ios5 killed printing by Print and Share

You guys are killing me... I knew Apple was stupid (it's becasue they think they're sooo smart) but I thought for sure you guys would save me with some clever work-arounds to the Printer killing gaff.

This move - of killing print capabilities that the vast majority of their customers were using - just proves once again why Apple has never been a serious player in the business community. They design and build fabulously cute, and clever things, but they never think about how these cute and clever things are used in the "business world" nor just plain day-to-day life.

This printer killing error however will also affect their core base of artsy, craftsy, imagination, documentation producing folks. Apple has just seen the tip of the iceberg on this fiasco.

David - you wrote that WePrint still works for you. How did you make this happen? I had both Save2PDF (now gone) and WePrint (now also gone) set up to allow me to print to my wireless Brother Laser printer. It's worked flawlessly since it was first installed.

Now, nothing. WePrint doesn't show up in the printers list at all.

Any suggestions?

The App is called Print. There are a couple or so, but the icon for Print (Print to ALL Printers) looks close. I connect by IP address to my Mac running their (few) WePrint server. The Mac is ethernetted to a network and can see the printers. From the phone I can select printers. EuroSmartz is the company. They had a variety of versions. I can only print web pages, contacts, images or camera shots with Print. The HP progrma works at home over WiFi but only does images to my printer.

Yes this is what I have.. I own a number of EuroSmartz apps, they are a great company.

Unfortunately though, their Save 2PDF app has been killed by iOS 5 and although I am connected exactly as you write using WePrint, that also no longer works. Grrr. I'm in communications with EuroSmartz's Support staff, perhaps they can figure out why my WePrint has quit working with iOS 5 and yours has not.

Thanks for your assistance.

You can send the document to your iDisk and from there, click "open in" and select Print n share. Is that or email it to yourself and do the same. It would be good to hear from EuroSmartz too. I hope they can update the app and solve this, if not my iPad 2 is not the lap top susbtitude I believed.

I have the latest HP printer. High end with double sided printing. If that isn't supported by "Print and Share" then just what is? For the time being I'm going back to my Windows laptop as a travel pc, using the Email it to myself method is just to clunky to show customers.

Apple fix it! Basic functionality please!

I am wondering if I can "undo" the upgrade. I would rather be able to print then text

Ideas? Thanks

From EuroSmartz Support Re: Save2PDF ....

Apple's latest release of iOS 5 has changed the way apps are able to interact with the device. This now means that the one of the printing features in this app for printing from other apps via the AirPrint method is no longer available. Apple's changes for iOS have removed this functionality for all apps - not just ours. All other printing options from other apps via this app are still available and you can still continue to use your existing printer(s).

iOS Apps are restricted by features of the OS and the device so there is no option to bypass the iOS restrictions. We are working with Apple resources to see if there is a way to restore this particular feature in future releases.

We invest a huge amount of our resources in the ongoing development of our apps to ensure our apps provide the most possible printing features for Apple devices. While we are obviously very disappointed that Apple have removed this feature of iOS, our apps were still the best printing apps on the App Store before this feature as we have so many other printing features.

Our staff have been working overtime to evaluate this iOS change. While it is devastating for them to lose one of the app features that everyone put so much time and effort into, we all remain committed to providing the best permissible improvements to our apps for our customers, as we have done in the past.

All of the other printing options are still available such as "Open in", server printing, iWorks via iwork.com and internal browser.

This is the Web page printing help:

http://mobile.eurosmartz.com/help.html#webprint1

This help page describes printing from Pages/Numbers:

http://mobile.eurosmartz.com/help.html#iworkprint

For email, you can print/convert emails from within your web browser.

You can also use our email app "AltaMail" to read and open emails into Save2PDF for PDF conversion:

http://itunes.apple.com/app/pns/id328890658?ls=1

Please reply with your feedback to this email. As innovators in iPad and iPhone printing, we would like to hear from all customers directly to make sure our apps continue to lead the market with cutting edge features

Please let us know if we can provide further assistance.

Regards,

EuroSmartz Support

This is an excellent work around for printing in Safari. I like the little z trick. Worked perfect for my implementation of ios5 on my ipad1. Apple is making it silly to have to play all these work around games. Shame on them! Steve leaves and no telling where the h_ll it all goes from here.

Work arounds are ok, but apple needs to make printing a simple function and get off the freaking politicol green kick!

Clark

The root of the problem is this: I previously PAID for an app from the App Store that was approved by Apple for the specific purpose of being able to print to multiple printers on my home network. Now with the iOS 5 upgrade, I can't because Apple purposefully removed that function. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember anyone touting this as one of the "200+" enhancements added to the new iOS.

FIX THIS ASAP, APPLE! It is misguided actions like this that will move people, like me, to android instead of Apple. (just the thought of which gives me shivers!) I understand Apple is doing this to reward the printer companies that installed AirPrint into their printers, but that entire effort was foolish from the get-go when you simultaneously approved apps that could use standard printers. And oh yeah, you made money off of selling those apps which are now useless.

If using icloud for iwork ios, one can simply use any PC , visit www.icloud.com/iwork and download pdfs of the files for printing from any Printer, without having the hassle of "mobile printing".

On the other hand the cheapest Airprint capable HP device with scanner and printer I saw in a store these days is under 90 Euro. Not that much if all your workflow is depending on ios "native" printing.

I don't think the answer is for users to spend more money fixing a problem that Apple has created. I bought the Prnt and Share App in good faith. If Apple - in their wisdom - have unilaterally decided that such apps are not compatible with their new operating system, then I'm expecting to be duly compensated, as I would imagine all the other users who bought this app will be. I haven't yet seen any response from Apple to the comments on this forum. Don't they ever read it? Maybe a viral campaign via Facebook, Twitter or G+ might make them sit up and take notice.

It's possible to use free software (Virtualbox and Ubuntu) to fix the broken iOS 5 Airprint printing with non supported printers. Here's a fix that works on my imac, but should also work on even a windows pc.

My setup is a lion imac with 2 non-airprint supported usb printers attached, a belkin wifi router that provides network connectivity for my imac, ipad, and iphone.

Install ubuntu 11.10 in a virtualbox vm. Specify to use the "Bridged Adapter" with "en1: WiFi (AirPort)" for the network hardware. Make sure the imac's usb printers are setup with sharing. On ubuntu, select System Settings > Printers and add your imac's shared printers to the list. Then start ubuntu's firefox and set "localhost:631" in the address. On the administration tab, under the Server section, check "Share printers connected to this system" and hit Change Settings button to activate it. Go back to ubuntu's printer setup, and right click on each printer and check that the properties Policies tab does not have any messages about it being unshared. If so, then go back to firefox and make sure the Server sharing checkbox is enabled. It may help to reboot.

Fire up virtualbox to be able to use AirPort printing to your imac's usb printers, when you want to print from the iphone or ipad. This also works on iOS 5.

Only problem is error message from iphone to check the printer for errors, even though it actually prints ok.

This is completely unacceptable. I have been one of the biggest Apple advocates and have persuaded family and friends to got to Apple over Android. I've owned 3 MacBooks, iPad 1, iPad 2, and 3 iPhones. This makes me feel like Apple i the new Windows. These type of actions are the exact opposite of what Apple used to stand for and why they have become what they are today. Forcing us to us 12 or so printers is rediculous. What's worse is they don't have any mobile printers with AirPrint so I relied on this app to print to PDF from my company app and then to a wifi printer.

This literally renders my iPhone and iPad useless for day to day business. I suggest we all write to Apple through the iTunes store and demand a refund. Make them take notice and realize their loyal customers will not accept this. If this isn't resolved I will be switching to the Android platform and being extremely vocal with everyone I talk to about how disappointed I am with Apple.

Apple, you need to make this right by your customers. Please fix this immediately and allow this company to print to PDF.