Trouble Adding Brother Printers / CUPS

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Level 1

41 points

Trouble Adding Brother Printers / CUPS

Hi all!

I'm moving to a new MacBook Air M1 from my previous MacBook Air M1. On my previous MacBook I managed to successfully add my two printers - a Brother HL-L5100DN & QL-1060N. They both work fine, and display the correct image icon for each printer. I can see and manage them both though CUPS / localhost:631.

However I can't for the life of me recall how I managed to do this?! I have tried adding them on my new M1, without luck. I am able to access localhost:631, but Brother isn't showing as a make to add. The portal does see the two printers though. When I check the drivers on my previous MacBook, the HL-L5100DN is showing as 'Kind: Brother HL-L5100DN series CUPS - Driver Version: 4.0.3' and the QL-1060N is showing as 'Kind: Brother QL-1060N CUPS - Driver Version 3.0.16'

My brain is fried trying to remember how installed both these printers. Can anyone assist?

Thanks!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.6

Posted on Aug 22, 2024 2:31 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

156,794 points

Aug 22, 2024 4:18 PM in response to machineage

I am going to hazard a guess that you installed those printers either on your previous Mac or a Mac even prior to that, and its operating system predated Sonoma. Might that be correct?

Pending your answer, the good news is that the HL-L5100DN is an AirPrint-enabled device. Add it to the new Mac as an AirPrint printer and it will work.

I do not know about the ability to access it through the CUPS interface though. Briefly stated if it appears in CUPS then an appropriate printer-specific driver must have already been installed. Recent macOS versions have made the necessity of installing printer drivers unnecessary at best, impossible at worst. However, upgrading macOS on a Mac that already had printer drivers installed from previous operating systems or whose contents were migrated from another Mac with that driver already installed respects the existence of those printer drivers, and does not render them inoperative.

So... you probably aren't doing anything wrong; you're just recalling how easy it used to be in the past. These days, if it's not AirPrint, it's a problem, and the QL-1060N isn't AirPrint 😕

Anyway if you clarify that question I may have some more information. By way of explanation, macOS and its predecessors never had a consistent way of installing printer drivers, and their various components (including such things as the printer's custom image icon) tended to get installed in different locations. There was some consistency, but there were many exceptions. Brother stands out as having done things the correct way right from the beginnings of OS X. CUPS was the right way to do it. Other printer manufacturers were a mess by comparison.

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Answer 2

machineage Author

Level 1

41 points

Aug 23, 2024 12:14 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks for taking the time to respond :)

So I just checked some dates. I acquired my first M1 Air in January 2021. The HL-L5100DN arrived in October 2020 - so would have been initially installed using my MacBook Retina. The QL-1060N arrived in June 2023, so that would have initially been installed with my first M1 Air. I did briefly have a Brother QL-1110NWB prior to the QL-1060N.

I am still wracking my brain regards how I installed the printers. I wonder if I used the driver for the QL-1110NWB for the QL-1060N?! I really can't remember. What I do seem to recall, was adding / adjusting the printer settings via CUPS / localhost:631, and I think it was this that changed the printer icons to display the correct printer model, as well as give access to the full range of settings for each printer.

What I don't understand is why 'Brother' as a make fails to show via localhost:631 one my new M1.

More research needed! I will be making notes for future reference when I figure it all out!

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