No Lexmark printer drivers for MacBook Air / Pro with M1

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Level 1

9 points

No Lexmark printer drivers for MacBook Air / Pro with M1

Hi,

I have a Lexmark E260dn printer which I used to print over the network. My wife and I just upgraded to the new MacBook Air / MacBook Pro with M1 processor. We're able to find and add the E260dn over the network, but it won't print and it's not even possible to open the print queue. I've already tried the 'Reset printing system' option, but it did not help. The printer status just shows "Paused, Last Used".

The printer-specific drivers from Lexmark are only for Intel-based Macs - please refer to https://www.lexmark.com/en_us/printer/4617/Lexmark-E260dn. The printer supports Bonjour, but how do I get it working? My other printer, a HP Photosmart C4385, works just fine via Bonjour.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 5, 2021 10:41 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

cyclone72 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 7, 2021 9:17 PM in response to Jan Hedlund

Hi,

According to https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201465#Lexmark my printer is supported. But I got the new M1-based MacBook Pro, not the Intel-based one. The E260dn supports LPR/LPD, Direct IP, HTTP, IPP 1.1, FTP, TFTP, Enhanced IP, and also Bonjour. Installing it via Bonjour results in the printer heating up right before the config task finishes, but afterwards I can't get it to print. So I tried installing it via IPP, which yielded the same result. But finally adding it via LPD worked! I also tried installing Lexmark's Universal Print Driver (monochrome package), which turns out to work as well (seems to be independent of the CPU unlike the specific Lexmark printer drivers from https://www.lexmark.com/en_us/printer/4617/Lexmark-E260dn.

So while this is great news (THANKS!), one thing that still puzzles me is that a click on the printer queue ("Open Print Queue") for any of my 2 installed printers (the Lexmark and the HP) does not open anything. I did some searching and came across the following article which provides a fix for this issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252093470

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Answer 2

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

24,235 points

Jan 6, 2021 8:56 AM in response to cyclone72

Hello,

Is it possible to (print if you) choose a generic driver in the Use: field (see the Add a network printer by its IP address section in Add a printer on Mac - Apple Support)?

Bonjour should work automatically, unless it has been disabled in the router settings. Since it works for your HP printer, it ought to be OK.

The E260dn does not appear to be a printer supporting the driverless AirPrint technology, so a driver will be needed.

The latest Lexmark driver seems to be for OS X 10.10 Yosemite. With earlier Mac models, you may have tried to use this driver for newer operating system versions as well.

There are also universal print drivers from Lexmark (https://www.lexmark.com/en_us/support/universal-print-driver.html). The E260dn printer is compatible with the Windows version (https://www.lexmark.com/en_us/support/universal-print-driver-compatibility.html), but I cannot find anything about the E260dn or Big Sur in the white paper for macOS (https://www.lexmark.com/content/dam/lexmark/documents/white-paper/y2020/Lexmark_UPD_1b_TWP_mac_en.pdf).

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Answer 3

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

24,235 points

Jan 6, 2021 9:05 AM in response to Jan Hedlund

Correction:

>The latest Lexmark driver seems to be for OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

The latest Lexmark driver seems to be for OS X 10.9 Mavericks (but there is a utility for OS X 10.10).

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Answer 4

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

24,235 points

Jan 7, 2021 9:52 PM in response to cyclone72

Hello,

Glad to hear that you found a good way to add the printer, and that the print queue problem appears to have a solution. I hope that the printer will work almost as before.

Kind regards,

Jan

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No Lexmark printer drivers for MacBook Air / Pro with M1

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