MacOS – “Hold for Authentication” when printing through LP / LPR

keychainmacosprinting

I have a Dell network printer mapped to my MAC.
I'm able to print from applications without any issues, but when I try to print using terminal (lp or lpr), every file gets held up on the printer with "Hold for authentication"

I'm able to enter my details for the printer and the job goes through, but I'm prompted every time I try to print using lp. Saving my details to the keychain does not help.

Best Answer

I've seen this before. Try the following to resolve it:

  1. Send something to print so that you get the Hold for authentication error
  2. In Terminal enter lpstat -s
  3. From the output identify the printer name - it should be preceded by device for and followed by a colon : and a printer address. For example, if your output looked like:

device for Brother_MFC_9335CDW: dnssd://Brother%20MFC-9335CDW._ipp._tcp.local.

Then your printer name would be Brother_MFC_9335CDW

  1. Now enter the following command:

sudo lpadmin -p PrinterName -o auth-info-required=username,password

NOTE: Replace the PrinterName with your printer's name from Step 3

  1. You should be prompted for your Mac user password - enter this and press return

  2. Now try printing again as a test.

If it doesn't work, let me know and we'll troubleshoot further.

Since the above didn't work we'll repeat the process with some minor adjustments. More specifically, after Step 1 but before Step 2, do the following:

  • Open the Printer queue
  • Click on the 'Refresh' icon (it's the circular one with an arrow)
  • You should now get prompted for your credentials (i.e. username and password)

Now proceed with Step 2 from above.