Mac cannot locate wireless printer

I had the same thing...the Mac kept looking for an old IP address for the HP wireless printer ( I have installed a new router and the IP for the printer had changed).

I tried many ways to connect ( it worked fine in Windows!!!!!!) and finally installed the printer again as a new printer, using the new IP address rather than printer name. Now it works. Very strange. I had to rename the printer from the IP address to something more suitable after connection.

I have the same problem with HP Photosmart 7510. It worked fine until OS X 10.9.4 update. Now OS X can see the printer connected by wi-fi OR by USB, but cannot communicate to it. I tried everything - deinstallation of all HP drivers, repairing permissions, resetting print system, rebootin gcomputer, router and priner - nothing works. From another mac with OS X 10.8 everything works fine.

I am having all the same problems as you. My Canon MX410 connected wirelessly worked fine yesterday and doesn't today. Message says printer is not connected. Have tried all the things you did to no avail. Deleted printer to try and re-add and now the add printer dialog box is empty. Running OS Yosemite 10.10.1 on MacBook Pro. My wife has the same computer running OS-X 10.6.8 and can print just fine from the same printer. Problem seems to be with my Mac recognizing the printer. The only thing I have different than my wife's computer is the newer OS and I am running Windows 7 via Parallels. Strange that one day it works and the next it doesn't when I made no changes to the system. Did you ever find a solution to your problem? Appreciate any help. Thanks.

I just typed a letter and printed a copy successfully with my Epson SX535WD.

I read it through, decided to make some changes and then tried to print it again - NADA!!

Mac says the printer is not connected.

This is ridiculous, the period in between was about 5 minutes and now, there's no printer!!

Any ideas??

RESOLVED! I went into System Preferences>Printers and Scanners. Then in the list of Printers, I right-clicked and chose "Reset Printing System..." It warns you will lose all the printers and Queues. I selected ok and reset it. Keep in mind this will remove ALL PRINTERS, not just the one you are having trouble with. I had multiple printers set up for work and home. I have to add each one back. (I think you can simply delete the one printer as well, but I didn't seem to have luck with that option fixing my problem.) After the reset, I used the printer's control panel to print a network configuration page to verify it was properly configured to my wireless network, which it was. I then added the printer again using the plus sign button at the bottom of the Printers and Scanners screen, and waited for it to detect the wireless printer on its own. It took a little while to detect it. Clicked ok and added it with no problem. Clicked print on a document and there it printed instantly. Now I am back up and running permanently. No need to load by IP address or use any driver installation. It did it all with one click.

Adding this in case anyone finds this in a search when it happens to them, as I found this page in a search for the issue when I ran into it myself.

In my case I solved it and it was that some firewall settings were keeping my Mac from finding the wireless printer. Check firewall settings in System Preferences->Security&Privacy / any third party firewall settings / any firewall settings on the wireless access point itself / etc.

Seems like you did a lot of good troubleshooting.

Have you tried printing via usb if applicable?

You could also try renaming your wifi connection.

OS X: Connecting a Wi-Fi printer to your Wi-Fi network

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is a couple of years old, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.

Network Printer Troubleshooting

Ping printer: If you have the printers IP address open Terminal (Applications/Utilities) and at the prompt type: ping {printerIP}. You will get a reply or failure.

If you haven't done so already, try resetting the printing system.

OS X Mavericks: Reset the printing system
also Yosemite

Troubleshoot Printing Issues

WiFi Printer to WiFi Network - Connect

TEMPORARY SOLUTION FOUND!! The same thing happened with my Macbook Pro and HP Officejet PRO 8620. It used to print and connect fine. Everyone else's computers on the wireless network still print with no problems. Just mine sends it to the Print Queue but never prints. Says "Cannot locate printer." I did find a way to print though as a temporary fix. I use the options on the Printer control panel located right on the printer itself and have it print a test report of its settings. Once it prints the reports, my job in the queue always prints right after. I know it's a waste of ink and paper and time to do this step each time to print, but it gets the job done in a pinch. Sometimes we just need it to print and it's worth the extra step. Still searching for the long term resolution! 🙂 Good luck.

I am having this issue as well, and the provided answer did not work.

Both of my roommates can print, access the IP address, and use the printer as normal, but my Macbook responds with 'cannot connect' no matter which method I use. I cannot even access the printer's IP through a web browser (my roommates can). I have restarted the computer, repaired disk permissions, and attempted to reset printing system as described in the given solution, and still have nothing to show for it. I'm stuck forwarding PDFs of all my files to my roommates every time I need to print something.

I am running OS 10.12.4 and ran into this issue yesterday. The McAfee firewall was the issue. Once I disabled it, the printer reappeared in the device list in Printers and Scanners. Thanks for the help!

This strategy worked for me - I now am able to print again on my Photosmart B210 (it's my secondary printer) on my iMac. Still isn't being found by iPhone or iPad, however (the default printer is - which is fine). I assume this will continue working until for some reason the IP address gets changed but for now it's working.

This happens frequently enough to me that it is ridiculous to have to clean out all the printers and restart. I will report this to Apple, although with low expectations.

Has anyone tried just rebooting the Mac? That worked for me this morning.

My problem is with a HP Officejet 8620. Worked fine until new High Sierra update 10.13.2. The printer showed in Preferences as being present on the wifi but idle and not discoverable via the HP software. The printer itself was properly connected to the wireless network and would print fine wirelessly from other devices.

I reset the the printing system as suggested and searched for and the printer again. Found it and reinstalled and it looked like that was going to work for about 2 mins. Then the printer went from green to idle and non accessible again.

I then followed the advice of others and installed it using the printers IP address.

It now works again albeit the "scan to computer" function will not work from the printer. Still better than no printer at all!

Hope this helps others and thanks to the posters here