Canon MX870 won't show up as printer option

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Level 1

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Canon MX870 won't show up as printer option

Hi,

I'm a recent convert to the MacBook (love it!) and have just bought a Canon Pixma MX870 printer to use wirelessly. I'm having problems getting the MX870 to show up as a printer option on my MacBook Pro and hoped you all might be able to help me!

I've followed the instructions to the letter and installed everything Canon asked for. Now, the MX870 is showing up as a scanner but not as a printer. I've checked network connections and both are connected properly and I'm able to scan all I want, I just can't print anything. When I go to print, I get a 'No printer selected' message, if I then go in to 'Add Printer' it tells me the MX870 already has a print queue set up.

Would really appreciate any help you can offer!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Aug 2, 2010 7:01 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Bruce De Benedictis

Level 4

1,697 points

Aug 2, 2010 7:55 PM in response to SFSarah

It takes quite a bit longer for Canon multifunctions to show up as printers than as scanners. You may just need to wait longer.

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Answer 2

Aug 2, 2010 8:25 PM in response to Bruce De Benedictis

Are you using the driver supplied by Apple in 10.6.4?
Canon MX870 series 10.30.3.0

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Answer 3

PAHU

Level 6

16,705 points

Aug 2, 2010 11:13 PM in response to SFSarah

Hi there SFSarah.

What Bruce has mentioned is most likely your issue. The Canon printer driver uses a proprietary protocol called canonijnetwork for advertising the printer component on the network and this does take a while to appear in the Add Printer browser. By comparison, the scanner component uses the Bonjour protocol to advertise itself and will often appear quickly in the Default browser view.

So if you select to Add the printer again via Print & Fax and select the Default view, you will see the MX870 appear as a scanner immediately. But if you wait several more seconds, the MX870 will appear again, this time with the Kind column showing canonijnetwork. Select this and the Print Using menu should automatically change to 'Canon MX870 series' if the printer driver is already installed. If it is not installed already, the Mac will use Software Update to download the latest driver available, which is the version Donald mentions in his reply.

Pahu

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Answer 4

SFSarah Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 3, 2010 7:39 AM in response to SFSarah

Thanks all! It took a combination of your suggestions but the printer is now working. I made sure all my software was up to date and allowed more time for the printer to show up.

Also, I found that by going to System Preferences>Print & Fax and deleting the MX870 scanner from my printer options, I could then add the MX870 as a printer instead. The scanner still works as it has a separate menu for scanning and my MacBook now recognizes the MX870 as a printer as well as a scanner.

My only complaint is that the MX870 worked perfectly first time for my boyfriend's (Windows) laptop - really didn't help my 'MacBook rules' argument! 🙂

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Answer 5

RioJG

Level 1

0 points

Sep 11, 2010 9:44 AM in response to SFSarah

I had a problem with my printer when I got it as well. It would scan and copy fine, any incoming information, but printing was nearly impossible. It simply added things to the queue and never printed. I tried everything and then I discovered that I couldn't have the printer under my access point. Wifi apparently "looks" like a black hole; there are two cones, one directly above and one directly below the center of the wifi access point that are dead spots, or that get spotty connection at best. I simply moves my Time Capsule and it was magically better!

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