Wireless printing has suddenly stopped working. It worked one minute, then a few minutes later didn't! Is this an OS problem? Using Airport Extreme for wireless and everything has been fine for 4 months with iMac and old Macbook. Any ideas?
AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Gen), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
So is the printer physically connected to the Airport Extreme, either via USB cable or Ethernet, or is the printer connected to the Extreme via wireless?
If you remove the printer entry in Print & Scan, by selecting the printer in the list and clicking the minus button, are you then able to add the printer again by clicking on the plus button and selecting the Default > Add Printer view?
It is physically connected by usb to Airport Extreme. Removed it and then added it but no luck. Still got message Unable to open printer - read failure.
It could be that the printer driver does not function when the printer is connected to the USB port of an Airport device. This is the case with the Canon UFR2 and CAPT printer drivers. What brand and model of printer do you have? Maybe there is an alternate driver available that can be used.
That's the thing. It was all working fine and had been for about 4 months. Printed something out last Saturday, tried printing again later in the day and got the failure message. It's a Canon Pixma iP4500 printer. Thanks for keeping trying!
Thanks for the printer information. The PIXMA drivers are definitely compatible with the Airport so that won't be the issue.
As a test, if you connect the iP4500 directly to the Mac, this should create a new print queue and when it does, see if you can print without error. This will help determine that the printer and its USB cable is okay.
Yes I can print when connected directly to the Mac. Just printed some stuff out now.
Excellent. So we know the printer and USB cable is okay.
Now I suggest you connect it back to the Airport and on one Mac, open Print & Scan and remove the printer entry for the Airport connected printer. Then click the plus to add it again, selecting the Default Add Printer view. With the printer added again, does this print?
I clicked plus to add printer again and I think I have followed your instruction correctly about the Default Add Printer view. Still not working though. Appreciate you sticking with this.
OK, not a Canon but an HP, After a software update ( through the Apple software update service) of the HP printer drivers the wireless stopped working, USB OK. Reverting to the original drivers cured it. I tried deleteing the printer and re-adding it but no joy, only reverting back to the old drivers cured it.
Has there been any software updates performed between just before it stopped working?
I don't think so because it was all working fine one minute and later in the same day it didn't work. I did do a software update probably a few days prior to the problem.
There has been no Canon driver update. There was an Airport Utility update but I have applied that and I have no issue printing to an Canon iP5200 connected to the USB port of an Airport Extreme.
Just to be 100% sure it is not the driver, there is a free driver alternative called Gutenprint. If you download and install this driver suite it will provide an alternate iP4500 driver. So once Gutenprint has finished installing, open Print & Scan and remove the current iP4500 printer. Then select to add again, choose the Default view and click on the iP4500 in the list view. But then you need to change the Print Using menu from using the "Canon iP4500 series" driver to the "Canon PIXMA iP4500 - CUPS + Gutenprint 5.2.8". Click Add to complete the queue creation and then see if you can print with this driver.
Did all that. Tried printing and message said Printing page 1, 7% then it changed to Printing paused and when I clicked Resume, it just when through the same process.
Thanks for testing that. With the Gutenprint driver also failing then it would suggest that the Airport is at fault. Just to be sure I would try another USB cable between the printer and the Airport. If you get the same fault then the Airport may need a firmware update or a reset of some sort.
Did a power cycle on another suggestion and that worked. Thanks for trying to help.
Failure to print - unable to read printer
