Why did I have to install software after three years?

[latentforce]

Greetings 🙂

I've had my HP Envy 7130 printer for about three years or so. It's great.

During all that time, I have printed hundreds of sheets (I'm on Instant Ink which is also great) and scanned many photos.

Sometimes I scan using the "Image Capture" app on my Mac but very often I scan from the printer itself and send it as a PDF or JPEG to my computer.

Today.

Out of the Blue.

For no reason that I can see.

It tells me to install software in order to scan.

So I've spent the last 20 minutes with the software downloading and installing. I haven't tried it yet.

What was that all about?????

To say I'm not amused is an understatement.

Imagine if my car refused to start until new software was installed. Imagine if it was an emergency trip.

It's just not acceptable.

Any ideas anyone?

[Valsimot]

Maybe you had a software system upgrade on your computer that interfered with previously working software.

[latentforce]

Hello Valsimot,

Thanks for your reply. I think you are probably right and that it was a software upgrade issue. What I find annoying is this:-

1. I upgraded to Catalina a few months ago and the printer has been fine, printing and scanning OK.

2. Perhaps a Catalina update triggered the need to download new software?

3. If so, why didn't the printer message say that? It announced that I needed to download software in order to scan - which I had done years ago.

Why don't software engineers understand their products from the user's point of view?

I think this is an example of what they call "crap coding".

It makes users' lives difficult.

Incidentally, after all the downloading and installing, the printer is now printing and scanning again, so there is a happy ending.

Thanks again for your reply.

Brian