Q: Having to perform multiple resets of my Printing System

What kind of printers? How are they connected? Do they all stop working at the same time? What exactly happens?

Please connect one of the printers directly to a built-in USB port, and disconnect all other USB devices. Test.

I also have this problem. MacMini Early 2009 running 10.11.5.

Printer is a Canon LBP 6000 with driver version 3.86 connected via USB to the MacMini. The printer is shared.

My wife has a MacBook Air also running 10.11.5.

I am running Printopia version 2.1.20 so I can air-print from mobile devices.

Usually, I can print directly to the printer from my MacMini and from my iPad and iPhone using Printopia.

However, if my wife tries to print via the network, all **** breaks loose. The document appears briefly in the print queue and then simply vanishes. From that point on, no computer, including the MacMini, can print using either the Canon driver or the Printopia driver.

Here's what we have to do to fix it:

1. Reset the printing system on the MacMini and reinstall the printer driver and the Printopia driver.
2. Reset the printing system on the MacBook Air and reinstall the printer driver and the Printopia driver.

At that point my wife will be able to print, but only using the Printopia driver. She is never able to print to the printer as a shared Bonjour printer.

I am always able to print to the printer from my iPhone and iPad using the Printopia driver.

It seems like we shouldn't have to reset the printing system on both machines every time we start a printing session.

One more thing….

If we connect the printer to the MacBook Air via USB it still won't print until we reset the printing system. This even though no other USB devices are connected to the MBA.

You might want to start your own post since this one is from last year. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.

On the Air, try a restart.

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account.  Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode - About El Capitan

Safe Mode Startup – El Capitan.

Thank you. Since the previous printing system reset, it seems to be working OK. When it fails again I'll try a different user account and Safe Mode.

You are welcome.