2019(?) 27" iMac. Running Catalina, I think. User has an HP OfficeJet 5258 that is setup, connected to wifi and seems to print fine from all other devices on the network.

At some point, printing stopped working from the iMac to the HP. I did a printing reset on the iMac, tried installing the HP software/driver, and keep getting the following message when trying to add the printer in the Printers & Scanners System prefs:

"An error occurred while trying to add the selected device. Unable to communicate with the printer at this time."

I can pull up the printer's internal config/status webpage from Safari on the affected iMac. So the computer can see the printer just fine in that regard. I've tried direct connecting via USB from the iMac to the printer, same error message. As I mentioned, I've done the "reset printing system" command from within the printers/scanners system prefs pane. And multiple other devices can print to the printer successfully.

What am I missing? What should I do next? help!

I'm not familiar with the "reset printing system" command, but when I have similar problems, I delete the printer then re-add it. I'm not on Catalina so this may not work anymore.

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mstudio
I'm not familiar with the "reset printing system" command, but when I have similar problems, I delete the printer then re-add it. I'm not on Catalina so this may not work anymore.

If you right-click/control click on a printer in the printers & scanners panel of system prefs, you get a menu popup with the option. Clicking that deletes all the printers stored in that pane (but doesn't delete any underlying drivers, etc). You would then re-add printers back as needed.

Reboot.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

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Speedy
Reboot.

Yup did that several times

Uninstall the HP driver and then download/install the latest driver.

To uninstall...

There is often a "HP Uninstaller" app present in the "HP" or "Hewlett Packard" folder in the Applications folder.

You can try the HP Uninstaller here:
[ftp.hp.com]

You can also use the uninstall feature in HP Smart:
[123.hp.com]

...If the setup fails after this then use the Airprint driver.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2021 06:59PM by Sarcany.

thanks, Sarcany. I'll try the uninstaller. I did notice that I did get the AirPrint driver as the driver option before installing the HP drivers that I downloaded. Had the same error message when trying to add the printer. But I'll try uninstalling and see if that changes anything.