Printers disappearing

I have an Intel iMac 2012 Mac 21.5 running OS 10.8.5. The printers keep disappearing from the list of printers. All printers or networked on the same segment and switch. The printers are networked with a static IP address and Bonjour. I have tried adding the printers by IP and by Bonjour. The printers will remain as an option for a day or two then disappear.
We have several other iMacs running OS 10.8.5 and connected to the printers and they do not lose the connection. Just this iMac. So the network and printer do not appear to be the problem.
Any ideas what to look for? Or what to remove and reinstall?

Hi,
Based on the description, we can try to enable the following policy setting to see if it helps:
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon\ Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon
After applying the policy setting, we can try to re-logon the users to see if they can get the printers.
If the issue persists, we can try to run the following reg file to see if it helps:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Group Policy\{BC75B1ED-5833-4858-9BB8-CBF0B166DF9D}]
@="Printers Policy Processing"
"NoSlowLink"=dword:00000000
"NoBackgroundPolicy"=dword:00000000
"NoGPOListChanges"=dword:00000000
"BackgroundPriorityLevel"=dword:00000000
If yes, we can utilize group policy to deploy the reg file as a logon script for users.
Best regards,
Frank Shen
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected]

Similar Messages

Printers disappear when trying to print pdf/a documents...?

The only way to get the printers back is to roll back windows. Very time consuming and irritating. Does anyone know it this is a common problem or if it is more likely to be a faulty installation?
Cheers,
Mats

Is this a home system or a work environment?
What's your OS? Acrobat version?
We have a similar problem sometimes at work that the printers disappear, however this is due to the Citrix work environment.

I just upgraded to snow leopard and some of my printers disappeared and I am unable to get them back any ideas

I just upgraded to snow leopard and some of my printers disappeared and I am unable to get them back any ideas

Hello DaveDue
Start your troubleshooting with the article below, you may need to download the printer drivers directly from the manufactures website.
Troubleshooting printer issues in OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3147
Regards,
-Norm G.

Printers disappear from Print Management on the server itself

I have a server 2012 r2 print server. A short time ago all the printers disappeared from the print management view on the server itself. They are still showing in the ports view, I can still add a printer, and people can still print (though I
am getting many complaints that printing has become slow, not sure if that is related or not.) Any suggestions or ideas on what might be causing this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
JR

Hi,
Please check if
KB2995388 was installed in that Windows Server 2012 R2. It may cause similar issues as reported in following thread.
Print
Management Console displays no printers after applying Windows Update for Windows Server 2012 R2 (KB2995388)
If any update, please feel free to let me know.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Justin Gu

Printers disappeared from printer Utility

Not only have my printers disappeared from the printer utility window I also get the error message "server-error-service-unavailable I have tried the fixes on the OS X support page such as: Repairing permissions on the startup drive; verifying the /tmp file thru terminal but I still can't see my printers and still get the error message. Any help would be appreciated.

This just happened to me as well. G5 dual, 10.3.9. Earlier in the day I ran software update which applied a security update to the OS and some other updates (Quicktime, Garage Band, etc.). I repaired permissions before and after. For a while I could print as normal over the network (printers not directly connected to this Mac). Later in the day I suddenly got "no printers selected" and when I went to add/delete in the Printer Setup Utility, I got the "server-error-service-unavailable" message and the utility hung. I've shut the machine down completely, but the problem persists on re-start.
Are there perhaps corrupted prefs to trash? I don't want to just go trashing stuff blindly.
Or does it indicate a server problem, not my machine? Doubt it because others can print successfully.

Printers disappear

My question is similar to others but also different. About 2 weeks ago I did a clean re-install of Snow Leopard including all the updates. I have a Brother 5340D and an Epson 2880 printer and an Epson scanner. Printer drivers were updated and both working normally. They are not on any network - USB cables are plugged directly into the iMac port. All three show up in the System Profiler window indicating that they are indeed connected.
Yesterday both printers disappeared from all print dialogs and I cannot re-install them. The Print & Fax preference window is empty. When I click the "+" button the Add a Printer dialog appears. Both printers and the scanner show up here. When I click on one of the printers and choose Add a dialog pops up asking if I want to download and install software for the printer. When I say Install, Software Update goes out and updates the drivers and says "successful". Choosing add again repeats the process. Trying to reset the "printing system" by Option clicking the "+" button does nothing different.
Why is this happening? Do I have to reinstall Snow Leopard all over again?

Thanks, Eric. However I have tried this several times and as I said initially, this process does not work for me. Even though the link you sent is for Mountain Lion, I assume the process is similar. The "Set up a printer" link does not work. There are no printers in the list to begin with (see the screen shot). The system does appear to reset but trying to add the printers back repeats the process described above.

Bonjour printers disappearing

I have a problem with a G-5 PPC which has had it's Bonjour printers disappear from the print menu and not appear in the Printer Setup Utility.
This problem followed the 4.11 update. It reappeared after a archive and reinstall, followed by update.
Anyone have any ideas. I have run out as Bonjour is not only setup free, it seems untouchable.
Thanks

Did the attempt to add the printer failed, or did the log-on failed?. Just in case, (I think you did it right, anyway) you have to enter the account Short Name as stated in System Preferences, rather than the user Name, e.g for the user John Smith, enter the short name johnsmith rather than the user name John.
If you cannot add them thru the CUPS interface, I can suggest you to take a somewhat different course of action:
Open Terminal and type this command again:
lookupd -flushcache (press Return)
then log out, and back in. If you can see the Bonjour printers briefly, and then they disappear again, then:
Reset the Printing System form the Printer Setup Utility (do not try to reinstall the printers yet), and then run some system utility to "clean" the system.
Personally, I prefer MainMenu, because I find it simpler to use, but you can also run Onyx, Cocktail, etc to achieve the same results.
In case you use MainMenu, in the Cleaning tab, clean all the users caches and do a deep clean of the system cache, verify the preference files, flush the lookupd cache (from the Other Taks tab), and restart. This boot up will last longer than usual.

Printers disappeared after upgrade to Mavericks

All printers disappeared from user account after upgrade to Mavericks from 10.6.8 by Migration Assistant.
The obvious question: How to migrate the printers?
I don't recall each individual printer setup and just want to move them over.

Hello Mac Experts,
I recently upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and I too am having this same issue. After my upgrade was completed, I checked my printers and noticed that all my network printers were gone. I have never perform an OS X upgrade before and this is my first attempt, although the upgrade was successful but I was a bit surprised that all the network printers that I have were gone.
For those us either in a small SOHO this is no big deal, however, if you're in a big environment where you have a lot of machines this would be a big problem and would create a lot of unnecessary work and time wasted.
Have any of you Mac experts perform an upgrade from Panther to Tiger? If so, did you loose all your network printers that you have configured in System Preferences > Print & Fax
Could this be a bug in Leopard????

After installing mavericks on mac mini network printers disappeared

After installing Mavericks on my Mac Mini, all printers on the home wifi network disappeared and cannot get them back. Tried deleting and re-installing printers and all updates. Network does not see them from the Mac Mini. Is there some workaround or solution to this? Everything worked perfectly until the Mavericks upgrade.

Was there any evidence of a new or update printer driver at the Epson site for use with Mavericks OS X? Even if so, that may not be enough as the peripherial makers can be steps behind a new & different OS.
I have two Epson printers, one is an all-in-one WF845 (bought at 50% off) and an older Photo Stylus 820, this still makes great prints; both work wireless in different ways. However I have what are essentially antiques in both hardware and software.
Not sure if there are any third party drivers that could help as a fix or a patch for the situation you face, if Epson hasn't a working alternative to being printerless. Too bad that paperless society didn't evolve to save a few trees and thousands of gallons in expensive ink.
Good luck & happy computing!

Shared printers disappearing after Adding

Every time I try and print to a shared printer on a wireless network, it only works once. The next time I start the application the added printer is gone.

I'm having a similar problem. When I'm at the office I print to 2 shared printers that are attached to other Macs on our network. At the end of the day I take my MacBook Pro home with me. When I come back to the office in the morning and plug into the network, all my printers are no longer listed in my print dialogue windows. I have to "Add Printer" to get them to show up, then they work just fine all day. But then the same thing happens the next day, and the next day, etc. The printers that have been directly plugged into my MacBook Pro are always listed and they never disappear. Solution anyone?

My Pavilion A6207c no longer connects to internet and my printers disappeared.

I cannot connect to internet and I cannot reinstall my printers. A spooling error appears when I try to reinstall the printers. I'm looking for driver's to update or recover for the Vista Home Premium OS.

All Wifi networks. It recognises the name of the networks, then thinks and thinks and doesn't lauch the wifi mode.

Printers disappear in different location

I have 3 places I use my Powerbook - home, work (at a school), other work (at a church). They all have printers and I have readded them all since installing Leopard. When I get to school, they are there, church they are there but everytime I come home the printers at home are gone and I have to re-add them. Why is this? I've searched for an answer, but found nothing. Also, isn't my default printer supposed to change at each place with the new "Location-aware printing"?

Me too, It would not be so bad but it always takes a couple of minutes to search for the drivers.
Anyone have an idea of what is going on?
Thanks!

All printers disappeared after upgrade to Leopard

I made an upgrade to Leopard and all my production printers just disspeared under System preferences - print and fax.
It wasn't a big thing to reinstall 4 print drivers. Well, that is, not yet known what happened to my CS3's Acrobat 7's PDF printer yet. For the 3 others Xerox production RIPs, I just redid the install.
What I did is to use the new WINDOWS printer connector and this is great! It took me like 10 secs to set each of them. So easy and great improvements inside the printer installation. I've used the Xerox and Roland sites' PPD and there we go... all connected.
Great improvements but too bad they all dissapear after upgrade...

Hello Mac Experts,
I recently upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and I too am having this same issue. After my upgrade was completed, I checked my printers and noticed that all my network printers were gone. I have never perform an OS X upgrade before and this is my first attempt, although the upgrade was successful but I was a bit surprised that all the network printers that I have were gone.
For those us either in a small SOHO this is no big deal, however, if you're in a big environment where you have a lot of machines this would be a big problem and would create a lot of unnecessary work and time wasted.
Have any of you Mac experts perform an upgrade from Panther to Tiger? If so, did you loose all your network printers that you have configured in System Preferences > Print & Fax
Could this be a bug in Leopard????

HPeprint printers disappearing

Have a number of printers on my HPeprint account.
From time to time a printer will stop working.
When I check the printer is gone, no linger listed as a device in my HPeprint account.
Have to go through the setup process again....
Has happened twice now.
Any suggestions ?

Have you had any power outages or anything like that recently?
The only time that they usually get removed from the account online is when web services has been removed from the printer or if the printer has been reset to the factory settings.
Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.
Say thanks by clicking the "
Kudos! Thumps Up" which is on the right
Make it easier for other people to find solutions, by marking my answer with "Accept as Solution" if it solves your issue
Regards,
Ray

Argh! All printers disappeared...

OK, all my printers have been working fine (HP PSC 1355, a Dymo 400 label printer and a Primera Disc Publisher printer) over USB.
However, I've been trying to get a friend's D-ink wireless USB adaptor to work. It didn't, which wasn't a surprise knowing D-Link....
Anyway, what I wasn't expecting was the software from the D-Link to seemingly screw up my G4 iBook. I now cannot use any of my printers as it would seem that none of the drivers are detected. I've reinstalled every bit of software possible and upgraded to 10.4.10 (I was running 10.4.9 before) but still no luck.
The printers show up in the system profile, and also in the printer utility list. But I can't actually add them as printers, and the drivers just cannot seem to be detected. Permissions have been repaired. I really cannot work out what is going on... anyone got any ideas?
Cheers
Jamie

Hi Jamie,
You seem to have done a fair bit to resolve this already. About the only other things I can suggest is to run the Reset Printing System, located in the Printer Setup Utility menu. This will reset a number of CUPS files and may require you to reinstall your drivers software before you can re-add them.
The only other thing is to try Fixamac's Printer Setup Repair utility. It may identify some issues with the backend modules and may even fix them...

Printers disappearing

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for