On a new M4 Mini with Sequoia 15.2 (24C101) I'm trying to share a USB printer. But unless the computer has a user account with a username matching the username from the incoming request, CUPS rejects the job. Print sharing is enabled in Settings > General > Sharing > Printer Sharing, and the printer is checked for sharing, and the permissions are that "Everyone" "Can Print". I've enabled debug logging with cupsctl and here's the relevant portion of the log: D [07/Jan/2025:21:45:28 -0500] [Client 13] 2.0 Create-Job 3 D [07/Jan/2025:21:45:28 -0500] Create-Job ipps://Mac-mini.local.:631/printers/EPSON_Stylus_Photo_R2880 D [07/Jan/2025:21:45:28 -0500] check_quotas: UUID lookup failed for user "bames53" I [07/Jan/2025:21:45:28 -0500] Denying user "bames53" access to printer "EPSON_Stylus_Photo_R2880" (unknown user)... D [07/Jan/2025:21:45:28 -0500] Create-Job client-error-not-authorized: Not allowed to print. E [07/Jan/2025:21:45:28 -0500] [Client 13] Returning IPP client-error-not-authorized for Create-Job (ipps://Mac-mini.local.:631/printers/EPSON_Stylus_Photo_R2880) from [v1.fe80::10:b08d:dd81:36e9+en0]. The computer sharing the printer can print fine. So the printer works, the USB connection works. The drivers are updated. If I create, on the computer sharing the printer, a user with a username matching the remote user trying to print, even if the passwords don't match, then there's no error and print sharing works fine. So I believe this rules out any issues with the network, firewalls, etc. Also installing a Print-to-PDF printer from the app store and sharing that shows precisely the same behavior and error, so the particular printer is not the issue. Also the behavior is the same regardless of the client computer trying to print, both Mac and Windows clients. Looking at cups configuration files, quotas appear to be disabled on /etc/cups/printers.conf: QuotaPeriod 0 PageLimit 0 KLimit 0 AI suggested also adding a Enabled No section to the cupsd.conf file, which did not change the error. Also adding Allow @LOCAL and Allow all to the various `` sections that cover Create-Job did not change the behavior. Apple Support suggested adding Sandboxing Relaxed to cups-files.conf, also with no change. I see a someone else had the same issue in 2010 on Apple's support forums, with no solution: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2426299?login=true&sortBy=rank Configuring other macs with printer sharing similarly does not exhibit the same error. The work-around of creating a dummy account with matching name might almost be acceptable at this point, but it doesn't work to allow windows computers to print, because the username they send contains a backslash (domain\username). Here's a screenshot of the printer sharing panel with user list: 

I installed a Mac on my home network. I have an HP Laserjet 553 printer that I use to print to from Windows and Linux (Fedora). **The printer is shared on the Mac and works fine when printing directly from the Mac.** The Linux computer finds the printer and allows me to configure it. When I run:

lpstat -p

I get: printer Color_LaserJet_M553 is idle. But when I print, I get the following error: E [04/Jan/2025:13:18:48 -0600] [Client 326] Returning IPP client-error-not-authorized for Create-Job (ipps://Susans-iMac.local:631/printers/HP_Color_LaserJet_M553__7E8380__2) from 192.168.86.25. and the file does not print. Here is what I get from lpstat -s: dnssd://HP%20Color%20LaserJet%20M553%20%5B7E8380%5D%20%40%20Susan%E2%80%99s%20iMac._ipp._tcp.local/cups?uuid=64e79165-56b3-3da8-6381-9184b421f66c I could print from Linux before connecting the Mac.

Every version of macOS I've used has allowed me to open the print queue and drag a print job from one printer to another queue. This is especially helpful when (for example) you accidentally send a job to a printer that is offline or unavailable. Today I tried to print, macOS defaulted to the last used printer, which was in my workplace. I tried to move the print job to my home printer, but the Print Center doesn't allow anything other than pausing or canceling the job. I don't see anything obvious in the CUPS interface. I don't have to do this often, but it's truly obnoxious to see a functional system dialog be replaced with one that doesn't have anywhere near the same features. Is there a workaround?

What is the modern way to connect a MacOS laptop to a CUPS print server (not just individual printers), where the two systems are on different subnets (i.e. mDNS does not work)? Is it possible, or does the server need to be on the same subnet? Possible options seem to be: 1. install cups-browsed (does not appear to exist on modern MacOS) 1. Configuring client.conf to point at remote server (this removes local printers though) 1. Setting up DNS-SD as per http://www.dns-sd.org/ServerStaticSetup.html#AirPrint None of these appear to be a viable option to get MacOS to discover a CUPS server on a different subnet using only local changes. "Modern" in this case should mean it works on MacOS 11 and higher.

I bought a new M2 Mac mini, my first Apple Silicon Mac. The Canon MP990 Scanner still scans fine with VueScan, but printing now fails. I'd set up the Intel Macs with Gutenprint (I use HomeBrew for as many installs as possible) which worked fine with them and I'm running Ventura (same as my former Macs). I’m *avoiding Rosetta* because I want to set this up to be as future-proof as possible. So I installed Gutenprint on the M2 MacMini with Homebrew (fresh M2 install), then tried to set up the printer (USB connection) but had to use the CUPS settings at http://localhost:631/ to add it and assign a "Generic PostScript Printer" driver (System Settings doesn't offer a generic driver). I also installed Ghostscript (a stab in the dark) and generated a "Generic GDI Printer" Ghostscript .ppd file at OpenPrinting (an interesting resource), put it in /Library/Printers/PPDs/ but it was rejected (presumably not for Apple Silicon Macs and/or not 64 bit) when I chose it in the printer setup. The printer now appears under "Printers & Scanners", the job goes through (a PDF, very slowly) and the printer queue becomes empty. However, nothing gets printed and the printer shows as "idle". Has anyone managed to get an older Canon printer working? There are a few success stories, but nothing beyond what I’ve tried. **UPDATE:** I just spent 3 days on this, having tried every possible solution both suggested here and out there, with no luck. I’m now considering a new laser printer. The scanner still works with VueScan, though…

With our new 21,5"-iMac, we bought the first Mac system for our Windows/Linux-oriented office. Hence we don’t have a lot of experience in using Mac OS X. I started to set up everything and it ran quite well so far until I reached the configuration of our network printers. In our company we use a Linux system running a CUPS-server. This server holds the configuration of all queues. All changes regarding settings or even additional printers are made there. As we do not want to make changes on every client system if new printers join the infrastructure, we forward all print jobs to the remote CUPS print server. **This saves a lot of time instead of configuring printers via IPP or equivalent.** To make this work on Mac OS X, I found a link with the information I needed: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2004011920201534 The .cupsrc-file (hidden file) in the home directory containing the line ServerName will instruct the local CUPS system to receive remote print queues from our print server. After saving the file, the GUI configuration tool for printers in Mac OS X *(System Preferences… -> Print & Fax)* shows all remote queues running on the central CUPS server. But after I upgraded to Mac OS X 1.7 “Lion”, the GUI doesn’t show the queues anymore. I have no idea what to do and even Apple Support (registered owner of CUPS system) couldn’t help me out with that. They only pointed to the CUPS configuration file (/etc/cups/cupsd.conf), but I do not know the right setting there for printing to remote queues. Also, the web interface running on localhost:631 couldn’t help me… Any ideas?

My intent is to have a "fake printer" (Appple cups) show up on the user's desktop/Chrome browser (print settings) after it's added through a server ip/port. And it's not going to deal with any printers... I want to extract the documents that would be printed and then treat them as files to then be shared with other computers (by regular file upload/download). I know it sounds backwards but the printer as a starting point is key in this particular application. This "fake printer" has to be added by Printers & scanners say through TCP/IP/port **Update** I will answer this after having done it 2 years ago. Yes it is possible. I wrote a NodeJS API wrapper (cli calls eg. lpstat...) and pretty much this meant we could generate these fake printers on the fly and when the user installed them on their computer via an https url, they would print files and they would be shareable to whatever web application. We did have to hire a guy to modify the binary to do the multi-folder part since that wasn't working. In the end this was not worth the effort/weird niche use case since we could just drag-drop to an S3 bucket/get signed url and there's your file.

I just bought a label printer (Zebra ZD420). There a no drivers for this printer, but Zebra says I should install and configure it via CUPS. I set the default options for the printer in CUPS.
For the media size I selected "Custom" and added the measurements of my paper (105x148mm) When I print via the mac print interface I see the paper size "custom" and everything prints as I want. When I try to print via the google chrome print window, it shows me all kind of sizes, but not my custom size. Is there any way to add this size there? The reason for me to get a label printer is to save time. When I have to click through 3 windows and 2 dropdowns it doesn't save me anything.

I'm trying to get the supply levels of a printer via the command line. So far I was able to get some information with a lpoptions (marker-message property) command. The problem is that the status of it doesn't update automatically. No matter how many pages I print the result of this command doesn't change. At the same time, the standard UI (cmd+p) print utility of the macOS can get the proper information from the printer. I did a quick investigation and found out that it calls CUPS ReportLevels command. So my question is: is there a way to call that ReportLevels command manually if so, how it can be done? Or maybe there is another way to force that refresh? I would really appreciate any help, thanks in advance!

When printing to HP printer, I noticed that all printed files are saved to /var/spool/cups. Is it possible to avoid this from a privacy perspective?

I was following this advice to add a user to the _lpadmin group on my system to stop getting a prompt to authenticate when trying to change print options. Unfortunately, I clicked in the wrong place while using Directory Utility and deleted the entire Print Administrator group. Now, no users on my system have privileges to change print options or reset the printing system, because none of the users are members of the group that no longer exists. I tried creating the group "_lpadmin" manually in Directory Services, to no avail. Using the dseditgroup command to add a user to the group returns "Group not found." Is there a way to reinstall the default CUPS system without reinstalling my entire OS?

I've discovered by accident that my Mac is running a localhost web server. I typed "localhost" into Safari and got "It works!" I get the same result when I go to http://127.0.0.1:80 . My question is: How do I turn this thing off? I've tried things like this: $ sudo apachectl stop And $ sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist But this changes nothing, and the Terminal complains /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist: Could not find specified service I'm running Catalina. No MAMP. I did at one point a couple of years ago run npm briefly, but there is no evidence that this is its server (for one thing, it's on port 80). ---- Following up on Gordon Davisson's suggestion, I tried $ sudo lsof -i | grep LISTEN and got:

rapportd   462  mattneubelcap    4u  IPv4 0x3fcd6c7f11a6984d      0t0    TCP *:49169 (LISTEN)
rapportd   462  mattneubelcap    5u  IPv6 0x3fcd6c7f0a82c41d      0t0    TCP *:49169 (LISTEN)
cupsd     1117           root    5u  IPv6 0x3fcd6c7f0a829f5d      0t0    TCP localhost:ipp (LISTEN)
cupsd     1117           root    6u  IPv4 0x3fcd6c7f1975f0cd      0t0    TCP localhost:ipp (LISTEN)

I need to know the ip address of my printer from OSX to be able to configure it in my daughters Windows laptop. I tried the solution suggested in https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/30149/how-do-you-get-a-printers-ip-in-lion but I only get: *dnssd://AL-CX11-08F61E._printer._tcp.local./auto*, and I cannot ping AL-CX11-08F61E._printer._tcp.local. because it does not resolve. Still, I can print. How do I get the actual IP address? Edit: why doesn't it resolve from the commandline, but still OSX can print?

I'm trying to set the timeout on my Brother laser printer so that it winds down a minute after printing and doesn't sit there and whine for 15. I know I can do this through its internal web page. But what is its address? I tried looking in the printers control panel and in the CUPS system, but in both cases, the "Location" is empty... which is weird. AirPort Utility can't be bothered to list IPs. Anyone know how to find it?

I'm considering buying the [Epson LQ-350 dot-matrix printer](https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Epson-LQ-350-Matrix-Printer-Needles/dp/B00AC3S0ES/ref=pb_allspark_dp_sims_pao_desktop_session_based_2/262-8602704-0911120?pd_rd_w=YyXxY&pf_rd_p=8d810135-3da6-4ad8-9713-67849c17dccd&pf_rd_r=7Q4YC776Q9QJ4T2XN01Z&pd_rd_r=6db62a0d-7cba-42b4-b5da-7cdaa460af25&pd_rd_wg=1Mcjn&pd_rd_i=B00AC3S0ES&psc=1) . I want to use it on my Mac in order to print 1. Latin text (ideally with [Umlauts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic))) , 2. Cyrillic (Russian) text, and 3. (optionally) graphics (such as PDF versions of HTML pages). Note: By "Latin text" and "Cyrillic text" I mean sending files to the printer in pure text mode which it would print using one of its built-in fonts. **Will I be able to do items 1, 2, and 3 above, if connect that printer to my Mac (running MacOS BigSur 11.2.3)?** My answer: I will be able to print Latin text, but without Umlauts. Printing German texts, as well as items 2 and 3 are not possible without writing my own driver. How I came to this conclusion: 1. Somewhere I read that Mac supports all the printers which support [CUPS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUPS) . 2. According to [openprinting.org](http://www.openprinting.org/printer/Epson/Epson-LQ-350) , > Printer supports direct text printing with the 'us-ascii' charset. However that openprinting.org page talks about using this printer on Linux, and not on Mac.

Reposted from [https://macosx.com/threads/foo2zjs-driver-for-hp-laserjet-1018.327123/ and https://askubuntu.com/questions/1345298/install-foo2zjs-driver-on-macos-x .] I have a friend who uses MacOS X 11.2 Big Sur and she would like to print to an HP LaserJet 1018. I use Ubuntu, and I just plugged in the printer to my spiffy System76 laptop's USB port, waited a few seconds, got a pop-up message the printer was installed, and printed my stuff. My System76 laptop uses the foo2zjs driver in CUPS for the printer, evidently, but I can't figure out how to download/compile/install that driver on her OS X laptop. The website http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/ appears to be permanently down, so I can't even download it from there. I installed HomeBrew and CakeBrew on her machine; a solution using CakeBrew would be just stellar. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

On one of our laptops, we had popups about printer settings update 200 times per day. It was getting really annoying and so without thinking about it enough, I've unload and remove cups service. sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cups.cupsd.plist sudo launchctl remove /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cups.cupsd.plist Popups are gone. But unfortunately, now we need Cups back and I can't figure out how to install it again. Could you explain the installation process for Cups? and launchdaemons maybe? Running any lpadmin command return lpadmin: Unable to connect to server: Bad file descriptor.

Where are CUPS backend scripts and filters stored on Mac OS X? On linux they are in /usr/lib/cups/backend, but I can't find them on Mac OS x

I have a macOS 10.13 machine that is being used only for remote work, and has no need for printers. Printer Sharing is definitely turned off in System Preferences, and yet, cupsd is listening to a port: # lsof -i :631 COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME cupsd 427 root 5u IPv6 0xbb661a1308e1d70b 0t0 TCP localhost:ipp (LISTEN) cupsd 427 root 6u IPv4 0xbb661a130bee2d13 0t0 TCP localhost:ipp (LISTEN) What is the appropriate way to turn off cupsd?

I am using Mojave, and I am able to add a printer using lpadmin. I can then print a test page to that printer using the CUPS web interface. Additionally, the printer is listed with lpstat -p. However, the printer does not appear in the Printers & Scanners preferences pane, so it is inaccessible from other applications. Here is the lpadmin command I am using: > lpadmin -p MyPrinter -E -v lptone:/path/to/file This printer is using a custom CUPS backend (lptone) that is a script that generates a file name using a UUID and then writes the printed content into that file, so the /path/to/file portion of the URI is ignored. I know this part works because I can print a test page to this printer from the CUPS web interface, and I get a file with the test page content generated at the path where the script is supposed to put it. I have tried doing lpadmin as myself and with sudo. If I first add the printer using the Printers & Scanners preferences pane (address=localhost:631, queue=printers/MyPrinter), then use lpadmin -p MyPrinter -v lptone:/path/to/file to adjust the output device (i.e., CUPS backend), the printer remains in the Printers & Scanners preferences pane, and I can print to it from other applications.