Printers come in many shapes and sizes, but have similar problems. Troubleshooting printer problems on a Mac is similar to troubleshooting a Windows PC, but the options you need to check are in a different place on Mac OS than they are on Windows. Before doing any of this, make sure the printer is plugged in, turned on, and connected to your Mac.
If it's a Wi-Fi printer, make sure it's connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Mac. This may seem obvious, but sometimes it's easy to overlook the simplest things. Here's a summary of How to Solve Printer Problems on a Mac.
How to Solve Printer Problems on Mac
1. Check Paper
Be sure to check your printer and make sure it has enough paper. Check to make sure you have loaded the paper correctly so the printer can access it too. If the printer has a paper jam, you may need to open the printer and remove the jammed paper for it to work properly.
2. Check Ink and Toner
You need ink in an inkjet printer or toner in a laser printer before your printer can print. Just having enough black-and-white ink on an inkjet printer may not be enough, as some inkjet printers may refuse to print – even in black and white – unless you have filled the color ink tank as well.
To check your printer's ink level, you may need to open the manufacturer's specific printer utility. However, this information can also be found in a more standard way.
On a Mac, you can open the System Preferences window, click the “Printers & scanners” icon, and select a printer. Click the “Options & Supplies” button, click the “Supply Levels” tab, and your printer should report how much ink it currently has. If the printer has a built-in display, it can also show how much ink is left.
3. Check Print Queue
When printing, your printer will have an icon on your dock. You can click the icon to open the print queue. If you don't see it, you can also open the System Preferences window, click the “Printers & scanners” icon, select a printer, and click “Open Print Queue”.
From here, you can see any jobs that the printer is currently working on. If you see old jobs or jobs with errors, you can delete them from here and turn on the printer. You can also pause or resume printing from here – make sure the printer is not paused.
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| Printers on Mac |
If you see a “Continue” button in the toolbar, the printer is paused and you must click “Continue” to continue. If you see a “Pause” button in the toolbar, the printer is not paused.
4. Use Diagnostic Function
You may need to clean the printer head or perform other diagnostic functions to fix problems with poor print quality. This option may be located in the Printers & Scanners window. If so, you can open the Printers & Scanners pane in the System Preferences dialog, select a printer, and select “Options & Supplies”.
Look around here for options you might need – for example, you might see a “Utilities” button which will open the printer's diagnostic utility. It depends on the printer. In some cases, you may need to use the buttons on the printer itself to start a head cleaning routine or other diagnostics.
5. Update Your Printer Driver
Make sure you have the latest drivers for your printer. It doesn't work like it does on Windows, as Mac OS X will install the correct drivers for the printer automatically when you add the printer to your system. Driver updates will arrive through the normal software update process.
To make sure you have the latest printer drivers, click the “Apple” menu in the menu bar at the top of your screen and select “App Store”. Click on the “Updates” tab and make sure you have the latest software installed, especially the operating system or printer support software.
If this is an AirPrint-enabled printer and you print via Apple's AirPrint, you may need to update the firmware with the manufacturer-supplied firmware update to fix the problem.
6. Add Printer Back
You may be able to make your printer work properly by removing it from your system and adding it again. This may be necessary if it is a network printer and something has changed with the network configuration.
Mac OS X will also detect the printer and install the appropriate driver when you add a printer, so it's also a way for your Mac to try to detect the printer and install the appropriate driver again. This will also recreate the print queue, so it's also a way to fix a corrupted print queue.
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| Add Printer |
To do this, open the System Preferences dialog and click “Printers & Scanners”. Select the current printer by clicking on it and click the “-” button at the bottom of the list to delete it. Then, click the “+” button and use the add printer dialog to search for and add printers once again.
7. Reset Printing System
If nothing else works, you can try resetting the entire printing system. This will clear the list of installed printers, clear your print queue (including previous jobs), and delete any presets or other settings that you have configured for that printer. This is the last option that will erase everything so you can start over from scratch.
To do this, open System Preferences and click on the “Printers & scanners” icon. Hold down the “Control” key on your keyboard and click on the list of printers. You will see the option “Reset printing system” – click to reset your printing system. You'll need to add your printer from this window once you've done that.
If your printer has a status screen with a physical control panel on it, you may need to use that control panel to view a more detailed error message, or simply press “OK” to accept the information message and print it again. This screen can also provide access to information about printer ink levels and functions such as head cleaning as well.
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If you see a more specific error message on your own printer, do a web search for the error message. This will point you in the right direction so you can identify your problem and figure out how to fix it.
Hopefully the information about How to Solve Printer Problems on Mac that Erzedka.com has reviewed this time can help my friend in solving problems that occur with printers on Mac. Continue to follow us because there are still many interesting tips and information about printer problems that we will present..