer there and the driver was Generic Post Script. I added it as a printer and now it prints properly.

I only use that printer for black and white documents with no graphics and it works fine for that after using the procedure above.

Thanks for your response, OT.

I downloaded it, and got the responses below. Clicked "OK", but still nothing printed. Nothing in Printer Queue.

The box Use Generic Printer Features is ticked; the Driver Version is shown as 19.13

I then read Fj2000's suggestion below, installed the Gutenprint driver, and my HP2100 now prints!

I've only tested it on basic tasks, but at least I can print stuff!

Thank you for your help.

The following I found worked perfectly for me

https://www.visionwind.com/blog/setup-lj-laser-jet-1018-mac/

On a 2015 Mac Book Pro with Big Sur 11.1 this worked to clear all the errors and print back to normal on an old CP 6015xh (except unstable to print directly from Mac mail for some reason). I followed it exactly EXCEPT I added the CP 6015 via Bonjour in the add printer dialog not via direct USB.

On my 2013 Mac Pro trash can I did the same thing but started at Step 4 to Install Pacifist and the HP 5.1 drivers. I did NOT first delete the old driver at all I just keep hitting 'replace' via pacifist.

Why bother? I hoped (and this did) preserve my many saved printer presets so I didn't have to reprogram them on my 2013 Mac Pro.

(Gutenprint actually works pretty well and I used that until this but Gutenprint not preserve many of the CP6015 printer features. The vision wind.com solution kept the full HP driver functionality).

Hope this works for you!

I had the same problem. It is not HP it is the Big Sur software. I had Apple Support take some data from my computer and send it to their technical people. I got the resolve today. I restarted the computer holding down the start key until options came up. I then selected redownload Big Sur. It rebooted and now I can print to my HP via AirPrint. I think they made an update to the operating system so it works now.

1-Download HP Smart from Apple App Store

2-Program shows your printer even if it connects via USB

3-Register yourself to HP network

4-Via this program you can only print PDF documents

5-But you can open your system preferences and press + to add new printer and this time you will see at the below "Use:" section your printer name and click on Add button.

I had a similar issue with an HP Envy 5000 series printer. Eventually I found this which fixed my issue. If anyone can explain why changing the IP address and DNS mode of the printer solves the problem I would be interested.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printing-Errors-or-Lights-Stuck-Print-Jobs/Re-Printer-ready-but-will-not-print/m-p/6025640#M611135

I also turned off the 5GHz part of my network to ensure everything was connected on the 2.4 GHz. Once I had the printer working again via HP Smart I restarted the 5GHz network. It all still works so bridging is not the issue.

I have been reading a lot about Big Sur and HP printers as I too have had the same problem i.e no scanner and very poor print on the page. When I tried to down load the HP drivers into my Mac it read 'Not Compatible with this device'.

So I uninstalled my printer and went into System Preferences, printers and scanners, opened up the printer box on the left hand side and added my printer again. It now works perfect again.

Hope this helps some of you.

Check this Apple document and see if your printer model is listed. If it is then you don't need drivers but can set up your printer wirelessly to print. If supported your manual should describe how:  About AirPrint - Apple Support 

My hp 1006 would not work on Big Sur, hp driver 5.1 would not load and other drivers that would were not able to print.

The solution for me was a youtube video from an Indian called unbox specialist who used Apple support site to download HP 5.1 driver that then loaded and ran my printer.

Non of the HP site drivers would work, but the same driver from Apple support did.

Dec., 20, 1:03PM , I just downloaded HP Smart put it on my dock and it worked perfectly with my new 2020 27" iMac OS 11 Big Sur!!!!!!!! It does more that just a HP driver!!!