I am having troubles printing from our Macs to SMB shared printers on Windows Server 2012 R2. This is not effecting all of our printers, but there are a select few that are having issues. Unlike most Mac to Windows print server issues, this
is NOT an authentication issue. In addition to that, our Windows clients and the Server its self are able to print to the problematic printers without issue. For informational purposes, below is the command that I am using to install each
printer on OS X.
lpadmin -p “printer” -L “Location” -v smb://domain\\username:password@server/PrinterShareName -E -P /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/Printer\ PPD.gz
Each printer is installed with the correct ppd. In fact, most of the Mac clients were previously setup via IP Printing. If at all possible, I would like to avoid this scenario. All of our Macs are running 10.9 or above. In addition to this, if a printer is found to not work for one Mac, it won’t work for all of them. So far I am fairly convinced this is a driver issue and I am extremely curious about why that is. Following is an example of what happens when I come a across a printer that isn’t printing correctly from OS X and why I believe this to be a driver issue.
First, I will install the printer using the previous command that I posted. Next, I’ll print a test page. The print job will be processed on the client, and be successfully transferred to the print queue on the server. The job will then appear to be correctly processed on the server and seemingly be passed onto the printer. However, the print job never prints and there is no record of it on the printer. I have paused the print job at every stage and I can’t find any errors to indicate that anything is wrong. The print job is not stuck, it just disappears from the server and never makes it to the printer. I will remind you, Windows clients printing in a similar fashion have no issues and the server is able to print test pages with out problem to these printers.
These are some other observations that I have made. The printers that are having the issue when viewed through the “Print Management” tool form a Windows client have the “Microsoft Point and Print” driver installed. Obviously, this isn’t the driver that is actually installed on the server. In addition to this, when I change the driver on the server to something more friendly, such as a generic driver, like the HP generic driver, the Mac clients begin to work perfectly. In addition to that, the “Print Management” tool no longer shows the “Microsoft Point and Printer” driver.
I have read that the “Microsoft Point and Printer” driver is related to v3 vs v4 printer drivers, but I am not too clear on what exactly this means. It seems to be related to Windows clients not having to download full drivers and it seemed to have more of an effect on XP clients. Regardless, this problem appears to be driver related seeing as how these problematic printers work with generic drivers installed on the server. Does anyone know why this might be the case?
If you’ve read this far, I thank you. If you have a suggestion, please let me know.
-Andy
lpadmin -p “printer” -L “Location” -v smb://domain\\username:password@server/PrinterShareName -E -P /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/Printer\ PPD.gz
Each printer is installed with the correct ppd. In fact, most of the Mac clients were previously setup via IP Printing. If at all possible, I would like to avoid this scenario. All of our Macs are running 10.9 or above. In addition to this, if a printer is found to not work for one Mac, it won’t work for all of them. So far I am fairly convinced this is a driver issue and I am extremely curious about why that is. Following is an example of what happens when I come a across a printer that isn’t printing correctly from OS X and why I believe this to be a driver issue.
First, I will install the printer using the previous command that I posted. Next, I’ll print a test page. The print job will be processed on the client, and be successfully transferred to the print queue on the server. The job will then appear to be correctly processed on the server and seemingly be passed onto the printer. However, the print job never prints and there is no record of it on the printer. I have paused the print job at every stage and I can’t find any errors to indicate that anything is wrong. The print job is not stuck, it just disappears from the server and never makes it to the printer. I will remind you, Windows clients printing in a similar fashion have no issues and the server is able to print test pages with out problem to these printers.
These are some other observations that I have made. The printers that are having the issue when viewed through the “Print Management” tool form a Windows client have the “Microsoft Point and Print” driver installed. Obviously, this isn’t the driver that is actually installed on the server. In addition to this, when I change the driver on the server to something more friendly, such as a generic driver, like the HP generic driver, the Mac clients begin to work perfectly. In addition to that, the “Print Management” tool no longer shows the “Microsoft Point and Printer” driver.
I have read that the “Microsoft Point and Printer” driver is related to v3 vs v4 printer drivers, but I am not too clear on what exactly this means. It seems to be related to Windows clients not having to download full drivers and it seemed to have more of an effect on XP clients. Regardless, this problem appears to be driver related seeing as how these problematic printers work with generic drivers installed on the server. Does anyone know why this might be the case?
If you’ve read this far, I thank you. If you have a suggestion, please let me know.
-Andy