Cannot scan to MacBook Air

[6welwyn]

I have a HP B110 e-all-in-one printer about 2.1/2 year old. It works as a printer wirelessly with my MacBook Air laptop fine. However, I cannot get it to scan to my MacBook Air. The machine provides an overview of a document, but will not scan it to a folder on my MacBook. This has been a recurring problem! I do hope that I do not have to buy a new printer/scanner as otherwise my current printer works fine.

[Sunshyn2005 · Accepted solution]

Hi 6welwyn,

I understand you are able to print from your Mac but can not scan. Please complete the following steps and let me know the outcome.

Let's reset the printing system, repair disk permissions, re-add the printer using the right driver, and try to scan again.

Reset Printing System

1. Click the Apple icon (   ), and then click System Preferences.
2. In the Hardware section, click Print & Fax/Scan. The Print & Fax/Scan  dialog box opens.
3. Right-click (or  Ctrl  +click) in the left panel, and then click Reset printing system…
4. Click OK to confirm the reset.
5. Type the correct Name and Password.
6. Click OK to reset the printing system. The Print & Fax dialog box shows no printer selected

Note: This will remove all printers in the print and Fax/Scan, any printer removed can be re-added later by clicking the plus (+) symbol.

Repair Disk Permissions

1. On the Dock, click Applications, and then click Utilities.
2. Double-click Disk Utility.
3. Highlight your hard drive/partition on the left (by default this is "Macintosh HD").
4. Click the Repair Disk Permissions button at the bottom of the window.
5. Once the repair is complete, restart the computer and add the printer back.

   When you add the printer, please ensure you are using the HP driver, not the AirPrint driver.

   1. Select Add other Printer or Scanner                                                       
   2. Select the printer you are adding and next to 'Use' you can the printer driver 

   If the issue persists, please let me know which version of Mac you have. How Do I Find Which Mac OS X Version Is on My Computer?

[6welwyn]

Hi Sunshyn2005, I followed your instructions and they worked. I can now scan a document and save it to my MacBook Air. Many thanks for your advice.

[röbi]

The solution provided worked perfectly! But why did it go wrong after weeks of faultless operation?

[Sunshyn2005]

There was an update recently that might have caused the hiccup 🙂

Glad it is working again.

[flakside]

My MacBook Air will not scan from my HP B110a all-in-one printer even though I can print fine from it.  When I Try to open the scanner a msg appears stating "error occurred while communicating with scanner".  I have reset printing section, run repair disk permissions but still no go.  I am running Mac OS X Yosemite.

[Sunshyn2005]

Hi @flakside 

Where are you opening the scanner and seeing this message? if you are using HP Scan, the issue is with the software. There is no full feature software and driver for your printer that is compatible with Yosemite, thus if you have software installed from a previous OS X version it will not work and will cause errors such as the one you described.

If you are opening Print and Scan and trying to scan from there, the issue could be something else. Let's try the following steps; (I know you have done some of these steps already, but please try the following in order)

Unplug the printer USB cable

1. Unplug the USB cable
2. Restart the computer and the printer
3. Reconnect the Cable

Reset Printing System

1. Click the Apple icon (   ), and then click System Preferences.
2. In the Hardware section, click Print & Fax/Scan. The Print & Fax/Scan  dialog box opens.
3. Right-click (or  Ctrl  +click) in the left panel, and then click Reset printing system…
4. Click OK to confirm the reset.
5. Type the correct Name and Password.
6. Click OK to reset the printing system. The Print & Fax dialog box shows no printer selected

Note: This will remove all printers in the print and Fax/Scan, any printer removed can be re-added later by clicking the plus (+) symbol.

Repair Disk Permissions

1. On the Dock, click Applications, and then click Utilities.
2. Double-click Disk Utility.
3. Highlight your hard drive/partition on the left (by default this is "Macintosh HD").
4. Click the Repair Disk Permissions button at the bottom of the window.
5. Once the repair is complete, restart the computer and add the printer back.

   When you add the printer, please ensure you are using the HP driver.

   1. Select Add other Printer or Scanner                                                       
   2. Select the printer you are adding and next to 'Use' you can the printer driver 

Now scan using the Print and Scan Window

I hope this helps.

  - In support of Movember

[flakside]

Tried the above resetting again but no luck, same result.  For info I use a wifi connection not usb and I have tried using the scanner thru system preferences.

Your thoughts?

[Sunshyn2005]

Let's check your firewall settings @flakside ;

1. Click the Apple icon (), and then click System Preferences.
2. In the Personal section, click Security. The Security window opens.
3. Click the Firewall tab, and then click the Lock icon in the lower left corner of the window.
4. Type your name and password, and then click OK.
5. Click Start, if it is not already selected.
6. In the Security dialog box, click Advanced.
7. Make sure that the Block all incoming connections box is unchecked.

- Source

You might even consider turning off the firewall if it is on just for diagnostic purposes;

1. Click the Apple icon (), and then click System Preferences.
2. In the Personal section, click Security. The Security window opens.
3. Click the Firewall tab, and then click the Lock icon in the lower left corner of the window.
4. Type your name and password, and then click OK.
5. Click Stop, if it is not already selected.
6. Try scanning

Something else to try that would help determine the root cause is scanning through the Embedded Web Server;

1. Printing a Network Configuration Page < this document will show you how
2. Locate the IP address and open Safari
3. In the URL/ Address bar, type in the IP address (example 192.168.1.22)
4. The Embedded Web Server may look similar to the image above, look for WebScan

If you can scan through the Embedded Web Server, we will know the issue is not the network. If this is the case, the issue must have something to do with the Mac OS X. If you can not scan this way, then we can keep our focus on the network.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

[flakside]

Hi there,

Tried all of your sugestions to no avail.  Even tried with the firewall off - nothing.  When I tried thru the embedded web server using webscan all the indications were that it had completed the scan, showed me the preview but there was nothing to download to my macbook.  Maybe I just need to buy a new printer, this is 3 yrs old??

flakside