My workhorse home office printer/scanner/copier/fax is an HP Photosmart C6180 All-In-One. It’s really quite good – an excellent printer, especially for photos, with solid scanning and fax capability. But HP’s software leaves something to be desired. In both Vista, it would “forget” how to find the scanner after a few months, forcing me to reinstall. Once I switched to the Mac, I was amazed that the printer and scanner worked so well out of the box, but was annoyed to see it do exactly the same thing after a month or so. But it turns out that the problem here might not be all HP’s fault!
It turns out that the HP Printer Driver 1.1.1 from OS X Software Update, which is pushed out by Apple, interferes with the scanner communication for this, and lots of similar devices in the C5100, C6100, C6200, C7200 series. Everything works fine until you install this driver update, and then the scanner function ceases to work even though it can still see the device.
So here’s how to fix it:
- Uninstall the HP software using the HP Uninstaller (inside Applications > Hewlett-Packard)
- Reinstall the latest version 9.7.1 software from the HP website
- Run Software Update (under the Apple menu)
- Highlight HP Printer Drivers Update 1.1.1
- Go to the top menu and select Update > Ignore Update
This will prevent your Mac from downloading the HP Printer Driver 1.1.1, and thus killing the scanner functionality.
While you’re at it, add a new Quartz filter to reduce the size of the scans!
Stephen – I had the same problem. I, too, have an HP C6180 All-In-One, which I’ve been thrilled with since I purchased it. I run it on a small ethernet network with my Dell OptiPlex and Mac G5 and have never had an issue with it — until the day I downloaded the HP Printer Drivers Update 1.1.1. Immediately upon installation, the scanner ceased to work. After much trial and tribulation, I simply uninstalled 1.1.1 and went back to the original HP disk. Everything is fine now – and thanks for the tip on the “Ignore Update” function. I thought I’d have to look at that HP update thing in the Apple Software Update window forever!
Stephen – I had the same problem. I, too, have an HP C6180 All-In-One, which I've been thrilled with since I purchased it. I run it on a small ethernet network with my Dell OptiPlex and Mac G5 and have never had an issue with it — until the day I downloaded the HP Printer Drivers Update 1.1.1. Immediately upon installation, the scanner ceased to work. After much trial and tribulation, I simply uninstalled 1.1.1 and went back to the original HP disk. Everything is fine now – and thanks for the tip on the “Ignore Update” function. I thought I'd have to look at that HP update thing in the Apple Software Update window forever!
Dear Stephen,
Thank you for a valuable tip! Now my printer works just fine.
Best regards,
Like Dan I had also followed the tip on the “Ignore Update” it had helped me a lot in dealing with the problem regarding with the printer.
It has never been happened with Windows XP. But I have bookmarked this page in case I need it. I am using mac in my desktop.
It has never been happened with Windows XP. But I have bookmarked this page in case I need it. I am using mac in my desktop.
Thanks friend. I’m love this article. Thank you.
I recently upgraded to Mac Snow Leopard (10.6.)
I have HP Deskjet F4280. I can’t scan anything now. Printing is fine.
Would the 9.7.1 software work for me?
Since I don’t know too much about computers, I’m afraid to download things without being very sure of what I’m doing!
Thanks….