Can't add printer in Print Center

[thmoore]

After an OS X reinstall, I can't seem to add printers with Print Center -- it quits a few seconds after I hit the "Add Printer..." button. I whacked the prefs from the user/lib directory -- any other ideas? Very odd.... many thanks....

Tom Moore

[Thundarr]

thmoore, I had a very similar problem after a re-install of OSX. Every time I tried to add a printer, I would get some sort of error code -109 or something. One interesting feature I found with the problem was it was user specific. If I created another user, I had access to adding printers in that user. If I logged in as root, I also had access to adding printers. I spent two hours with Apple tech help and we could not figure out the problem. So, instead of doing a clean install. I created another user, transferred all my files over, except for select files in my preferences, and deleted the previous user. Since I was an admin, I went into NetInfo manager and carefully, very carefully, removed all traces of that user ID. This wasn't a very elegant solution, but it worked.

I don't know if you have the same problem, but if you do, you might try this. Does anyone have a better way?

[thmoore]

Thundarr, I had no luck with the alternate-user solution, but I have found a fix for the "can't add a printer" problem on Apple's discussion boards that others may find useful.

It looks like it's the most recent printer updates that are causing the problem. I went into library/printers/ and whacked everything but the PPD folders -- gone are the Canon folder, the Epson folder, the HP folder, etc.

Now it works just fine. Good thing I don't own a Canon, HP or Epson!

Thundarr, many thanks for your efforts to resolve my very irritating problem. I hope I can be of similar service to you at some point.

Tom Moore

[mpilchuk]

Tom Moore,

Thanks, I've been having a problem with my system. I just reinstalled OX 10.1 and had zero printers in the print center. Every time I tried to print I would be told that there were no printers. When I was asked if I wanted to add one, I would get the above error. I trashed what you mentioned to trash and it ran fine.

Thanks.

Mitch
:D

[Phil St. Romain]

I'm glad to hear this worked, but what I'm wondering what people with HP, Epson, or Canon printers are supposed to do? Maybe the problem doesn't occur for them?

[thmoore]

I should note that I didn't eliminate the printers one by one -- I whacked the entire list at once. So not all owners of HP, Epson, and Canon printers are out of luck -- probably just the owners of one of those brands.

One thing to keep in mind with all this is that Software Update started bugging me to update my HP, Epson, or Canon drivers, since they're gone -- I had to make those updates "inactive" to get it to quit hassling me.

[mikerose]

Hi all --

I had the same problem (Print Center quits unexpectedly when trying to add a printer) after trying to reinstall the Canon S800 drivers under 10.1.2. Deleting the printer folders in Library as above cleared up the problem. However, I still could not install the Software Update version of the driver (pulled from the Receipts folder), and SU did not offer to re-download it. The installer log noted that the install failed on

"Failed to write location '/' to /tmp/.PrintingCanon.pkg.793.upgrade/Receipts/PrintingCanon.pkg/Contents/Resources/PrintingCanon.loc"

I rm'ed the temporary folder for the install and tried again, but no luck. Fortunately I was able to reinstall Canon's version of the driver (meant for 10.1) and it seems to be working OK now.

It would be great if Apple could post a KB article on dealing with Print Center mysteries... I will call them tomorrow and see if I can put a word in for it.

--M.

[TommyWillB]

Originally posted by Phil St. Romain
I'm glad to hear this worked, but what I'm wondering what people with HP, Epson, or Canon printers are supposed to do? Maybe the problem doesn't occur for them? I have an Epson 900N... It stopped working all together after the upgraded to 10.1.3.

Now when I try to re-add the printer (which you have to do from a weird Epson AppleTalk option) nothing shows up. This is looking for an AppleTalk connection. The TCP/Ip connection is alive and well because I can see it's admin page and print from my PeeCee, but it never shows up to in here...

So I've been unable to re-add this printer... (I'm a bit afraid to delete the things mentioned...)

The Epson Web site does not say anything about versions of OS X later than 10.1.0... Unfortunately the only was to contact them is by snail mail, so I just dropped a letter in the mailbox today.

[mpilchuk]

Well, you could try to move the items to another place (if permissions will let you) that would accomplish the same thing. I found that after I deleted them reinstalled the printer, I could put them back and it worked.

Mitch