Mac HP Deskjet F4280 driver no longer works

[Jazzman_1]

Hello,

Like most of you, I have been experiencing printing and scanner problems since Friday Oct 23, 2020.  Thanks to the information provided by BryanCustomPure , I was able to get the scanner working, but the printer is still not working.  It is generating the error message "Waiting for printer to become available".  However, I can use the Printer Utility to print out the printer configuration from the Device Information tab.  However, if I attempt to print a TEST page from the Printer Utility, that doesn't work.  A popup appears with the message "Transferring File" when using the TEST function, but nothing is printed.  I know the printer works because I connected an old Laptop with MacOS Capitan on it and was able to print without any problems.

When the file to be printed enters the printer queue, the status on the printer queue changes to "Connecting to device".  The job itself indicates "Printing - Printing page 1 22% complete" before it changes to "Printing - Waiting for printer to become available"

I've removed the /Library/Printers/hp folder several times and reinstalled the hp-printer-essentials-S-5_14_8_4.pkg that Bryan recommended multiple times following Bryan's instructions but the printer still doesn't work.  I even tried loading the 5.1 driver from the Apple site after loading the hp-printer-essentials package and restarting the Mac.  No change, i.e. when printing, the printer queue would indicate "Connecting to Printer" and job itself would "Waiting for printer to become available".

Any help would be appreciated.

[BryanCustomPure]

Have you already uninstalled your printer using the Printers & Scanners menu in system preferences? 

[Jazzman_1]

Yes, several times.

FWIW, the current installation status is the hp-printer-essentials package followed by the 5.1 driver from the Apple site.  Initially, after doing this, nothing was working correctly, i.e. the scanner stopped working and the printer wouldn't do anything from the Printer Utility nor normal printing.  I then deleted the printer from the Printer and Scanners menu, restarted the Mac, and reinstalled the printer from the Printer and Scanners menu.  After this, the scanner was working again, as did the Printer Utility printing of the configuration, but normal printing was not working, i.e. the "Waiting for printer to become available" message on the printer queue anytime I attempted to print a file.

FWIW, I also noticed that when I bring up the print queue initially, the message "Connecting to Device" appears in the window above where the current print job would be.  This message eventually clears out, but returns whenever anything enters the print queue.

[BryanCustomPure]

Have you already tried Easy Start? 

After which step did you last restart your computer? 

Have you unplugged the printer and plugged it back in? 

I would try this next: uninstall printer. Restart. Install pkg. Restart. Install printer--are there specific drivers listed on HP site for your printer? 

[Jazzman_1]

> Have you already tried Easy Start? 

I tried it but it pointed me to www.hp.com/support for software.  BTW, the option to Uninstall HP software is greyed out in the Easy Start menu.

> After which step did you last restart your computer? 

After loading the hp-printer-essentials package and loading the 5.1 driver from the apple site

> Have you unplugged the printer and plugged it back in?

Yes, many times.

> I would try this next: uninstall printer. Restart. Install pkg. Restart. Install printer--are there specific drivers listed on HP site for your printer? 

There are no specific drivers listed on the HP site for my printer, just the 5.1 driver.  I'll report back after reinstalling the pkg.  I'll remove /Library/Printers/hp folder, which I have done before, to get a "clean" install.

Thanks for your help.

[amac23]

I was having this same problem (I had downloaded Bryan's suggestion and was still getting the connection errors you have reported). Then I went to System Preferences > Printers and Scanners and clicked the plus button and there were actually two different options for the printer, plus two others for the Fax, and another one with an extra ID at the end in brackets. The one I kept trying was listed with HP at the front "HP Officejet J4680 series", and I was getting the exact errors you were getting. When I tried the other that said the same but without HP in the front - "Officejet J4680 Series" and under the Kind column it says "Bonjour Multifunction" - when I added that one and printed to that, it worked! So I removed the other one and now it is working. Just thought I'd share in case that helps you or someone else.

[Jazzman_1 · Accepted solution]

After reading an update to this article on "https://eclecticlight.co/2020/10/23/why-have-my-hp-printers-stopped-working-how-to-check-their-softw... which stated:

Update: The previously revoked signature has now been unrevoked, as of the night of 24-25 October. Thanks to Mr Macintosh for spotting this. Your old HP printer software should now work correctly again. (0750 UTC 25 October 2020)

I decided to restore the driver from my Time Machine Backup, which ended up working perfectly.  The steps I did were:

1. Delete the printer from the printer list in System Preference->Printers and Scanners.  Turn off printer.

2. Run HP Uninstaller (I couldn't run it from Easy Start as it greyed out.  However I did a search on my harddrive and found that it's actually a separate application.

5. In the Finder Menu  Go->Go to Folder->/Library/Printers

4. Move the hp folder to the trash

5. Empty Trash

6. From the Time Machine Icon->Enter Time Machine, it automatically goes to all time machine entries for /Library/Printers since the finder was already there

7. Scroll down to the date the last time before Oct 23, 2020 the printer was used.

8. Select the hp folder in the Time Machine archive

9. Select restore.  The hp folder gets copied into the current /Library/Printer folder

10. Reboot the Mac and turn on printer.

11. Once rebooted, System Preferences->Printer and Scanners, Add printer.

12. Select printer.  In my case, there was only one choice.

13. A message popped up about Apple having the printer software and downloading it, but time involved was so short that it couldn't have been downloading the driver.  It was probably downloading a signature instead.

14. Once the printer is installed, test it out.  In my case, everything just worked.

Thanks to all who have helped with this, especially BryanCustomPure.  Even though your solution didn't work for me, it at least showed me there was a possible solution.