Network printing failure in Mountain Lion

restarted airport extreme (where my printer is connectid via USB) *and* switch/hub ... printer is magically back 🙂

I struggled with this for a few hours...

In my case (Mountain Lion on sharing computer and end user client) and with four different shared printers (all connected to the sharing computer via USB), the problem was caused by the Print/Scan dialog (on the end user client machines) not being able to successfully recognise which driver to load automatically.

So here's how to do this manually (assuming the printers work fine locally on the sharing computer)... after pressing the + button, choose "Add Printer or Scanner" (ignoring the temptingly-listed printer you are after), then click on the printer name in the "Add" dialog and then wait - in my case, for several minutes - while it tries to select the best printer driver (in the "Use:" box). Be patient - it looks like a hang but it isn't! In my case, after this wait (which sometimes yielded a "Generic PostScript" suggestion) - pull down the "use" control and choose "Select Printer Software..." then manualy pick the best match.

This worked a charm for me - I hope it helps someone else out there 🙂

Kind regards,

Jonathan

Similar networked printer problems after upgrading my desktop to late 2012 27 inch iMac. Had previously been able to print wirelessly to a Brother HL-5250DN printer attached by USB to an iMac from my MacBook Pro, (also running 10.8.2). With the printer attached to the new desktop, it would attempt to add the printer to the list on my laptop, but would claim that the software was not available from the server, with the message "Unable to download the software from the server at this time."

Tried downloading the printer driver directly from Brother several times, tried printer firmware update via the desktop, tried resetting the printer, rebooting everything, and so on but nothing would allow me to set up the printer on my laptop. Spent a couple of hours looking for solutions online but nothing worked. Plugged the printer directly into the laptop by USB and it instantly showed up as an available printer, so the necessary software was actually there. Plugged the printer back into the desktop and the laptop was instantly able to see the wireless printer. Problem solved.

In summary, if you can't see a wirelessly networked printer that you are trying to add, try connecting it directly first by USB, then switch it back and try to access it wirelessly. Worked for me.

While Lion was installed on my mid-2007 iMac, I was able to wirelessly print to both a HP LaserJet 3030 printer and a HP Photosmart D7560 printer from a MacBook running Mac OS X 10.4.11.

The iMac is directly wired to the latest Airport Extreme, and the MacBook is connected wirelessly.

The two printers are directly wired to the iMac.

After upgrading the iMac to Mountain Lion, neither of these two printers appear in the Printer Browser window when I try to add a printer on the MacBook.

Uninstalling Printopia from the iMac did not fix the problem.

Rebooting the computers did not fix the problem.

Restarting the Airport Base Station did not fix the problem.

Reinstalling the D7560 driver software on the MacBook did not fix the problem.

When I directly connected the D7560 to the MacBook, I was able to add the D7560 printer and successfully print.

In summary, intallation of Mountain Lion on the iMac broke wireless printing from the MacBook.

Apple, how can this be fixed?

Apple, why have you not alerted users to this serious bug in Mountain Lion?

Will you be releasing a bug fix for this serious problem?

Or, must I upgrade the MacBook to Mac OS X 10.5 to get a fix?

Any help will be much appreciated.

P.S. I did submit a bug report to Apple for this problem.

Good day everyone, I resolve this problem. instead of doing 10.8 as a server for the printer I used the older one mac as a server and then I shared it, done with my problem. hope it will help guys.

I've had exactly the same issue - an HP printer was attached to a Snow Leopard machine, and (two) 10.4 Tiger clients were printing to it. Updating Snow Leopard -> Mountain Lion broke printing on the client. I couldn't see the printer from the network printer browsing window on the client.

This has spoiled an otherwise pleasant Sunday afternoon. Thx Apple. Anyway, I fixed it by installing the printer manually:

System Preferences -> Print and Scan -> click '+' to add printer -> select "IP Printer" tab, then:

Protocol: IPP

Address: <name or IP address of the 10.8 machine>

Queue name: printers/<printer name>

The "printers/" bit is, I think, the bit which changed in 10.8. The printer name was the name it appears as on the 10.8 machine's settings - in my case it was B8300. (If you have spaces in this name, I think they need to be replaced by underscores in the queue name).

Hat tip to http://superuser.com/questions/256199/sharing-a-printer-from-ubuntu-to-mac-so-it -can-be-found-via-browsing for some clues.