HP Officejet Pro 8500A Cannot scan anymore on buying Mac

[Karlos444]

I had no issues using the printer or scanner on the HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus when I had my old Windows 7 laptop. There was HP software installed from a CD that allowed me to open the HP app and adjust settings for scans, save multiple scans to a single PDF etc.. 

Since switching to a new Mac OSX desktop computer, I cannot install anything from the old CD's since my Mac has no CD/DVD drive. The only HP app on my Mac now is HP ePrint, and that doesn't seem to offer anything to scan with. 

The other option left to me is to connect the Mac to the Printer by USB, and choose:

Scan > Computer > iMac > Save As Jpeg.

But I get the following error message:

"Connection Error

The connection to the computer has been lost or The HP scan application cannot detect the OCR software. Check the computer screen for more details."

What do I need to install, or fix to get the scanner to work on my Mac please?

[IronBadger]

The software for your printer is provided by Apple Software Update.

The OS should automatically download and install the appropriate drivers for teh 8500a.

If this is not occurring you may need to manually download them here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL907?locale=en_US

Once installed you would use Apple's Image Capture Application to scan to the Mac.

[Lucid_Solution · Accepted solution]

Hi Karlos444,

Disconnect the printer and reset the printing system:

Next, make sure your printer is connected to the wireless network using the Wireless Network Wizard from the printer's control panel or connect the USB cable.

Add your printer from Printers & Scanners:

Try scanning using preview:

[ReverseTalk]

Hi Karlos,

Your printer should still work with the Mavericks OS, although HP does not offer a full feature software package. Here are the steps to properly set up your printer to work with Mavericks: 

Installing a Mac Printer Driver Using Apple Software Update

According to Apple (who supplies the driver package for your printer and OS combination), your printer installation should include the scanning capabilities. 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you successfully added the new printer queue and you still cannot scan, confirm that a scan driver is available for your printer, then try manually installing the driver.

 NOTE:

Depending on your printer and the installed driver, the scan button on the printer control panel might not function. This does not mean your printer is unable to scan. Try one of the methods in this document to start and complete scans from the computer.

For a complete list of HP printers that have drivers available through Apple Software Update, go to Printer and scanner software available for download for OS X Lion or later (in English).

If your printer has a scan driver, go to HP Printer Drivers for OS X Lion or later (in English) to download the driver from the Apple website, then try to scan.

[Karlos444]

Thanks Iron Badger, I got the scanner working again after uninstalling and reinstalling the printer, then manually installing the HP drivers in the link you gave me. I wasn't aware that Image Capture was the scanning app on a Mac, so thanks for pointing me to it.

[Karlos444]

Thanks Lucid Solution, the videos were especially helpful in guiding me through the procedure on the Mac OS, and although it was for the newer El Capitan, the steps were the same on my Mavericks OS. Still getting used to it after using Windows so so long. The option to scan using the preview app in system preferences was new to me. I didn't know it was an op[tion, I assumed you had to find the HP software to scan in Applications. Thanks for all your help! 🙂

[Karlos444]

Thanks ReverseTalk, the scan button on the printer panel works now, as does the Image Capture app, and the Preview app in system preferences after I manually reinstalled the drivers, and removed then added the printer back again. 

Thank you for all your help! 🙂