Officejet 7210 A-i-O, scanning problem using Mac OS X, 10.9.4 (Mavericks)

[BillinSantaFe]

Using my MacBook Pro, running OS X, Mavericks, latest update, I bought an old Officejet 7210 All-in-One at a yard sale.  With no fuss at all, the device was able to print a black and white document from my MBP but no matter what tricks I have tried from the HP drivers support webpage, my MBP will not recognize the scanner function.  The driver on CD that was included with the original purchase years ago is not available -- and even if it were, would probably not load on the Mavericks operating system.  The only driver available via Apple is a PCL generic driver which does allow at least some printing.  It appears that HP has abandoned upgrading the Officejet 7200 series driver for Mac.  My daughter has a MBP still running OS X, 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) which I used to test the scanning function.  It did scan and print, and when I checked the driver name it read Officejet 7200 series.  So somewhere between OS X, 10.6.8, and 10.9.4, the specific driver for all of this model's functions has been abandoned.  Can anyone suggest a workaround (other than using my daughter's Mac) to allow the scanner to function while attached to a Mavericks OS Macintosh?

[alexgallien]

I just faced the same problem, and figured out a workaround that worked out for me.

1. Open System Preferences
2. Navigate to 'Printers & Scanners'
3. Click on the 'Scan' tab on the right.
4. Select 'Open Scanner...'
5. Load your docuemnts in the scanner and click scan.

Worked like a charm for me with the default Apple Drivers on a friend's 7210. Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Alex

[BillinSantaFe]

Thanx, Alex. I did try that, as outlined on H-P's support website, but for me the "scan" tab is not visible (not even grayed out) when that pane of System Preferences is opened. It may be that when I migrated my stuff from my previous MBP running OS X, Snow Leopard, to my current MBP then running Mtn. Lion, I may have consciously excluded H-P drivers as I had no H-P printer then and wanted to slim down my OS. As I said, that older MBP is still running Snow Leopard and when I borrowed from my daughter to test the OJ7200 functions just connecting it up May have prompted the download of the older driver from H-P's website, or it was already there. I don't know. But the generic PCL driver that Apple's Software Update use,s and to which it appears my Mavericks MBP is limited, doesn't seem to allow scanner functioning. Hence no Scan tab to click on. It would be helpful, however, if you would open that Printers/Scanners pane and tell me what the name of the driver is that allowed you to see the scan tab. Gracias!

[alexgallien]

Looks like I am using 'HP Inkjet 6 Driver 2.0.3'. If it helps, my firmware version is RL4002xNx. Good luck! Printer troubles are the worst..

[Radio_Dave · Accepted solution]

I was having a similar issue until someone pointed me to the fact that Airport routers do not support scanning (when you have the HP device plugged into the USB port on the Airport router). Once I plugged my HP into my Mac's USB port, I could scan with Preview and Image Capture.

[BillinSantaFe]

Yes, I am able to scan using Image Capture and saving under Preview menu options.  And the App Store for Mac OS X just a couple of days ago had an update for H-P printer driver software.  I got the update but the H-P Scan software still doesn't work natively.  But a scan is a scan is a scan, so as long as Image Capture continues to recognize the H-P Officejet 7210 there is no concern.  BTW, my MBP is now running OS X, 10.10, Yosemite.

[Sailor100]

Don't give up hope with the 7200.  I have 2 Mac Book Pro's running OS 12.6 Sierra.  One prints, scans, color/B&W flawlessly. The other Mac Book Pro running identical software will only print.  It is driving me crazy but there must be a driver in one that I need to get into the other.  I have gone the full gamut of MacOS over the last 15 years and the 7200 has always been reliable.  This is the first surprise.