Apple Mac operating Yosemite suddenly unable to communicate with printer

[PieandPudsmum]

On the Apple mac itself (which is running OS X Yosemite version 10.10.5)

When visiting > Printers and Scanners 

Default printer (Last printer used selected)

Clicking on the + plus to add a printer

Nearby printers Printer MFP M281fdw is shown

When it shows a progress bar to say it is setting up the printer, configuring the device, it then displays the error. 

Alert Unable to communicate with the printer at this time

HP  Easy start - unable to communicate with the device

To connect the device, complete the following steps. After you complete each step, click Try Again’.

Turn the device off, and turn it on again. 

However it is printing fine wirelessly with another computer

Firmware Updater: When double clicking on this file

M280 Series FW Update-20201021 DMG file cannot be installed 

• Device discovery -shows the device name and the connection Bonjour and details 192.168.1.249

Selecting the device name and the continue button - just shows a rotating swirl of inaction

It never gets to • Update information 

Does anyone have any ideas please? 

[Jay_G24]

Hi @PieandPudsmum,

I'd like to help!

I understand that you are unable to communicate to your printer from your mac os.

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.

Perform a ping test to check the connectivity

1.        Obtain the IP address of the printer by clicking on the Wireless icon on the printer

2.        On the MAC Go to Spotlight > search for Network utility > select Ping tab > enter the IP address of the printer in the box

3.        Check the second box that says Send only > 10 pings

4.        Click on ping > Check the results at the end if any packets are lost

5.        Note: There should be 0% packet loss, share the results in your next post.

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. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

And, Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

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

[PieandPudsmum]

Hello and thanks for replying, 

I'm afraid I didn't really understand many of the technical details that you supplied. I printed out a wireless network test report and it passed all the diagnostics but the Mac Laptop (This time using MacOS Big Sur 11.4 is unable to print a test page. It just displays printing- looking for printer. I've deleted the printer off my older MacBook Pro as that seemed to fix it temporarily but unfortunately the + button to re add it doesn't find the printer. Location of items i.e. router and printer and laptop are not being physically barred as they are all within less than a metre of each other. Have you got any ideas? I didn't know how to perform a ping test despite  reading your advice on how to do it - sorry. 

[PieandPudsmum]

 In other news - the printer suddenly started working again but I don't trust it to continue. I couldn't do a ping test as I'm terrified of using Terminal. If it started working though there can't be too much wrong. This was the connection from my newer Mac book. 

[Jay_G24]

I am glad the issue is resolved.

If the issue occurs again, restart the printer, computer, and router.

1. Turn the printer off, and then wait 10 seconds.
2. Disconnect the printer power cord from the printer.
3. Turn off the computer or the device you are trying to print from.
4. Connect the printer power cord to the printer, and then turn on the printer.
5. Disconnect the power cord from your wireless router, and then wait 10 seconds.
6. Reconnect the power cord to the router. Wait until Internet service is restored. Internet service is interrupted while the router is off.
7. Turn on the computer.

Is there anything else I can help you out with?

Let me know!