Mac cannot connect to printer

[BelleCBelle]

Suddenly I am unable to print from my MacBook Pro to the printer. Nothing regarding my computer or printer or router are any different from the last time I printed yesterday. I have tried the following to correct the problem:

1. Turned off, unplugged, and plugged in/turned printer back on.

2. Powered down my Mac and brought it back up - at the same time I turned off/on the printer.

3. Turned off & unplugged the router. When wifi was back, problem persisted, so I turned off the printer & computer again. 

4. Removed the printer from my Mac - under system preferences. Problem persisted, so I turned off the printer & computer again.

5. Removed the printer driver, downloaded and reinstalled printer. Problem persisted, so I turned off the printer & computer again.

6. The Easy Install app does NOT locate my printer, and stops there.

7. My printer DOES show under "system preferences," and the printer shows as IDLE with a green dot. But when I try to print something, the printer becomes  "unable to connect."

I have talked to Apple at length and their take is that the problem is with the printer - driver, perhaps.

The router is fine.

My friend who has a Windows computer CAN print wirelessly. I had him remove the driver from his computer, and problem persists.

I uninstalled and reinstalled my virus protection and VPN, just on the off chance they were the problem.

I'm stuck. Help! It has to be in the hp software, right? The driver? 

[TEJ1602 · Accepted solution]

@BelleCBelle, Welcome to HP Support Community!

To be able to assist you better, I would like to know the following:

• Are the printer and PC connected to the same network?
• Is your router dual-band enabled i.e., both 2.4GHz and 5GHz?
• What is the distance between the router and the printer?
• Is there any antivirus software installed on your computer?
• 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.

Keep me posted for further assistance.

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

[BelleCBelle]

Hi - thanks for your reply. The printer was not connected to the same IP address as was shown on the MacBook Pro, Mojave software, in the network preferences. That has been corrected. My problem now is I have to sign out of my VPN whenever I need to print. The VPN wasn't formerly an issue. Possibly the VPN provider changed something on their end. I'm trying to get help from their end. But at least I can print. 

[TEJ1602]

@BelleCBelle

That's great! Happy to hear that.  

If you need further assistance feel free to reach out to us.  

Have a great day ahead!