I recently connected an old HP Officejet Pro 8500 to the network and tried to add a printer to a Macbook Pro running OS X Mountain Lion. I was able to install the printer well on my computer, but when I tried to add the printer to OS X, I received the following error message:
The HP Officejet Pro 8550 printer software cannot be installed because it is not currently available on the software update server.
After doing some research online, it looks like I had to do a Software Update because the HP printer driver was supported by Apple. I did a software update but nothing updated! So now I was pretty confused about what I should do. Luckily, I was able to find out, but follow a few steps to get your printer installed properly on OS X.
Fix Cannot Install the Software for Printer on OS X
You must first download the Apple printer brand printer driver package manually. On this page, you can see a list of all Apple-supported printers: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3669
First, make sure your printer is actually listed there, because if it’s not, then you won’t be able to install the printer on OS X, no matter how hard it is to try. Your only other option right now is to check the manufacturer’s website and see if they have a Mac driver that you can download that isn’t already included in Apple’s driver package.
If your printer is there, you need to download the driver package and install it. It would have been nice if they could connect to driver packages directly from this page, but they don’t. To purchase the HP driver package, go to Google and search for “HP printer driver” and the first link will be here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL907
Here are a few more links, but to find any other brand, just enter the brand name and then specify “printer drivers” and you’ll find them. Be sure to look for the URL that contains support.apple.com.
Canon – http://support.apple.com/kb/dl899
Brother – http://support.apple.com/kb/dl894
Lexmark – http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1397
Epson – http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1398
Samsung – http://support.apple.com/kb/DL905
Fuji-Xerox – http://support.apple.com/kb/dl904
Steps to Install the Software for Printer on OS X
• Download DMG and install it on your Mac. After installing it, go ahead and restart your computer. Now we need to reset the printing system and reinstall the printers. To reset the printing system, click the Apple logo and click System Preferences.
• Now click Print and Scan at the bottom of the Hardware:
Now go ahead in the white box in the printer box list and right-click. A menu appears, and the only option is to ” Reset Printing System” ( the reset printing system).
• Note that resetting the printing system will remove all printers from your computer. But for those who have already, don’t worry because you can add them back, no need to reinstall drivers, use a CD, or anything else. When the printing system is reset, the list field will be blank. Now go ahead and click the ” +” sign at the bottom of the list box.
• It should automatically detect all printers connected via USB, wired, or wireless. First, go ahead and add back the ones that didn’t cause the problem. Then go ahead and add the one that showed you the error message.
Hopefully, now that you select your printer, it should be installed automatically without errors, as you will download and install the driver package manually. If you’re still having trouble, leave a comment here and I’ll try to help. Enjoy!