HP OfficeJet 3831 Mac Driver never installs - only "System activity in progress, please wait..."

[NoahG]

When I try to install the "HP Easy Start" on Mac OS X Mojave (10.14.6) on my Mac, it downloads all the drivers, and then waits forever to install with "System activity in progress, please wait..." for me like many others (see: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Software-and-Drivers/easy-start-quot-waiting-quot-in-Mac-OS-X/...).

This is with an OfficeJet 3831, in case it matters.

Several people have solved this by going into the System Preferences > Security panel and allowing any application to run unsigned - unfortunately, I'm using a company laptop without the driver preinstalled and it won't let me drop the security level to be utterly insecure. Note that the installer never says anything about this, it just sits forever. I can force-quit it, but of course it won't quit normally before the drivers install, which never happens.

I can set up Google Cloud Print, but not install drivers locally. Anybody have a solution or workaround? The printer arrived recently and I could still return it, so this seems like a good time to ask 🙂

[NoahG]

Hm. No, at some point it *did* successfully install, and now it no longer checks the install button for "Essential drivers". Weird. If I tell it to install the drivers it will still hang forever, but they still got installed (though not Easy Scan - it hung before installing that.)

But now I can install Easy Scan separately, and that doesn't seem to crash - Product Help installs afterward, and succeeds.

This may also help - it *is* possible to disable security on recent Mac OS, it's just a bad idea: http://osxdaily.com/2016/09/27/allow-apps-from-anywhere-macos-gatekeeper/

I've done that for some of these attempts and then reversed it -- and that may be required for Mac OS X Sierra and later.

I also have a somewhat dodgy Internet connection - it's a cellular modem, while we get real Internet set up in a new house. And so you may be able to do better if you can somehow get a better connection to install drivers (I can't.)