How to Migrate from Google Cloud Print to Mobility Print

If you have discovered Mobility Print (as an alternative to using Google Cloud Print) and you’re wondering how to migrate from Google Cloud Print to Mobility Print - this guide will help you. You’ll also be giving all your users a consistent print experience across all devices and platforms - no more ‘if you’re on Android, do this, but if you’re on Windows do that’. With Mobility Print, you can print how you normally would - on the platform that you choose - whether it’s Safari on iOS or Office on Windows.

Wondering what the difference is between Google Cloud Print and PaperCut Mobility Print? Head over and check out the Comparing Mobility Print and Google Cloud Print article.

What kind of experience are you after?

• I’m interested in the free Mobility Print product and I don’t need user or group management
• I’d like to use Mobility Print and be able to manage printing with users and groups
• I’m currently a PaperCut customer and would like to get Mobility Print up and running

Free Mobility Print product (you don’t need user/group management)

Now’s the perfect time to try out our new free Mobility Print option. If you’re looking for a free Google Cloud Print alternative, this is a great starter. It’ll allow you to get printing up and running for your mobile users at no cost, but won’t give you access to the more advanced features of user or group management. If you need those kind of features, and you’re interested in tracking (or controlling) who’s printing what, then head further down to the next option to take advantage of the free “PaperCut NG trial”.

1. Set up the Free Software version of Mobility Print

Head over to the Mobility Print Download page to download the Free version of Mobility Print. Also, check out the Mobility Print Server - System Requirements page too.

In short, you’ll need to install Mobility Print onto the Print Server hosting the print queues that you want to share out to your users. If you previously used the Google Cloud Print connector on a computer or server to share printers with users, then simply install Mobility Print on this machine. There’s a handy section in the Mobility Print Help Center where you can find info on installing. All you need outside of that is a Print Queue for people to print to (just set up a printer as you normally would, at the OS level).

2. Disable Google Cloud Print

Once you’re happy with the Mobility Print setup, and you’ve tested from a user’s point of view on a selection of devices that you use, you can disable Google Cloud Print:

• At this point, your users will no longer be able to print to any of your GCP printers advertised through Google Cloud Print.

3. All done!!

Don’t forget to tell all your users about the new improved experience! Customers have found that in-person announcements, sending email alerts and putting up posters on bulletin boards have helped get the word out, and smooth the transition. We’ve laid out some ideas in the roll-out Mobility Print section of our website.

PaperCut NG Trial

If you’re looking to put the ‘manage’ into Print Management with an easy to use interface (in order to track and control who’s printing and how much) then a good starting point is to download the PaperCut NG Free Trial. Don’t feel like you have to play around with your production setup though - install it onto a test workstation to begin with, to get familiar with how it will work - a standard desktop build of Windows / macOS / Linux will do just fine!

All you need outside of that is a Print Queue for people to print to (just set up a printer as you normally would, at the OS level) - and with PaperCut installed, that opens up a whole new world of print management - the power of a Find-Me print queue (where users print to a single queue and can then release their job at any printer), and many many other features.

Once you’ve got PaperCut installed (simple next → next → next setup wizard), then follow along with the steps below. It’s also worth repeating the review of the Mobility Print Planning and Preparation checklist.

1. Set up Mobility Print

You’ll find the Mobility Print configuration in the PaperCut admin interface, under Enable Printing → Mobile and BYOD → Mobility Print. Take a look at the Mobility Print setup guide for more information. Also, check out the Mobility Print Server - System Requirements page too.

In short, you’ll need to install Mobility Print onto the Print Server hosting the print queues that you want to share out to your users (that can also be the same machine as your PaperCut Application Server). There’s a handy checklist in the Mobility Print Planning section which asks questions around your print server setup, and also how you’d like to advertise the print queues to your users.

2. Disable Google Cloud Print

Once you’re happy with the Mobility Print setup, and you’ve tested from a user’s point of view on a selection of devices that you use, you can disable Google Cloud Print:

• At this point, your users will no longer be able to print to any of your GCP printers advertised through Google Cloud Print.

3. All done!!

Don’t forget to tell all your users about the new improved experience! Customers have found that in-person announcements, sending email alerts and putting up posters on bulletin boards have helped get the word out, and smooth the transition. We’ve laid out some ideas in the roll-out Mobility Print section of our website.

If you’re currently using Google Cloud Print with PaperCut

1. Set up Mobility Print

You’ll find the Mobility Print configuration in the PaperCut admin interface, under Enable Printing → Mobile and BYOD → Mobility Print, or alternatively under Options → Mobile and BYOD → Mobility Print (for versions older than 19.1).Take a look at the Mobility Print setup guide for more information. Also, check out the Mobility Print Server - System Requirements page too.

In short, you’ll need to install Mobility Print onto the Print Server hosting the print queues that you want to share out to your users. There’s a handy checklist in the Mobility Print Planning section which asks questions around your print server setup, and also how you’d like to advertise the print queues to your users.

2. Disable Google Cloud Print

Once you’re happy with the Mobility Print setup, and you’ve tested from a user’s point of view on a selection of devices that you use, you can disable Google Cloud Print:

• If you like being clean about things, head into the ‘Printers’ tab in PaperCut, and for each printer that you’ve published to GCP, go into the Printer Summary → Google Cloud Print → and then hit the ‘Delete from Google Cloud Print’ button.
• Head to this same GCP Console (on the Google Platform - not in PaperCut) and delete your cloud printers.
• At this point, your users will no longer be able to print to any of your GCP printers advertised by PaperCut.
• In the PaperCut Admin interface, head into Enable Printing → Mobile and BYOD → Google Cloud Print → and uncheck the ‘Enable Google Cloud Print integration’ option, or alternatively under Options → Mobile and BYOD → Google Cloud Print (for versions older than 19.1).

3. All done!!

Don’t forget to tell all your users about the new improved experience! Customers have found that in-person announcements, sending email alerts and putting up posters on bulletin boards have helped get the word out, and smooth the transition. We’ve laid out some ideas in the roll-out Mobility Print section of our website.

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to us via our Support Portal.