HP Office Jet Pro 8740 not connecting to my Mac

[VPath]

My Mac used to automatically connect to my HP 8740 printer, but it has recently stopped.  It may be after I switched to macOS Catalina?  I have updated all my software.  The printer works fine using a USB or even directly AirPrint from my phone. When I try and print from my Mac I get two choices for the 8740.  The printer options for HP 8740 show either a green dot with Idle, last Used or the other one with a yellow dot shows in use.  I've tried using the HPSmart App but that just freezes.  I'm not sure how to best connect. Thanks for your help. 

[asmita6658 · Accepted solution]

Hi @VPath

Welcome to the HP Support Community. I'd be happy to assist you with the printing issue. 

Let's try the below steps to see if that helps -

1.) Remove All Barriers: Certain building materials can get in the way of weaker signals like Bluetooth. Metal, bulletproof glass, concrete, and plaster are particularly bad, and marble, plaster and brick aren’t great easy. So if you’re really struggling with interference, your first step should be to move your Bluetooth devices away from these materials. That means no brick walls between you and your devices, and definitely no metal desks!

2.) Change Router Channel: If you have an Apple router and you’re constantly getting interference with your WiFi, try rebooting it. Upon restart, the station will search for a new channel. Specifically, a different channel than the one your Bluetooth devices is using to communicate. If you don’t have an Apple router, you may need to instead go into your router settings and try changing the channel manually. Experiment with different channels to see which one works best.

3.) Move Closer to Your Router: If you often find that you’re getting interference when talking on a wireless headset while on a WiFi call (you’ll know because you’ll hear static), try moving closer to your router. This will give you a more robust WiFi connection, so the Bluetooth frequency can’t overpower it.

4.) Get Away From Microwaves and Fluorescent Lighting: Both emit frequencies of 2.4GHz, and moving away from them will distance you from the source.

I'd like to know the following to isolate the issue further-

1.) Are the printer and Mac connected to the same network?

2.) Is your router dual-band enabled i.e., both 2.4GHz and 5GHz? If yes, make sure the dual band has different SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G networks.

3.) What is the distance between the router and the printer?

4.) Is there an antivirus software installed on your Mac?

5.) Could you perform a ping test using the Mac Network Utility and let me know the results? Use the printer IP address to perform a ping test, the printer IP can be located by selecting the wireless icon on the printer display.

The wireless status menu on your Mac should also give us quite a lot of information that would help us identify the issue. You can press and hold option-click the WiFi icon and then use shift-command-5 to take the screenshot. Press the space bar when the icon turns into a camera. Share the ping test results and the screenshot with us.

Also, check with your Internet service provider if your router is able to forward 'Bonjour packets'.  Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records. The software comes built-in with Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems. 

Try rebooting the devices - 

1) Turn off the Router, Printer, and the Mac.

2) Wait for 60 seconds.

3) Turn on the Router first and wait for all the lights to stabilize.

4) Turn on the printer and allow it to configure itself.

5) Turn on the Mac. 

Update the Mac using these steps - How to update the software on your Mac

Also, try updating the printer's firmware - HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware 

To remove duplicate printer entries, try these steps -

1.) Search the Mac for Print, and then click Print & Fax, Print & Scan, or Printers & Scanners in the list of results.

2.) Find the printer names that match your printer from the list of devices.

3.) If you see multiple printer queues for the same printer, remove all extra printers by selecting them one at a time, and then clicking the minus button  at the bottom of the list. Leave one 'idle' printer in the list that matches your printer if available and use this printer as the Default printer.

4.) Try printing again. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

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Have a great day!