Color Laser MFP 179fnw – intermittent "URF Decoding Fail" (Error 11-1114) when printing from macOS v

[troicus]

Hi all,

my HP Color Laser MFP 179fnw intermittently prints pages of random symbols (garbage) instead of the document when printing from a Mac via AirPrint. Roughly 1 in 3 jobs fails. Once the printer produced this error page:

URF ERROR – [URF] Decoding Fail
POSITION: 0x20402c (2113580)
SYSTEM: emul/URF/URF_dec
LINE: 356
VERSION: V11.73_190212
ERROR CODE: 11-1114

Printer / firmware:
- System firmware: V3.82.01.23 (20250226)
- Engine firmware: V1.00.14 (2019-03-04)
- SPL version: V11.73_190212
- Client: MacBook Pro, current macOS, AirPrint driver

What I have ruled out:
- Driver: happens with the AirPrint driver (no generic PostScript queue)
- Application: happens from both Adobe Acrobat Reader and Preview
- Transport: happens over IPPS, plain IPP and raw port 9100; a packet capture shows no connection drops during the data transfer
- Data size: also happens in grayscale mode

Workaround: if I render the same PDF to JPEG on the Mac and send the JPEG, it prints reliably every time. Printing from an iPhone also works. So the problem seems to be in the printer's URF decoder.

Questions:
1. Is error 11-1114 / URF Decoding Fail a known issue on the 178/179 series?
2. Is there a firmware that updates the URF emulation module (currently V11.73_190212)?
3. Any setting on the printer that affects URF handling?

Thanks!

[Kuroi_Kenshi]

Hi @troicus,

Welcome to the HP Support Community!

Thank you for providing such detailed troubleshooting results, including the firmware versions, error code, and tests across different applications and connection methods.

Since the issue occurs intermittently when printing through AirPrint from your Mac, while printing JPEG files and printing from your iPhone work reliably, your findings are helpful in narrowing down where the issue may lie. However, we cannot confirm from these symptoms alone whether error 11-1114 (URF Decoding Fail) is a known firmware issue or whether a specific firmware update is available to address it.

To help narrow this down further, could you please confirm:

Which exact macOS version are you running?

Does the issue occur with multiple PDF files, or only with particular documents?

Have you checked the official HP support page for the Color Laser MFP 179fnw for firmware updates applicable to your printer?

Thank you for sharing your findings with the community. 

Best regards,
Kuroi_Kenshi

[troicus]

Hi Kuroi_Kenshi,

thanks for the quick reply.

1. macOS version: Tahoe 26.6.2 (MacBook Pro M5). The same error also occurs on other Macs, so it does not seem to be tied to one machine's configuration.
2. PDFs: The error occurs with many different PDFs, not with specific documents. The deciding factor is color: every PDF fails when printed in color via AirPrint from macOS (URF Decoding Fail, 11-1114), while the same PDFs print fine in black & white/grayscale. JPEGs in color also print fine, and printing from an iPhone via AirPrint works reliably, so the printer can decode URF in general.
3. Firmware: support.hp.com offers no standalone macOS driver for the 179fnw (checked for macOS 15 and 26), only the HP app from the Mac App Store. I could not find a firmware download there either. Is there a firmware version newer than the one I reported?

Additional finding: even with the HP app installed, macOS listed the printer as "HP Color Laser MFP 179fnw-AirPrint" (driver version 4.0), so printing still goes through AirPrint/URF. Since only color PDF jobs from macOS fail, on several Macs, while iOS works, this looks like an incompatibility between the color URF stream macOS generates and the printer's decoder. Is there a way to get the native HP driver on current macOS, or is URF the only supported path?

Best regards

[troicus]

Further testing on my HP Color Laser MFP 179fnw:

• Colour PDFs fail from macOS Tahoe 26.6.2 (MacBook Pro M5) and from other Macs via AirPrint. Black-and-white PDFs, JPEG files and printing from an iPhone work.
• The printer prints an error page: “[PCLm] Decoding Fail”, SYSTEM emul/PCLm/PCLm, POSITION 0x6000 (24576), LINE 1515, VERSION V11.73_190212, ERROR CODE 11-1114. With AirPrint/URF I get the same error code (“URF Decoding Fail”).
• To rule out macOS, I rendered a colour test page to PCLm (300 dpi, A4) with Ghostscript on a Linux machine and sent it directly with ipptool -tv -f farbtest.pclm -d filetype=application/PCLm ipp://<printer>/ipp/print print-job.test. The result is the same error, so the problem is reproducible without any Apple software.
• Firmware (from the EWS): System V3.82.01.23 (20250226), SPL V11.73_190212, Engine V1.00.14. The version in the error page is identical to the SPL version, so the decoders for URF and PCLm appear to live in that module.
• document-format-supported lists octet-stream, x-COLOR-GDI, image/jpeg, image/urf and application/PCLm.
• HP offers no macOS driver and no downloadable firmware for this model on support.hp.com, only the AirPrint driver (4.0).

Questions: Does anyone know if this started after a firmware update (February 2025)? Is there a way to roll back or fix the SPL module, or an HP driver for macOS that does not use URF?

[troicus]

Workaround: A CUPS server with the HP Unified Linux Driver (SPL, rastertospl) prints colour correctly, so the SPL path works while URF and PCLm fail.“

[Kuroi_Kenshi]

Hi @troicus,

Thank you for carrying out these additional tests and sharing the results. 

The Linux PCLm test is particularly helpful because it shows that the decoding failure is not limited to macOS or Apple's AirPrint implementation.

Based on your findings, color printing through the HP Unified Linux Driver (SPL/rastertospl) works, whereas colour jobs submitted using URF and PCLm result in error 11-1114. This helps narrow down the issue to the printer's handling of these input formats, although we cannot yet confirm whether this is caused by a firmware defect.

I'd like to clarify a few more points:

• Does the printer successfully print color documents through the HP Unified Linux Driver consistently, including multiple consecutive jobs?
• Have you noticed whether the issue occurs with both 300 dpi and 600 dpi PCLm files, or have you tested only 300 dpi?
• Does the error occur with a simple color test page as well as more complex documents?
• Have you checked the printer's Embedded Web Server (EWS) for any additional firmware information or update options?

I would not recommend attempting an unofficial firmware downgrade or manually replacing the printer's SPL module.

Your workaround using the HP Unified Linux Driver is a useful finding. Please share the additional details above so we can better understand the conditions under which the decoding failure occurs.

Best regards,
Kuroi_Kenshi