I've been seeing this since Leopard (10.5). If I erase my hard disk before installing a new version of OS X, the install the OS, then migrate all settings over from a cloned backup using Migration Assistant, everything is preserved except printers. Anyone else? To make matters worse, I just installed Mavericks (10.9.2) for the first time, and after the migration, not only were no printers preserved, but the OS did not automatically offer to download drivers for my HP 2015dn printer (either networked or via USB). I had to download the drivers (i.e. PPDs) manually.
Is this to be expected?
Best Answer
No, printers are usually transferred when you restore a backup using backup software such as Time Machine. As you haven't specified a backup software, I presume Time Machine, in which case the preferences should have been transferred. If you have used other backup software, make sure that the preferences have been backed up and restored correctly.
With regard to the drivers, these should have installed automatically too, unless restoring from backup restored the drivers too. Again it depends how you have backed up, but in conclusion, neither of these situations should have happened, but they're pretty minor and have been solved anyway.