HP OfficeJet Pro 8730 All-In-One Printer scanner does not work w Mac OS Sonoma 14.0

[suzanneshaps]

I finally got through to a very nice agent.  It took a while, but we finally got to this:

Preamble:

Prior to going away on 11/2, all was working fine.

Upon returning home on 11/11, my HP 8730 could no longer see my MacBook Air.

My machine was running OS 13.5.2 until two nights ago when I upgraded to OS 14.0 / Sonoma

I hadn't changed anything, not even updated my laptop while I was away, so a lot of her explanation does not make sense to me (that the latest driver is for 13 but not 13.5.2, that they are working on a driver for that, and then will develop a driver for 14)

I don't know enough about this (or anything, really) to know if this makes sense, but it seems odd that she is saying that they didn't yet have a driver for anything above OS 13, including 13.5.2.  (This happened while I was still running that.)

She didn't have a time frame for the Sonoma driver, just sent me these images so I could keep checking for one:

PS I'm very tired, have spent countless hours over countless days trying to fix this, only to learn that it was not fixable on my end.  I hope my post makes sense.

[Carol206]

A big problem with the computer hardware and software companies is that they do not work together to coordinate what they do for the benefit of their shared customers and so Apple or Microsoft or Google (Alphabet) will have people who work on software or firmware updates for their devices while HP has people who work on software or firmware updates for their devices.  When customers like you and I use an Apple device to print on an HP device we will get caught in the middle of all of this from time to time because one company like Apple/Microsoft/Google (Alphabet) will update their firmware or software on their devices and then if another companies firmware or software is made uncompatible with this, the other company has to play catch up when customers report the problems.

If HP hired enough firmware or software people to be a part of the alpha and beta released from Apple or Microsoft or Google (Alphabet) then their internal employees who are supposed to test their HP devices with all other devices that use their printers would have seen what you and I have reported and they would have enhanced or fixed their firmware or software long before this.

Sadly, a lot of companies in the US no longer teach their people Total Quality Management (TQM) and Continuous Process Improvement (CPI).  Back in the good old days of the 1940s and 1950s and then again later in the 1980s and 1990s when Japan brought back our own countries knowledge about these things, many high tech companies taught their employees about these things and they improved the quality of their hardware and software products so that these things rarely if ever showed up with real live customers like ourselves.  The goodwill and brand loyalty that this type of quality accumulated with customers over time is difficult to measure and easy to forget and so in time as new people and new generations replace the old people and the old generations, everything that was learned is forgotten and people worried about short term profits and focused on cutting costs cut too many things like TQM and CPI training and then they cut the number of people they have working on firmware and software updates and before you know it, they no longer participate in alpha and beta releases from vendors like Apple, Microsoft and Google and before you know it, they do not even hire or have enough people working on their firmware and software updates to keep up and so customers like you and I have to report problems and then wait 3 to 6 months or perhaps more until the firmware or software is fixed and updated to interface with the new operating system software or firmware releases from the computer vendors.

Yup, it's just that simple.  LOL.  It's a wonder any of this stuff works let along does not break down more often but that's my take on this.  Like they say in the military, hurry up and wait...   

I suspect the folks at HP expect us to use their HP Smart app as a work around which I have done and I have figured out how to optimize it for what I am doing and even though it is slower than using the old Apple OS scan app, I am able to limp along and get the job done.  Two steps forward, one step back.  C'est la vie.  Such is life.  It will be interesting to see what happens when the new A.I. software starts taking over all of these firmware and software updates.  I wonder whether the A.I.'s will learn how to work together better across companies than people do or whether they will compete and undermine one another or simply ignore what they are doing and do their own thing whether this breaks interfaces like these or not.  It's a brave new world !!!  Get used to future shock !!!

[Carol206]

No solution or ETA for me either.  I am in hurry up and wait mode.  I am using the HP Smart app to do my scan work.  I have gone through a fair number of hoops trying to figure out how to get it to do the work I need done faster and without me having to do so many things manually.  I have figured out some things that help for the particular type of work I am currently doing but instead of being as fast and reliable and automated as the Apple scan app, it is about 1.25 to 1.5 times slower/more difficult due to the HP Smart software not being as smart as the Apple scan app software.  

I suspect Apple knows how to write apps for their devices that work better and take advantage of performance efficiencies and more accurate scan results than HP and that makes sense.  The HP people may be experts on their devices and not Apples/Microsofts/Googles (Alphabets).  

I wonder if other printer/copy/scan companies have these same issues?  I sort of wish that Apple/Microsoft/Google (Alphabet) all sold their own printer/copy/scan devices because I suspect they would keep them compatible with firmware or software updates on their computer/pad/phone devices.

[suzanneshaps]

Thank you so, so much for taking so much time to explain why this happens.  This seems to be the case across the board in society, doesn't it.  It's all about $$$.  Tech.  Health care.  All of it.

In the process of crafting an earlier reply, I made my way around to figuring out that I CAN use the ADF with HP Smart.  And I had never heard of Apple OS scan app and will see if that better suits my needs.

At least I should not have to scan one page at a time in large documents from the flatbed anymore!

Thank you again!