Mac; unable to communicate with printer

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Level 1

8 points

Mac; unable to communicate with printer

My Mac and printer (HP Photosmart series 6510) were working fine but for no apparent reason now do not connect. The only thing that has changed is the poistion of the router (moved from one room to another) but this is not the problem as the printer and the mac are both, separately, connected to the router as are all other devices.

So far I have:

- uninstalled and reinstalled the printer at least a dozen times

- disconnected both devices and reconnected them to the router / internet

- installed the latest HP software for OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite

- rebooted both devices

but the Mac is still not connecting. I have also tried connecting to an alternate printer (a Brother - which I know is ok as it is connected to an alternate windows-based pc and working perfectly).

The error message I get is 'unable to connect to the printer at this time' so it appears that the Mac is locating the printers but for some unknown reason can't connect.

Are there any suggestions on what to do next?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), null

Posted on Jan 14, 2016 1:30 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,021 points

Jan 14, 2016 10:41 AM in response to AMV8bird

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

OS X Mavericks: Reset the printing system
also Yosemite

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Answer 2

AMV8bird Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 15, 2016 7:08 AM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric, thanks for replying. I had already reset the printing system but tried again for good measure. Weirdly I can now connect to a Brother printer which is an another room but not the HP which sits on my desk. When in 'add a printer' sometimes the Mac finds the HP and tries to connect but states 'unable to connect at this time', other times it finds the scanner but not the printer, but still cannot connect and sometimes it just doesn't locate the printer.

Any other ideas gratefully received.

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