Windows – Trouble browsing Windows network printers from Mac

Networkprintingwindows

In the "Add Printer" dialog Windows section, there are no printers showing up, even though there are several in the office.

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I think this might be because my Mac is not "logged onto" the Windows domain where the printers live, but I can't be certain.

What are some common debugging steps to diagnose why a Mac computer on a Windows network can't browse to a Windows printer?

Best Answer

Apple's knowledgebase article on troubleshooting shared Windows printers specifies that printers on a different subnet won't show up in the Windows dialog of Add Printer. This sounds to be the case for you.

Since you're able to connect to the domain via smb, you should be able to manually add the printer(s). Select the "Advanced" button at the top of the Add Printer dialog from your screenshot.

Select "Windows" from the Type dropdown menu. You can manually enter the printer's smb URL:

smb://Windows_name/printer_share_name

or possibly

smb://user:password@Windows_Computer_Name/Shared_Printer_Name

Select the appropriate driver and click "Add".

You can get the full steps on how to manually add a Windows printer from Apple's knowledgebase here.

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