There are various reasons why a printer might not be listed in your admin console. The main reasons relate to:
- your configuration of the search criteria in PaperCut Hive and Pocket
- the network connectivity in your environment
- the different ways that printers are discovered.
The Auto Printer Discovery page
Start by checking the printer discovery settings. You control how PaperCut Hive and Pocket search for your printers by setting the printer discovery options correctly for your environment. There might be problems due to changes that have been made from the defaults.
To start troubleshooting, in the admin console go to Easy Print & Scan > Auto Printer Discovery. This page contains your settings for printer discovery.
Each of the sections on this page is described below.
Discover Printers - when are the printers being discovered?
It might be that PaperCut Hive or Pocket is not configured to automatically discover your printers. You can set printer discovery to run automatically on a Scheduled basis, or you can run it on an On Demand basis - meaning that printer discovery might only occur when you manually run it.
On Demand is usually the best option because it ensures you have control over the discovery process and don’t end up discovering unwanted printers.
Try the following:
- If printer discovery is set to On Demand, scroll down and ensure that all Discover new printers using and Search in parameters are up to date and correct. Then click the Discover Now button.
- If your printer discovery setting is set to Scheduled, then by default it can take up to 60 minutes for a new printer to be automatically discovered, due to the frequency that the automated discovery processes run. So you might just want to wait… For the impatient among us, though, you can run a manual printer discovery process immediately by clicking Discover Now.
Do the edge nodes meet the system requirements?
In the Discover new printers using box, you have the option of searching for printers using either Super & standard edge nodes or Super nodes only. Whichever option you choose, ensure that the edge nodes meet the system requirements in order to connect with the printers on the required ports and protocols .
Are we searching in the right place?
By default, PaperCut Hive and Pocket look everywhere they can to find your printers. However, if the Search in section has been changed to limit where printers are searched for, it might be that your new printer falls outside of your printer discovery search criteria.
Make any adjustments in this section to ensure that PaperCut Hive or Pocket searches in all the right places for your printers.
Filter - is your brand included?
Your printer discovery might be limited to only discovering printers of certain brands. If you are using this option, check to make sure that it includes all the brand names of the printers that you want to use in PaperCut Hive and Pocket.
Action - are all of your printers published?
This option relates to how printers are handled after they are discovered, not whether they will be discovered or not. So for ‘missing printer’ problems, you can ignore the Action section.
Has a printer been ignored?
It might be that PaperCut Hive or Pocket has discovered your printer, but you have previously marked it as a printer to be ignored. Ignored printers aren’t displayed in the Printer list.
To view your ignored printers and restore them to your Printer list:
- In the admin console, go to Manage > Printers.
- Click the Ignored tab.
- If the printer is there, click the 3-dot menu and click Restore.
Ignoring a printer is based on printer attributes that create a “Thumbprint”.
What is included in the Thumbprint?
- Serial Number
- MAC Address
- Make and Model and some other attributes
What is not included in the Thumbprint?
- IP Address
That’s why if you change the IP address of the printer and have ‘ignored’ the printer, the printer will not be re-discovered by PaperCut Hive or Pocket.
Check network connectivity
Unsurprisingly, PaperCut Hive and Pocket require network connectivity to the printer so it can be discovered. Not just any network connectivity will do, though.
Our system requirements page explains that printers require SNMP and IPP connectivity from your edge nodes to your printers - that’s ports 161 and 162 (SNMP), and port 631 (IPP/IPPS) to you and me. So ensure that these ports are open between your edge nodes, your network, and your printers.
For IPP/IPPS, sometimes ports 80/443 are used, but generally these are open on all networks anyway.
- HTTP/IPP on port 631 (or sometimes 80, or 443 depending on the printer)
- SNMP v1/2 on port 161 and 162 with ‘public’ community
Our SNMP article makes clear the requirements for your SNMP configuration, and also some tools to test connectivity.
Print Queues vs IPP
The Printer Discover page explains that PaperCut Hive and Pocket attempt to use print queues and IPP in order to discover printers.
If you haven’t already done so, try setting up a print queue on an edge node (maybe a super node) and see if the printer is discovered after doing that. If it’s discovered, it likely proves a network connectivity issue with that printer from the Edge Mesh.
When all else fails…
If you have worked through all of the suggestions in this article, you’ve read through the linked content, and your printer continues to be missing, then it’s probably time to escalate the issue to the experts.
With support from your PaperCut Pocket and Hive Partner :
- Manually run the printer discovery process (as outlined in this article), and before you press the Discover Now button, make a note of the edge nodes that you select to perform the discovery and the date/time it’s performed.
- Grab a copy of the Edge Node logs from the relevant nodes and send them to PaperCut Support along with all the details.
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