HP Photosmart C309g printer drivers compatible with MacBook Pro M4 OS 15 Sequoia

[ama5369]

An older HP Photosmart C309g printer is owned and works perfect with a Dell Windows 10 machine and a MacBook Pro mid-12 with OS10 Catilina. A MacBook Pro M4 with M4 Pro Chip was recently purchased (Mac OS 15 Sequioa). The MBP recognizes the printer on the home local wireless network and It was added to the M4 printer list. Documents/files can be sent to it, but all/everything [text, images, photo pictures] is printed in black and white ONLY... NO COLOR. I suspect there is a lack of adequate drivers. This occurs on the MacBook Pro M4. I do not know if the same issue would exist on a Windows 11 machine. HP Smart for Mac was downloaded and installed on the M4 machine from the Apple App store. From within HP Smart color photos can be printed, but only if selected from the app Documents category. For some reason the Photo category selection does not work correctly. Confusing. Bottom line; does anyone have any knowledge of a full complete driver source (on line or CD) for the HP C309g that is compatible with Mac OS15 Sequioa? 

[VikramTheGreat]

Hi @ama5369,

Welcome to the HP Support Community.
 

Thank you for posting your query. I will be glad to help you.

I understand how frustrating it must be that your HP Photosmart C309g is working perfectly with older systems, but on your new MacBook Pro M4 running macOS 15 Sequoia, you can only get black-and-white printing in most cases, and the HP Smart app’s behavior isn’t consistent.

Unfortunately, for older printers like the Photosmart C309g, HP no longer develops or publishes full-feature drivers for the latest macOS versions. Apple removed HP’s older driver packages from their distribution system several years ago, and HP’s current driver support for macOS focuses on AirPrint or HP Smart compatibility.

Options to regain color printing

1. Force macOS to use HP’s legacy driver (if available in Software Update)
   • Go to System Settings → Printers & Scanners.
   • Select your C309g printer → click Remove Printer.
   • Click Add Printer again, select your C309g from the network list.
   • In the “Use” or “Kind” dropdown, see if you can select HP Photosmart C309g Series instead of “AirPrint.”
   • If available, macOS will download the legacy driver from Apple’s servers.
      
2. Use a CUPS web interface to enable color
   • Open Safari and go to: http://localhost:631
   • Enable the CUPS web interface if prompted.
   • From here, you can adjust the printer’s PPD settings to make sure color mode is enabled.
      
3. HP Smart (with workaround)
   • Continue using HP Smart for photo printing and certain color documents.
   • For general documents from other apps, try Export as PDF → open in HP Smart → print in color.

I hope this helps.

Take care and have an amazing day!
 

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Regards,

VikramTheGreat