Mac OS X 10.4.10 Special Report: Printers missing -- fix

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 1:41 a.m. PT

2 min read

If you find that your printers suddenly disappear after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.10, as did this reader:

"After applying 'Mac OS X 10.4.10 Combo Update v1.1 (Intel) [297.2MB]' (after a 'Safe Boot') on my Mac Mini (Early 2007) on top of Mac OS X 10.4.9, my printers were missing (two network printers and one USB printer). Trying to add any of the printers back produced an alert box with the following error: 'server-error-server-unavailable.' I tried various remedies from Apple and other sources: resetting the printing system, repairing permissions, repairing the disk, and resetting the PMU (if the Mini has one) via Shift-Control-Option at power up, but none of these helped."

try re-installing the latest version of CUPS as described in our tutorial "Resolving common printer problems". Corruption or other faults with the standard CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) installation may have occurred during the Mac OS X update process, and re-installing CUPS can resolve some otherwise insoluble problems.

The current known stable build of CUPS is version 1.2.8, and is available as a 4.3 MB standalone download. The install process is straightforward: once the CUPS disk image has been downloaded, mount it and double-click the cups.pkg file to begin installation. You may need to restart after installation in order to get your printer working again.

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