Wireless Printer won't connect to iMac

[rainbowcat]

Have a new Brother wireless print/scan/copy, which works great with my MBA, and refuses to cooperate with my iMac. Whenever I try to print it tells me the printer is offline, although it isn't. I've removed and added the printer twice, to no avail. What am I missing here please.

 

[chscag]

Did you install the correct Brother driver for the iMac? (It would help if you told us which iMac you have and what version of macOS it's running?)

 

[rainbowcat]

Did you install the correct Brother driver for the iMac? (It would help if you told us which iMac you have and what version of macOS it's running?)

Running El Cap, 27"inch iMac from 2011. I didn't need drivers for the MBA, and the iMac has always been plug and play with printers. I will check on drivers - thanks.

Just installed the drivers and it works properly. Who knew ya needed drivers for an iMac! That was a first! Thank you for your time and help.

 

[Slydude]

I am currently using a Brother printer with an iMac running Sierra with no issues. I have it installed on a MacBook Pro running El Capitan as well. Pretty sure it works but haven't printed from it in a while. Try going to the System Preferences Printer and Scanner preference pane. Add the printer from there and see if it works.

 

[chscag]

Just installed the drivers and it works properly. Who knew ya needed drivers for an iMac! That was a first! Thank you for your time and help.

Glad to hear that. By the way, I like Brother printers because they usually work real well with Macs. When my HP LaserJet gives up the ghost, I'm going to replace it with a Brother Laser.

 

[Slydude]

If this is a Brother model that has a built in scanner the scanner can also show up for the Mac as well. Once added it shows in Image Capture though I have not tried scanning with it recently. If it does not work with Image Capture probably have some basic software on their site. They have it for some of their models. .

 

[pm-r]

Running El Cap, 27"inch iMac from 2011. I didn't need drivers for the MBA, and the iMac has always been plug and play with printers. I will check on drivers - thanks.

Just installed the drivers and it works properly. Who knew ya needed drivers for an iMac! That was a first! Thank you for your time and help.

FWIW: A while ago (year or more so), I was trying to find out some info about wi-fi and airprint with some AIO printers and I was rather surprised to read that they said the mobile Mac iDevices didn't need "drivers" as the wi-fi printers already had everything they needed software wise.

I never really did figure out how it all worked, but the setup on a Mac can be quite different for wireless printing/scanning it seems, and as you discovered.

Bottom line is you gotta do what you gotta do to get things working.




- Patrick
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[Slydude]

FWIW: A while ago (year or more so), I was trying to find out some info about wi-fi and airprint with some AIO printers and I was rather surprised to read that they said the mobile Mac iDevices didn't need "drivers" as the wi-fi printers already had everything they needed software wise.



- Patrick
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I'm not sure I'd go quite that far with things. Our older Canon Ail In One needed a driver to work with the Macs (notebook or desktop). Though for some model printers the basic driver might be included as part of OS X. Printing to that printer from IOS devices required third-party software such as Printopia. See this Macworld article.

Our newer Brother printer needs a driver for the Mac though I think it is part of OS X. Our IOS devices see the printer with no additional software as long as they pare on the same network as the printer.

 

[pm-r]

Though for some model printers the basic driver might be included as part of OS X. Printing to that printer from IOS devices required third-party software such as Printopia. See this Macworld article.

But Sly, all that was needed before proper wireless and Airprint was available which many or most printers seem to include these days. And BTY, we used handyPrint which was free and worked better than the often recommended Printopia.

When we got our first true Mac/iDevice wireless AIO printer (Canon Pixma MG5620), I did NOT follow Apple's suggested setup recommendations that many seemed to have trouble with, but used Canon's browser setup method. No wires (USB etc) were ever connected and I don't recall going near the iMac's System prefs Printers& Scanners pref pane but was able to print from an iPad 2, iPhone 4 and all our Macs.

Two or three days later, Apple said there was a Canon printer Update for the iMacs which I installed. Bad move. It really messed up most printing and the utilities.
I ended up having to remove most of it and replace it all from a backup. A real time wasting PITA.
A later recent (2017 Canon Printer Update) behaved much better.

All printing from all our iDevices kept on working without any printer updates that I noticed.

Anyway, I just did a similar setup with a replacement Canon Pixma MX922 AIO we just recently got for a really good sale price, plus it uses the same ink cartridges of which I had multiple new sets on hand.

Anyway, it does seem that different manufacturers support different wireless methods and setups and maybe what used to be called "printer drivers" should now be called "printer communication packages".

Sort of like many still call their cable router a MODEM!! Different technology and software to do basically the same thing — Communicate.


BTW: I noticed that if I use the Printer & Scanner System Prefs to setup the Canon wireless AIO, if I use the suggested Apple "Bonjour Multifunction" method, we only get the option to print in the Print window.
If I use the "Canon IJ Network" setup option, we end up with a print/scan and utility options in the Print Window on our Macs. Waaaay better and more useful.




- Patrick
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[Slydude]

That's kinda my point. The Canon printer I was using pre-dated wireless printing from IOS devices. Wireless printing from Macs or IOS devices was a pain to set up and keep functional. I don't think I had to do anything with the current Brother model I'm using. But we are still at a point where some models, especially older ones, need the drivers or some other software for full functionality.

The Canon models are a good example of what I mean. My previous printer was a Canon Pixma MP 980 or 990, Without that network utility wireless printing was almost useless. I think that is part if the reason that Apple's update breaks things for some Canon users though I never had that problem.

 

[chscag]

The Canon models are a good example of what I mean. My previous printer was a Canon Pixma MP 980 or 990, Without that network utility wireless printing was almost useless. I think that is part if the reason that Apple's update breaks things for some Canon users though I never had that problem.

I'm not a lover of anything Canon to begin with, but your points are well taken. I did manage to get wireless printing going again from iOS devices with the latest version of Printopia. Much to their credit, they provided me with a free update. I originally purchased Printopia back in 2011 and had it working for awhile. OS X updates eventually broke it but the latest version does work.

 

[Slydude]

Glad to hear you got things working again. I was glad to know about Printopia at the time even though I wasn't using it. Over the years I've rarely needed to print something from my IOS device that I couldn't print just as easily from my Mac. I probably should have ditched the Canon long before I did. Toward the end of its life I had a great deal of difficulty maintaining the wireless network connection even with use of the Canon network utility.