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Participant
April 25, 2017
Answered

How do I print single sided on a Mac or turn off double-sided printing.

  • April 25, 2017
  • 31 replies
  • 115131 views

How do I turn off double-sided printing on a Mac? The archives had an answer for this question for a PC but I am using a Mac laptop. Thank you.

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Correct answer Tariq Ahmad

This is the ONLY workaround that has worked for me after much time wasted on forums trying to figure this out. It's a hassle to remember to open pdfs in Preview but at least it works, THANK YOU!


Hi all,

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

A new help page has been published for this issue: Unable to print double-side or single-side in Acrobat on Mac.

Please let us know how it works for you.

-Tariq Dar

31 replies

Participant
December 31, 2021

For those who may be still having this problem, here's what worked for me.  When the print dialogue box appears, there is a box at the bottom called "Printer" (it is to the right of "Page Setup").  When I click on it, there is a dialogue box that asks you if you want to continue, so hit yes.  Then a smaller box opens that has print options specific to my printer.  There you will see a box to select two-sided printing.  Make sure it is not checked.  At least that worked for me.

Participant
August 29, 2020

I have the default for two-sided printing set to "Off" on a MacBook Pro 16" running Catalina 10.15.6.  However, whenever I print, the default shown is two-sided.  Printer is an HP8600 all-in-one and I have downloaded the current driver (June 2020 update).  Apple Support could not resolve the problem and said I'd have to talk with HP, which I haven't done yet.  Any suggestions?  It is very frustrating - I do only legal documents and they are never printed two-sided.

Participant
November 28, 2022

One thing you can do is to open the pdf in Preview and print from there. You can select double or single sided as you wish.

Participant
March 19, 2020

I found a website that helps fix this issue. It requires you to access the terminal. https://www.howtogeek.com/309677/how-to-stop-two-side-printing-from-being-the-default-in-macos/

Participant
March 4, 2020

this solution involves skills that most end users don't have.  completely unhelpful.

Participant
September 13, 2019

I followed the steps on the Help Page that Tariq Dar gave. It all went smoothly until cups.org asked for a UN & PW in order to save the changes. I went to the home page and searched around on cups.org and didn't see where I could login and get a UN & PW. What am I missing?

Participant
February 27, 2020

When I received the sign-in box, I tried my computer name and the PW for the computer, and it worked.  

Participant
February 7, 2019

I All, I have been struggling with this for a while. I had to Uninstall Printer and UPDATE THE PRINTER DRIVER FROM SCRATCH of the brand ( mine was SHARP) and that fixed it. I had to contact the Printer Company to get the setting right but that worked. I hope that helps

mkrieger50
Participant
February 7, 2019

This suggestion worked for me. In Acrobat Reader, go to "Preferences" (Apple menu), then "document," and change "View documents in PDF/A mode" to "Never." Then quit Reader and restart.

Participant
February 7, 2019

Thank you Kindly, mkrieger50.  I'll give your suggestion a try.

tiffanyp91083770
Participant
February 1, 2019

2ndsightlab
Participant
January 28, 2019

If you are using a Mac, open your PDF in the Preview application. It will show the options to print single or double sided.

Click search icon. Search for preview app.

Open your pdf and choose Print from the File menu.

Participant
January 23, 2019

After updating the firmware of my Brother MFC-9340CDW printer, now when I select Printer from the first print dialog box, then select Yes in the Acrobat Reader pop-up, the final print pop-up has a box for two-sided that can be selected or not.  Deselecting it has allowed single-sided printing of a multi-page document.