Macbooks won't stay connected/print to my HP Envy 5052

[Neve_Snaps]

I've got four laptops at home (2 MacBook Pros, 1 MacBook Air and 1 Lenovo X1 Thinkpad) that are all connected the same 5Ghz WIFI network.  They have all been able to connect to and print from my HP Envy 5052 wireless printer just fine.  However, as of 6-8 weeks ago, something happened/changed (don't know what) and now all 3 of my MacBooks are having problems maintaining connections to the printer and can't print.  Rebooting laptops and printer don't resolve the issue.  This is not a WIFI, or printer issue because I can STILL print successfully from my Windows laptop just fine on the same network.  It is also not a WIFI connectivity issue because the MacBooks are just as close to the printer as my Windows laptop and all MacBooks have internet access.  This seems like either a MacBook protocol issue or a printer configuration setting that is specific to/impacting the MacOS connections.  Any troubleshooting suggestions?

[Neve_Snaps · Accepted solution]

Well, I did some more research and implemented a workaround that has solved my problem.  Secure Airprint is the default printing protocol used when setting up printers in Printers & Scanners on MacOS.  Since this wasn't working, I deleted the printer from each of my three MacBooks and added them back using Airprint protocol instead.  Just successfully connected and printed from all three MacBooks!

Since I originally was able to print via Secure Airprint for 6+ months from my MacBooks, I'm left to conclude that something changed on my HP Envy 5052 that either disabled Secure Airprint or kept it from working properly (maybe a recent HP patch/update)?  I'm having a hard time believing that I purposefully (or by mistake) disabled Secure Airprint, so I'm still not sure what underlying root cause is - but, printing non-sensitive documents on a home network over Airprint is a solution I can live with.  🙂