Print problems after update to Mac OS Big Sur 11.6.2

[Anne_49BB]

After the latest update from Mac OS Big Sur to version 11.6.2, I encounter a strange printing problem when sending an image from Photoshop to the Epson PSC 700 printer. If I select "Photoshop manages colours", the printer dialogue box won't open and the file won't print. If I select Printer manages colours the file will print, but the colours are off.

I've already uninstalled and deleted all printer stuff and installed the driver again and made sure not ot select the airprint version. I've also installed Photoshop again and did a reset of the preferences. Nothing solved the problem. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this weird problem and found a solution.

I would be very grateful. 

Thanks in advance!

[Jackve6a · Accepted solution]

I thought it important to let you know that I've solved my printing problem and I wanted to let you know what I did.

First, although my most recent exploratory discussion with an Apple senior advisor was good and was suppose to result in him calling me back with a report from engineering, he and I haven't yet connected.  Unfortunately I didn't time my availability correctly and when he called, I wasn't at home.  I called back and was told by another senior advisor that I spoke to that he would give me an email I could use to send a note back to be posted in the case file.  He said they are no longer notified when there is a message from a client, but normally senior advisors check their open cases to see if there is anything there for them.  I've written two other emails to say that I do want to talk to him.  Unfortunately, to date, I've heard nothing.

Now, about my solution.

I ended up talking to two other users who live in my city and who have the P900 and a Mac.  One person's Mac was of a similar vintage to mine.  I guess I should have put out this feeler a month or so ago.  Anyway, the both had similar problems to mine and couldn't get a solution when runing Big Sur.  Yes, it was that update to Big Sur in August and then November that ruined the printing operation for them as well.  They, like me, didn't want to go to Monterey right away (like me...on principle, until the bugs were sorted out), but they finally gave up on Big Sur and did the upgrade.  From then on, everything was back to normal and worked fine for them.  That was all the evidence I needed.  Early last week I took my other Mac, a little MacBook (the one Apple doesn't make anymore..darn it) that is running Monterey and loaded Photoshop 2022 and the Epson Printer Driver for the P900.  Voila, everything worked perfectly. Then I upgraded my iMac, reloaded everything and got the same results....everything works the way it is suppose to and the prints are marvelous.  I think the ICC profiles are better done than for my old 3880.  I see this in skin colour and tones.  My old 3880 still printed landscapes perfectly, but required some fiddling around to get skin tones to print properly.

Now, an opinion on the support Apple tried to provide.  It is clear that the number of Mac users who suffered similar problems to me was not a small number.  I don't see how Apple could not have noticed the number of users with this problem.  They must have their threshold of notification set too high or something like that.  The other thing that might be going on is that the solution meant a significant bit of work in Big Sur and they didn't want to spend the money on that when they had everything working on Monterey.  By not admitting to the problem users would be driven to upgrad to Monterey and, if their computers were too old and not compatible with Monterey, would be driven to buy a new computer.  I know that is cynical, but it seems quite possible to me.  

I never did contact Adobe about this problem and the response I got from Epson didn't offer any intelligent reasons why the problem existed on my computer.  However, it turns out that Epson's cursory response was probably appropriate, now that I know where the problem was.

So, now I'm living with a 'late 2015 iMac' that is at the bottom of the compatibility list for Monterey and I don't think it will be able to handle another upgrade of operating system to the Mac.  Hopefully, the new larger (27") iMac will be released in the next few months.  I've been looking forward to getting one of those since last Spring and have been saving my money, which, by the way, is burning a hole in my pocket and I have to keep ignoring my 'technolust' inclinations to buy other goodies.  I'm certain with the reduced availability of chips and our inflation, the price on the new iMac will be higher than we're use to.

Thank you to everone on this support community item.  You gave me hope.

Regards,

Jack

[DaveJCummings]

I'm glad you were able to find a solution. I know since updating to my M1 Macbook and especially after updating to Monterey, my Epson printer would act like its not working initially when scanning artwork,  creating some frustration, but then all of a sudden it works.  I think in my case, Epson probably hasn't optimized their drivers all the way for the M1 environment.  I could be completely wrong though.

[Jackve6a]

Jack here again.  

After my upgrading to Monterey, as I noted above, everything worked as normal when printing with my Epson P900.  However, when one of the two updates to Monterey went in last month (Feb 2022) everything went wrong, just like before.  Once again, none of the Epson ICC profiles shows up in the Photoshop print dialogue box.  This is EXACTLY THE SAME as what happened with the Big Sur 11.6.2 updates previously.  I am beside myself with this glytch.  I need to be doing some printing, but I can't.  My Epson P900 still runs and prints, but the colours are not right.

I'm going to see if anyone has started a similar discussion thread for Monterey and, if not, I'll start a separate one from this.  Again, when I look at the Epson printer files I can find the ICC profiles for all the Epson Papers there, but Photoshop can't find them.

I may be faced with that alternate approach that I mentioned in my past conversations, and that is to step back a couple of revisions in Monterey.  After all, it was working fine as of early February.

I'll keep reporting what I find.  Right now it looks almost insurmountable, but I know it isn't.  I just dread all the hours I'm going to have to spend to get things aligned again and I don't like it!

Jack

[TheDigitalDog]

Jack, just go to the Epson USA web site and download the latest driver for the P900 and reinstall. That will reinstall most of the profiles, others you download individually for Epson papers from the same site. 

[rockpowered]

One of the reasons this issue is reoccuring is that Apple recently introduced the same coloursynch security patch to Monetery,  so I am not surprised this issue keeps croppping up.

[rockpowered]

I'm not sure how this post was marked as having the correct answer. Apple breaking a subsytem with a security patch and the best answer is to upgrade into new hardware for the latest iteration of OSX. How about it's a bug and buying new things to replace systems that are not obselete is not the correct answer to solve a bug introduced in a patch

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

@rockpowered No one forces users to upgrade. You can always downgrade your OS install and install an earlier version of PS if your machine can't upgrade to the afforemention Monterey to resolve the issue. I doubt Apple is going to back out a security patch to an old OS because an upgrade bricked a peripheral (printer).

Looking at the Apple forums, the only consistent answer is to upgrade to Monterey to resolve the Epson driver issue.

However - I do see Epson has released some new driver/utility combos since the thread was started. Perhaps checking for updates may lend some wins.

[Jackve6a]

Kevin, I agree with your first point.....I think the word 'force' was probably not the right word to use.

In my case, I guess it would be better to say that, given where I want to be with my use of Photoshop and my P900 printer and that I don't want to lose the secruity that updates bring, I had no choice but to move forward to Monterey.  Moving back to older macOS would not meet my security criteria.  Now, if my computer would not take the upgrade to Monterey I would have been in an undesirable position and would have definitely moved to by a new iMac, which I'm planning on doing anyway, but want the M1 version that still has to be released.  I certainly wouldn't have been 'forced' to do that, but it was a decision I would have had to make, given my personal requirements.

The good part of the whole thing is that I'm completely pleased with Monterey and doubly pleased that all my printing with Photoshop is the way it was back in the Fall with my old 3880 printer.  I have an added bonus that my P900 does a great job of printing.  I also now know that my 3880 was showing its age and is why I was having trouble with skin tones in my portraiture work.  My 3880 is still very useful to those doing landscape photography.  I made a print a few weeks ago and it is sharp and has the correct tones for a winter scene that I made.

Jack

[rockpowered]

First let me acknowlege that this is an Adobe communinty and therfore what goes on here is not really so much an Adobe problem when it comes this security patxh bug. That being said, backing out of a security patch is not the point here. The point is patching an unitended bug from that security patch. It's also not perpiherals that are broken, it's a subsystem that relies on icc profiles and that reaches far deeper then just printing. That being said for an operating system that was originaly pitched to creatives, breaking a an artistic colour managed workflow might merit some action by Apple. Who knows and this is not really an Adobe problem anyway so there it lies.

[Jackve6a]

OK.  I don't recal me say anything in any of my follow up remarks that this problem had anything to do with Adobe.  I was quite clear that it was an Apple problem. 

I entered into this forum because a person in the forum had written in about the same problem I had and I thought I might get some answers.   I know how to troubleshoot and that is why I was working on Apple and Epson first and would have only sent in a request for support to Adobe if those others had not been the problem.

[rockpowered]

To be clear I never wanted to infer that's what you said. It's my summation of the issue at hand. Plenty of support here from me on your troubleshooting and outcomes

[Jackve6a]

Thanks for that follow up.

[Jackve6a]

Hi, Jack here.  I too was surprised by that entry.  The words in that CORRECT ANSWER message are not mine.  I don't know how that message was generated.

[Richards Gallery]

Since I've been having many of the same problems I've been following this thread avidly but today I came across another thread here that has been a big help to me.

I'm running OSX 11.6.4 and PS 23.1.1 and have been getting unprofiled prints when using Hahnemuhle German Etching and 'Print Settings' unavailable when I try to use a Canson Infinity ICC profile.

Following the experience of Chris in the other thread I verified and repaired my profiles using the Mac Colorsync app (see here) and the the result was good and bad.

The bad is that it has made no difference to the Canson/Print Settings problem.

The good is that I have now made two prints onto Hahnemuhle German Etching that are just as I would want them to be.

Hope this helps

[Chipperr]

Following the Big Sur update, "Print Settings" behaves for most of the papers I use on my Epson P900 with the exception of Epson Premium Luster. Has anyone else who prints on Premium Luster tried a substisute profile with any success?  I could really use a workaround for this paper.  Thank you.

[NB, colourmanagement]

Chipperr

try Epson Premium SemiGloss profile

are you using Photoshop manages color? [I normally recommend that]

In this case, though, maybe try printer manages color and choose the right media, Epson then uses its ICC profile in the background. Might be an OK temp workaround?

You COULD convert to the printer profile in Photoshop but then to use that file without any colour management you'd have to print from Adobe's Color Print Utility [which is, unfortunately, not super well implemented]

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer:: Co-Author: Getting Colour Right
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

[Chipperr]

Hi Neil,

Unfortunately, the Epson Premium SemiGloss profile doesn't work either (good suggestion, tho) -- the Print Settings doesn't open up with that profile when using "Photoshop manages color."  I'm not in my workspace at the moment, but I'll try printing with "printer manages color" and then selecting the Premium Luster profile from Print Settings and see what happens.

I'm afraid to ask, what is "OPK"?

Thank you for your suggestion!

[Chipperr]

Hi Neil,

Probably known by others, but using Printer Manages Colors, then Print Settings / Color Matching / Epson Color Controls seems to be a good workaround for Epson Premium Luster (after selecting it as your Media Type).  

Thank you for the suggestion.

[NB, colourmanagement]

Hi Chipperr

"I'm afraid to ask, what is "OPK"?"

It's 'OK' typed by a tired guy with clumsy fingers!

oops

neilB

[annm88056885]

I had the exact same problem with my Epson p800. Subsequent updates to Big Sur fixed nothing. After a lot of research and trouble, it appears to me that the only options for fixing this are upgrading to Monterey if your hardware supports it, or downgrading to Big Sur 11.6.1 if it doesn't. 

My mac is too old to upgrade to Monterey, unfortunately... so I backed up all the data and did a clean reinstall of the original OS (Mavericks, in my case, as my machine is old), then upgraded back to Big Sur 11.6.1. All is back to normal and I can print with color management again. Yay... success! 

As for what I did that didn't work (and that you probably shouldn't waste your time with if you're still grappling with the same issue): Updating printer drivers did nothing. I contacted Epson, but it's not a printer problem (but they were nice and explained why in a helpful way). Epson sent me back to Adobe. Various strategies for holding down the space bar, etc when printing that are commonly suggested did nothing. Contacting Adobe tech support not only fixed nothing, but caused other problems. The Adobe tech didn't know about the issue with the mac OS (how can Adobe not know this? we're discussing it in their forum right now and it's clearly documented!), and did that thing where I shared my screen and the tech could control it. He deleted preference files, which didn't fix the problem, but instead caused new errors when using all Adobe products from that point forward AND all MS Office software. No idea which system files got deleted by Adobe online tech support in this process, but they were clearly important and should not have been deleted. So, don't trust Adobe to know what they are doing here - the online tech support cannot help you and may make things worse. In the end, I reformatted my hard drive and that fixed not only the printing issue, but restored the rest of my system files that Adobe tech support screwed up. Well. I expected more from you, Adobe. Really. Even if you can't fix what's wrong, please don't mess up the rest of my computer in the process of fumbling about for solutions. Sigh.

The printing problem, of course, is due to the Apple OS, and not Adobe... but it took a while to figure that out. Huge THANKS all of you who posted here before me and provided enough information for me to understand what the cause for the printing issue is and to know what to do to fix it: clean reinstall of the OS, but no upgrades beyond 11.6.1, unless you can jump to Monterey. Now I'm up and running and printing from Photoshop with color managed output again. 

[annm88056885]

Just wanted to add (to my post above) that if you have a time machine backup, you can back up your OS that way and spare yourself the pain of a clean reinstall of your system to back up to something before Big Sur 11.16.2

So your options for fixing this problem are:

1) upgrade to Monterey

2) downgrade to Big Sur 11.6.1 (either with Time Machine, or a clean reinstall of the OS)

In order to reinstall the OS with an older version, start up the mac in Recovery Mode (use Shift-Option-Command-R during startup) to be offered the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available... then upgrade, but not as far as the version that causes all the printing problems (stop before 11.6.2!).

Or give up on having with color managed output from Photoshop anymore, but who would want that?

[Richards Gallery]

Naturally I'm very pleased for you that you're back up and running Ann but I'm curious which version of PS you're using.

Adobe have published a page of known issues using PS 23.2 with Monterey but since you've stuck with Big Sur are you using PS 23.2 and if so how's that working?  Are colour management and file saving working?

[annm88056885]

I'm running Photoshop 23.2.1 with Big Sur 11.6.1. I've only had the reinstall with the older OS running for a few days now, so even though I haven't had problems yet, I know I may encounter some surprises/glitches as I get deeper into it (actually, I expect to run into glitches)... but so far, all is well. File saving in Photoshop has worked without problems, and color management is back to what it used to be. All ICC profiles are available in Lightroom again as well, which was not the case before the OS downgrade. 

Before moving backward to Big Sur 11.6.1, the print dialog box in Photoshop wouldn't let me do anything if I chose "photoshop manages colors" and wouldn't print at all with that option. And the "print settings" button would be grayed out and I couldn't access those other (necessary)  print options. It's all back to normal now, and I can print with color management again (well, after I re-downloaded and re-installed all my ICC profiles after the reinstall, as I started with a mac totally wiped clean). It wasn't a fun or fast or easy process to back up everything and start from scratch, but since I'm not ready to upgrade my hardware yet, it was the best solution for me. I need color managment for the work I do -- so I took a deep breath, backed everything up, and reformatted the drive. 

My work around, until I got up the courage to do the reinstall, was to bring all images into InDesign documents and to print from there, because InDesign still would print with color management even when Photoshop wouldn't. So that's worth knowing for anyone still looking for a workaround and who has/uses the whole creative suite. But honestly, being able to print from Photoshop again is so much better. 

[TheDigitalDog]

There is a bug in Big Sur 11.6.2 to 11.6.3 with access of ICC profiles which you'd need in Photoshop Manages Color.

[NB, colourmanagement]

Hi annm

pleased you managed to get it going properly.

anyone else reading:

There is apparently a bug in Mac OSX Big Sur 11.6.2 in connection with ICC profile use / printing,
Some users have reported success after updating to Monterey, personally I'd be more likely to go back a version rather than jumping into a new OSX version soon after release.
Sadly this bug appears to still be present in 11.6.3, according to users here who have made that upgrade.

Some users have reported positive results in OSX Big Sur - with some profiles being usable after opening them into the ColorSync utility and “fixing” any errors found.
 
I hope this helps


neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management