Remote printing problems in Mac OS X ("Unable to get printer status"); fix

[Thursday, March 13th]

If you are experiencing problems with printing remotely (e.g. to a printer connected to another Mac), receiving the error message "Unable to get printer status (forbidden)," there may be an easy solution.

MacFixIt reader Jim Laurent was experiencing this issue. He writes:

"While attempting to print remotely from one 10.5.2 system to another, the printer status box provided me with the message: Unable to get printer status (forbidden). This is apparently a message from the CUPS printing subsystem with no suggestions on how to fix it.  Repairing permissions, deleting and adding printers back had no effect. A call to Apple was not much more help although they implied that my 'router was blocking ports.'  This didn't really make any sense to me either.

Jim found success with a fix listed in our tutorial "Resolving common printer problems", specifically:

1. Open Printer Setup Utility, located in Applications/Utilities.
2. Go to the "Printer Setup Utility" menu at the top of the screen and select "Reset Printing System".
3. Click the "Add" button and re-add your printer(s).

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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