Epson Driver Problem with Mavericks?

Question

Epson Driver Problem with Mavericks?

After hooking up a new Epson-XP610 printer with my Mac Mini, Printers and Scanners in Mavericks System Prefs shows two printers -- one labeled as an Epson-610 Series with Driver version 1.0 and the other labeled Epson_XP_610_Series_2 with Driver version 9.14. The first one appears to be a wi-fi version since it has a trimmed down "lite printer utility" that directs me to a Bonjour page on Epson's web site, which tells me there is no software or firmware update for that printer. The second one has a more elaborate printer utility and appears to be the one that's hardwired to my computer. Epson's Software Updater tells me the Series 2 printer should be using Driver version 9.17 and the Mavericks page on Epson's web site also tells me I should be using Driver version 9.17 for the printer while relying on Apple's software updater for the scanner driver used by Image Capture. But when I download the 9.17 driver and click "install" the driver version shown in the printer utility still shows up as 9.14. Why is Mavericks refusing to load the updated printer driver and forcing me to use the old 9.14 version?

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9), 16 GB Ram, 2.6 Intel quad core i7

Posted on Nov 19, 2013 6:37 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

arthur

Level 5

5,242 points

Nov 19, 2013 7:18 AM in response to Holger Jensen

My theory with the printer problems that people have with Mavericks is that the printer manufacturer applications and "utilities" are not very good. I think that the printer manufacturers still think of the Mac market as being of less value than the PC market, and as such, the software engineers that design their Mac software are not Rhodes scholars. Not the best and brightest. Kind of like Al Qaeda: they do not assign the smartest guys to be the suicide bombers.

Try this:

Go to Applications > System Preferences > Printers and Scanners
Control-click on one of your printers and select "Reset printing system..."
This will delete all your print drivers.
Do a factory reset on your printer. You will have to refer to your printer's manual for how.
This is very important: uninstall all other printer manufacturer software, applications, and "utilities".
If you connect to your printer via WiFi, you will have to reconnect it to your network and enter your network password.
Go back to Printers and Scanners and let it download a print driver from Apple.

If this does not work then you may also have to reset your wifi network (if you print via WiFi) by powering everything down (modem, router, computer, printer) and then powering each item up. Power them up in that order (modem, router, computer, printer), and let each power up fully before going on to the next.

The same idea also works with misbehaving scanners: remove the printer manufacturer scanner apps and use Image Capture instead; let Image Capture download the scanner driver from Apple.

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Answer 2

Nov 19, 2013 8:44 AM in response to arthur

In most cases I would agree with you but in this case it appears that Epson has a newer version driver for my printer and Mavericks is the one that stubbornly refuses to load it, forcing me to stick with the old. The old version 9.14 is the one initially selected by Mavericks when I hooked up the printer and the new 9.17 version is the one offered by Epson. I've e-mailed Epson's support folks to see what they have to say.

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Answer 3

Nov 19, 2013 9:32 AM in response to Holger Jensen

What if you try deleting the /Library/Printer/EPSON and the/Library/Caches/Epson/ folders and then reinstalling the updates?

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Answer 4

Nov 19, 2013 5:15 PM in response to John Blanchard1

Thanks John. I did just that and Mavericks finally allowed me to download driver version 9.16 with the updated printer utility. The app store's updater also, apparently, downloaded the ica scanner driver for Image Capture though it didn't tell me it was doing it. The printer and scanner link in system prefs still shows two XP-610 printers, one apparently wi-fi and the other hard-wired to my computer, but the wi-fi one now has driver version 2.0 (instead of 1.0 as before) and the hard-wired one has printer driver version 9.16. Both work fine. As for Epson's "support," that proved laughable. They sent me an e-mail saying printer driver version 9.16 was the one suggested by Apple's updater for my printer, while conceding they also had a version 9.17 that apparently was "older" than Apple's E pson driver 9.16. Pure gobbledegook. I won't even use their web site for updates any more, trusting Mavericks' updater instead.

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Answer 5

Dec 26, 2013 11:00 AM in response to John Blanchard1

Thanks for your help on this. Helped me, too.

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Answer 6

Jan 7, 2014 12:47 PM in response to Holger Jensen

I just set up a new XP-610 to use with Mavericks 10.9.1. The driver version is 9.16. There is no option to specify the Paper Source, so I cannot switch between Cassette 1 and Cassette 2. The driver always chooses Cassette 2, which does not accommodate Letter size paper. I tried deleting /Library/Printers/EPSON XP-610 Series.app and Applications/Epson Software. I didn't see any Epson files in /Library/Caches. I did a factory reset on the printer and reinstalled the driver package, which again gave me 9.16 with no option to change the paper source cassette. When I run Software Update, it tells me that there are no updates available.

Any ideas on how I can specify the Paper Source?

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Answer 7

Jan 7, 2014 2:58 PM in response to FeralFeline

Well, I located and found Remote Print Driver 9.17 on the Epson site and have installed it. Although the print interface does not have an option to select a cassette, the printer now successfully prints from the letter tray, so all is well. And I mistakenly confused Cassette 1 and Cassette 2 in my earlier post; it's Cassette 1 that holds the 8.5 x 11" paper.

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Answer 8

Jan 8, 2014 1:36 AM in response to FeralFeline

When you set up the XP610 two of them show up in "printer and scanners" in your System Preferences. The first one, Epson XP-610 Series, is for wi-fi with limited settings options, the second one, Epson XP-610 Series 2, is for the hard-wired printer with more settings options. Click on the second one, open "options and supplies," click on "options" and set "automatic casette switching" to "ON." When you want to print a document or photo, you can choose the paper size in "Page Setup."

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Answer 9

Jan 8, 2014 1:22 PM in response to Holger Jensen

Holger Jensen: Your explanation of the difference between Epson XP-610 Series and Epson XP-610 Series 2 helped me resolve the cassette printing issues. Thanks very much. Wish I had learned this from Epson's documentation, because I thought that the Series 2 was an artifact of repeating the driver installation, so I deleted it thinking that it was just a duplicate of the wi-fi version.

Thank you again.

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Answer 10

Jan 9, 2014 6:37 AM in response to FeralFeline

You're welcome. Epson's online manual is better than the documentation provided with the printer but I have found that none of the software provided with Epson printers (and I've had quite a few) is really necessary if you own a Mac. Apple provides the necessary driver updates and image capture does all the scanning you will ever need. That said, I cannot for the life of me understand why the wi-fi settings and hard-wired settings should be different, and why different drivers -- version 2 for wi-fi and version 9.16 or 9.17 for wired -- are required.

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Answer 11

rbmorg

Level 1

0 points

Feb 24, 2014 2:03 PM in response to FeralFeline

I have two iMacs (OS 10.6.8) that I connected wirelessly to the XP-610. For the first, I downloaded the Epson drivers and related software. The print menu on that iMac did NOT offer the option of selecting cassette 1 or 2. For the second iMac, I selected the XP-610 from the print menu without download software from Epson and the system found the appropriate driver. From that iMac I can select which cassette I want. After much rummaging around, I discovered that the first iMac uses driver version 9.16 and the second version 9.14. I am trying to find out how to get that version. Epson support continues to insist that 9.16 is the proper driver. I have tried deleting the printer and the downloaded software, turning off the printer, reinstalling the software etc. Nothing has worked. Apple support did some research and sent me a huge file of Epson drivers and other software but that also had only driver version 9.16, which is the one provided for all versions of OS X after 10.6 I am going to try to find a download for 9.14 and see if that solves the problem. It appears to be available on Epson's European website http://esupport.epson-europe.com/FileDetails.aspx?lng=en-GB&data=0ccCGROWIYPM+0T wqjLJJIHYt+qTe9JT2c55ORAra80U003D&id=376898

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Answer 12

Feb 24, 2014 5:02 PM in response to rbmorg

Ignore all Epson software downloads and updates. All you need for the XP-610 is driver version 9.16, provided by Apple's system update, which includes whatever software operates image capture for scanning. I have the XP-610 connected wirelessly and by ethernet. The wireless version uses driver version 2.0 and the ethernet hard-wired printer, which comes up as XP-610 Series 2 in system preferences, uses driver version 9.16. Epson's software simply complicates matters and is of no use at all.

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Answer 13

alpcan

Level 1

0 points

May 23, 2014 12:07 AM in response to Holger Jensen

There is a solution which is still free and doesn't rely on closed-source software. It is not easy but solves the problem very well. You need to install SANE then the apple drivers. My complete notes on this are on the following wiki page: www.driversepson.com/epson-xp-610-driver/

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