I have tried connecting my printer via USB, wireless network and even entering it as an IP printer with no success. My printer is the HP Deskjet 3050 j610a, and is a printer that is supported by my Macbook. I have looked online at every related question and Apple help forum I could find. Nothing will work.
Any answers/help would be appreciated, thanks.
MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
Often it's best to start from the beginning. I recommend deleting your existing printer from System Preferences > Printers & Scanners, and adding it again. Better yet is to "reset the printing system" as described here: Mac OS X: How to reset the printing system
Reset the printer to factory defaults also; refer to HP's documentation.
After you do that you will need to add the printer again according to the instructions here:
OS X Mavericks: Set up a printer
Decide whether you want to connect to it wirelessly, or using USB, and stick with that method. A wireless printer and the exact same printer connected with USB might as well be two different printers, as far as the Mac is concerned.
OS X Mavericks: IP printer settings
Hi..
If you have not done so, download and install the drivers for your HP printer here > Software & driver downloads HP Deskjet 3050 All-in-One Printer - J610a | HP® Support
Then open System Preferences > Printers & Scanners then select the Print tab.
Click ➕ to add the printer.
Thank you to both John and Carolyn but neither of these things are helping. I restored my printer to defaults and now cannot even get it to connect to the network. My router does not have a pushbutton to connect to my printer (one of the options for hooking a printer up to the network) and I have no idea where to put the given pin in? If I connect it to my computer via USB nothing pops up, but when I go into printers/scanners in system preferences I can add it. But, when I go to print anything, a document, webpage or picture, It does not work. The print queue comes up and tells me that the picture is printing but nothing happens with my printer. Also, to Carolyn, there are no drivers/software available because my computer is completely up to date with software updates.
I am frustrated beyond belief, seeing as I have been trying to fix this issue so I can print some papers for university for over 2 hours. Thinking I might just buy a new printer and start completely new because this one is seeming to be a lot of work to get to print.
Did you try contacting HP Support? Perhaps the printer is simply broken.
It shouldn't be this difficult. Normally, you plug in a USB printer, the Mac recognizes it, and it just works. A wireless configuration might take a couple more steps.
If you eventually decide to get another printer though, I recommend something other than HP.
I also found this support document for that printer on HP's website:
OS X v10.9 Mavericks: Installing and Using the Printer on a Mac
Let me know if you make any progress.
I am having a very similar issue with 2 printers at a clients house. These are replacement printers and are not more than 3 months old. These are Epson 7520 MFC printers. The issue I am having is I can remove the printer and re add it, print any sort of test page but literally 5-7 minutes later the printer will no longer print, and the print Queue states that the printer is offline. I check the printer and it's still online and the WiFi check utility completes correctly. I check the Airport Extreme and I can see the printer still connected (wirelessly) to the router. I have even tried to set the printers with Static IP addresses and the issue still occurs. I have tried the Epson Drivers directly from them, and still the issue persists. And no matter what, I have to remove the printer and then readd the darn thing just get a test page to print again. I'm utterly convinced that this is not a problem with the printers because these 2 printers are relatively brand new, and the other 2 printers that they replaced were HP's and less than a year old as well and had the exact same issue. Apple needs to fix this. It's not the manufacturer because it's happening with multiple brands/models of printers. I need answers and a fix. As an Apple IT System Administrator, and I can say that this is just frustrating beyond belief and adding/troubleshooting printers should not be difficult. These aren't some giant contracted Ricoh printers. What the heck is going on? Maybe the issue isn't the printers or the computer but actually with the Airport Extreme, which I have tried a 2nd Generation model as well as a brand new out of the box model, I did this just yesterday with no luck. Normally I would say screw it, and just hard wire the darn things to the computers but that's not possible with this location, they have to be wireless. Headaches upon headaches, I officially hate printers. If it is printers, by some long shot, then I would like to know what Apple recommends as the best wireless printers to use with their computers.
Hi mdneville5
Apple makes no particular printer recommendations but I do.
Recently I have grown to favor Brother printers over the others. I recommend AirPrint compatible Brother printers and multifunction devices over those of other manufacturers. They are inexpensive, their OS X integration is well-implemented, their consumables are reasonably priced, and their technical support is free forever. If you need to call them and explain that you have a Mac, you will immediately receive competent assistance.
I have grown to dislike HP printers, for all the above reasons.
Read user reviews from vendor websites - Amazon is a good place to start, since Amazon lets people write almost anything they want... right, wrong, or completely idiotic.
Read the reviews on the respective manufacturers' websites as well, but consider the likelihood of them deleting negative reviews.
Process all those user reviews employing your own common sense, and draw your own conclusions.
Headaches upon headaches, I officially hate printers.
😁
So did I before deciding upon Brother. It's been several years and I still have no complaints with them. No affiliation, etc, but that's been my experience, with lots of Macs and iOS devices. Whatever Brother did with OS X, they did it right.
I can't say that for HP. Their older printers were bulletproof and I still have one in daily use. They cost several thousand dollars new. Their newer products are all disposable junk.
From what I have heard Canon appears to be a good, though distant, second choice to Brother. I don't believe I have any Canon printers. Edit - I do have one network MFP that's several years old, not sure about the model number. It wasn't cheap.
The only EPSON printers I use work perfectly well but they're even older, so my experience with that brand is too outdated to consider.
Printing with Macbook Air
