Snow Leopard Shared Printer Job “On Hold: Authentication Required” fix

2009/11/1

I’ve had problems since installing snow leopard with sharing my printer with my wife’s macbook pro.

Whenever she’d try to print, the job would say “On Hold: Authentication Required”. After some fiddling around I found a solution:

  1. Go into System Preferences and go to the Print & Fax panel.
  2. Right click on the printer and choose “Reset Printing System…”. This will remove all of your printers.
  3. Hit the “+” and add the printer back, it should now be reset and have fixed whatever was fubar before.
  4. Click on the “Sharing Preferences” button (or go to the “Sharing” System Preference panel)
  5. Make sure that “Printer Sharing” is checked and that your printer’s name is also checked and that “Everyone” is set to “Can Print”
  6. On the remote machine you want to remove the printer and add it back in through the System Preferences Print & Fax panel

(This is on 10.6.1, not sure if this works in 10.6.0 (where I first had the problem), you should update to the latest).

After doing all that, I was able to print from my remote computers without any problems or any issues around authentication.

There are 92 comments in this article:

  1. 2009/11/23Rob say:

    Thank you! I was having the same problem today, and your instructions solved the problem.

  2. 2009/12/6mark say:

    THANK YOU!!!!!!

  3. 2009/12/8hari say:

    Thank you, the trick worked like a charm!!!!

  4. 2009/12/9Tyler say:

    Just tried this and it worked perfectly. Thank you.

  5. 2009/12/9Johnny say:

    Thank you. Been trying to figure this out for a long time, now I can print from all my Macs without disconnecting the external drive from the lone USB port to my time capsule.

  6. 2009/12/14Jose say:

    Thank you for the detailed info. Unfortunately it did not work for me. I have 2 imacs running leopard on a wired router sharing a printer and i keep getting the “on hold authentication required”

  7. 2009/12/14tednaleid say:

    @Jose, sorry this fix didn’t work for you. You might consider upgrading to Snow Leopard from Leopard. I had more luck on the latest version of the OSX than I did in 10.5.

  8. 2009/12/17Irvine say:

    This worked like a charm for me. Thank you!

  9. 2009/12/28Matt say:

    Seems to be broken again in 10.6.2

    Trying to print from a brand new Macbook (remote) to a brand new iMac (print server). No luck.

  10. 2010/01/9bruce say:

    After a whole morning of fiddling this seemed to do in on 10.6.2

  11. 2010/01/12Mat Walker say:

    Thanks for the tip. Works great for me now.

  12. 2010/01/17John say:

    Thanks, worked like a charm.

  13. 2010/01/24Zhenya say:

    Thanks! Worked great!

  14. 2010/02/3Ivan Cifuentes say:

    Thank you very much, this is the only good advice that i found on the web! Problem fixed. One problem left, can’ t print a month view from Entourage 2008. one down, one to go.

  15. 2010/02/6George Wallace say:

    Thanks – this didn’t work for me running 10.6.2

  16. 2010/02/11Paris say:

    Thanks Mate,
    Fixed… On 10.6.2
    Your the Best..
    Cheers

  17. 2010/02/13hugh say:

    this has bugged me for months, just got around to fixing it!
    Thanks a lot!

  18. 2010/02/15Jason say:

    Worked perfectly. Counter-intuitive but removing the printer on the host computer was the ultimate solve.

    I have a Samsung ML 1740 (6yrs old), a late 2007 iMac, and a late 2006 MBP

  19. 2010/02/20Stephen say:

    Hi Ted,
    This didn’t work for me running 10.6.2 with a 3 month old iMac sharing the ubs inkjet over airport to my wife’s MacBook. This only just started about 1 week(?) ago. B4 it was fine. The Apple store said today they had a similar problem but didn’t remember how they fixed it. Stay tuned, eh?
    Cheers.

  20. 2010/02/24Stuart say:

    Excellent. Thanks for the help. Will link back to it. Cheers,

  21. 2010/03/1Stephen again say:

    Hi Ted,
    To update my 2010/02/20 comment: Sharing is working now… I wasn’t really paying attention so it’s either because (in order) I went to System Preferences / Security / Firewall / (Click the lock…) Advanced… and clicked ”OK” (btw Firewall was set to ”Off” by default! I changed it to ”On”) or because I turned the printer power button off and then on again.
    Honestly! Can it be that simple? Why is it we can see a satellite photo of the other side of the planet in a second but we have to beat our brains out to share an inkjet 2 feet away??!!
    Hope this helps.
    Cheers.

  22. 2010/03/2tom wible say:

    i’ve got an hp g85 plugged into a linux box(fc12) and set it up for network sharing. on my g4 powerbook running 10.4.11, the printer shows up & works perfectly…on the wife’s g4 pb, nuthin’ but “Error while printing”:-(

    on my minimac running 10.6.2, printer sys.prefs showed nothing until i went into the cups admin & turned on cups in advanced->Show printers shared by other systems->Protocols: CUPS.

    only then did the printer show up, but when i printed to it, the job went on hold: authentication required.

    so got any client-side ideas?

  23. 2010/03/2tom wible say:

    nevermind: i’d forgotten to add the user to the printer on the server

  24. 2010/03/8Josh Pinter say:

    You are a god. Thank you for a solution and the brevity of said solution.

    Thanks!

    Josh

  25. 2010/03/10Pat say:

    Thanks! Worked on iMac running 10.6.2 and my Hackintosh running 10.5.7!

  26. 2010/03/11Keith - Dartmouth say:

    Thanks – after a couple of days trying all sorts of suggestions this worked for me. Thanks

    Keith

  27. 2010/03/16Gijs say:

    You’re the man! TNX!

  28. 2010/03/19Beef say:

    Thank you! This has been annoying me for ages!!!

  29. 2010/03/20Bob say:

    Thought I’d tried everything – until I saw this. Thank you so much. My wife is speaking to me again now that she can print things without me having to do it for her across the network!

  30. 2010/03/30Ian say:

    Excellent, thanks! perfect.

  31. 2010/03/30Mike say:

    I really appreciate you posting these instructions. Im back in business with printing. Im running 10.6.3 the latest update.

  32. 2010/04/10Patrick say:

    You rock. Thanks for the fix.

  33. 2010/04/13John Welch say:

    THANKS!!!!, spent almost an hour with Apple Care, and even they could not figure this one out.. Worked like a charm. YOU RULE!!!

  34. 2010/04/22Adam Billyard say:

    You are a star! I’ve faffed about for 2 hours with CUPS etc trying to fix this.

    Thank you

  35. 2010/05/3Jeremy Johnson say:

    This is great! We replaced our PC with with an I Mac and my macbook would no longer print to the network printer ( Now connected to the I Mac ) I screwed around with this for hours attempting to make it work. Did this and it works again……Now if someone could tell me how to use my western digital hard drive to work for my time machine through the network I would not have to keep moving it back and forth between the macbook and the I Mac.

  36. 2010/05/3Gordon say:

    great, worked for me – only thing I also reset the printing system on the remote mac to clear all – this was needed to make it burst into life!

    Thanks for the tip!

    Cheers

    Gordon

  37. 2010/05/4isd503 say:

    Thank you!!! This worked for me on 10.6.3. Very quick and easy fix!

  38. 2010/05/17John say:

    Thanks a million for your post. After a quick check with the local help menu (and no answer), I googled “authentication required to print” and you had the answer. It worked for me on 10.6.3. I deleted and added the printer in question on both macs. Immediate results!

  39. 2010/05/24Suzanne say:

    Whew, thanks for posting this! I didn’t realize there would be so many minor hiccups after upgrading to Snow Leopard but I appreciate your straightforward instructions.

  40. 2010/05/25chris say:

    OMG this was driving me crazy! Thanks so much!!! So easy once I came across you fix it instructions.

    Cheers!!

  41. 2010/05/31Keenan say:

    Thank you so much! You might want to post this on the apple support forums, they seem to be helpless over there.

  42. 2010/06/6Niyi say:

    I had this authentication problem myself and I was just thinking of giving Apple support a ring but then I thought I should try the internet. Following your steps I am now able to print.
    Thank you.

  43. 2010/06/9Joe say:

    This didn’t work for me on 10.6.3. Still can’t print.

  44. 2010/06/10Robert say:

    THANK YOU! You’ve just saved my life.

  45. 2010/06/22Lawrence say:

    This worked perfectly. Thanks!

  46. 2010/06/22joe cain say:

    thanks works on 10.6.4. fantastic

  47. 2010/06/23Lachlan McDonald say:

    We had a similar issue on two office computers running 10.6, except we encountered it after we updated the printer driver. Solution worked fine.

  48. 2010/07/10Jon Kingston say:

    Thanks a million! Had never seen this error before. Probably a Unix permissions issue?

  49. 2010/07/13Brian A. Frederick say:

    Thx – you made a rookie feel like a pro!!!!!

  50. 2010/07/16Paul Tedder say:

    Wonderful write-up. Worked perfectly! As a newbie with printing on OS X this was very helpful.

  51. 2010/07/28Joel say:

    Thank you! You might want to tell some that a right click is press-and-hold-control-key and then click the mouse while hovering over the printer icon.

  52. 2010/08/18Scott say:

    THANK YOU!! I’ve been struggling with this for a few days, and your simple fix did the trick!!

  53. 2010/08/22Thommy say:

    Thank You Thank you Thank you, now i can print again.

  54. 2010/09/3Harold say:

    Thank you, my wife couldn’t print for a few days with her MacBook. With your instructions it took less than 5 minutes to get the printer working.

  55. 2010/09/8TheGator7 say:

    Spent 2.5 hours on phone with Apple with no success. Followed above steps and solved it in 2 minutes. Key was resetting printing services on host machine – mac support had me reset only on remote machine. U ROCK!

  56. 2010/09/9Pavol Vaskovic say:

    Thank you! I can print again! ;-)

  57. 2010/09/9Lisana say:

    Just another word of thanks! Started noticing this issue just a week or so ago and had given up in frustration at that time since I was in a hurry and didn’t “need” the item I was trying to print.

  58. 2010/09/15Torley say:

    I thank you graciously as well!

  59. 2010/09/24Brad say:

    You are amazing man. Fixed it instantly!

  60. 2010/09/26Greatt say:

    Thanks for your instruction. It solved my problem.

    Great!!

  61. 2010/10/2Jack say:

    This worked great on the latest and greatest OSX platforms, iMac (Server), early Mac Book Pro 13″ and the top of the line Mac Book Pro 15″. Thank you for keeping me from going mad.

  62. 2010/10/3helene James say:

    Good morning, Ted
    Thank you so much , I followed your instructions and it did work. I was going to take the matter to my OnetoOne instructor at Apple store but I do not have to do this…I have tried and tried and nothing ever worked, so many thanks for sharing this to the world…helene

  63. 2010/10/6Anonymous say:

    Dude, thank you. You rock

  64. 2010/10/10Frank Kim say:

    Thank you so much!

  65. 2010/10/15Maxtcc say:

    Thanks for the ideas on help, but this is not working for me with OSX 10.6.4
    iMac 27″ , macbook c2duo, iMac as server, epson 610 workforce via wifi, Canon 4350d laser usb on iMac.
    all shared and checked. Working on iMac but not macbook, phooey!
    macbook gets the epson via wifi, but not the Canon via network.

    any ideas appreciated!

  66. 2010/10/25Alex say:

    Thank you soo much!! You saved my life, I had a report due and with your instructions, I was able to print my work.

    Thanks alot!

  67. 2010/10/28Ask MacTalk - Episode 12 - MacTalk Forums say:

    [...] fix if you're experiencing "authentication required" errors when sharing printers – Snow Leopard Shared Printer Job “On Hold: Authentication Required” fix – Ted Naleid __________________ MacBook Pro 15" (mid-2009) – Mac Mini (mid-2007) – i (Pad | Phone | [...]

  68. 2010/11/17Marc say:

    Thanks for solving my first problem with my FIRST iMac. Appreciate your instructions (and help),

  69. 2011/01/5George say:

    You’re awesome. Your fix was plain, simple, explained well, and WORKED.

    Thanks so much

  70. 2011/01/7Murray say:

    thanks for the fix. it was the bomb!

  71. 2011/01/14Claire say:

    BRILLIANT!!! It worked on 10.6.6.
    Couldn’t print anything on two different HP printers. In the print box kept saying job was on Hold, but then when I tried to delete job, it kept saying there was no job on hold…
    Just remember to RIGHT CLICK to get the “Reset Printers” Option. Was using a single clicker mouse to start with …….

  72. 2011/01/17Squished Spider say:

    Brilliant – such a simple solution! At last I can now print from my MacBook Pro to my Mac Mini. Thanks :)

  73. 2011/01/30Bill S say:

    Thanks! Worked like a charm.

  74. 2011/02/5Paul say:

    Thanks man!

  75. 2011/03/6Mark N say:

    Thank you sir,
    Both printers are now working, one Firewire and one USB.
    Had to do similar a few years ago, but must have trashed that
    file from my brain. Bless you and Google.

  76. 2011/03/15Sam say:

    Thank you. It worked on 10.6.6

  77. 2011/04/9KCG say:

    Still struggling.

    Why is printing form one computer to another to hard in this day and age!?

  78. 2011/04/25rick jarvis say:

    TED! TED! TED! TED! TED! TED! TED! your name loses all meaning when repeated over and over, but you sure do know your snow leopard networked printer troubleshooting! TED!TED!TED!TED!

  79. 2011/06/10Wynona say:

    I can’t believe how I tried everything possible …… spent hours looking for hidden passwords in the keychain on both computers…… trying to figure out if the firewall suddenly became a problem after upgrading to Snow Leopard….. (kept getting a box asking for password)….. deleted the printer on the remote machine I was trying to print from …..never suspected the host machine with new Snow Leopard had to have printer resets too.

    Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

  80. 2011/08/13Nick R. say:

    Been looking for a solution to this for over a year – THIS WORKED! Thank you!

  81. 2011/08/13Nick R. say:

    Oh, I’m now on 10.7 on one machine and the (culprit) Snow Leopard machine is what needed to be fixed.

  82. 2011/08/17bap say:

    This will work, but I have seen other sharing issues as well.
    For some reason, possibly due to force quits, the computer gets confused and sharing is off even if checked.

    Before deleting preferences, go into the prefs in the computer sharing the printer and turn off sharing and then turn it back on.

    This will usually work. Sometimes you may have to hold and resume printing on the sending computer.

  83. 2011/08/25Ian say:

    Followed your instructions to the letter, but no go with a Macbook on Lion connected to a pc (workgroup) with my Samsung laser printer.
    I must be missing something and have tried a lot.
    1/ tried Bonjour
    2/ tried a print server, bought and installed today….not compatible with a Mac
    3/ tried PrintShare software..this worked, but not with the Mac. I can print from my phone, but not from the Mac. (cost $5 a month)
    4/ tried Network Magic…does not work with a Mac.
    5/ tired your method and still get “authentication required”

    Ian

  84. 2011/08/25Ian say:

    When I said tired, I meant tried….but really am tired. :-)

  85. 2011/08/26Marina say:

    Thank you :) this was driving me crazy and now it works.

  86. 2011/09/13PT Seadog say:

    Thanks!!! It was driving me crazy I had this problem with my new MacBook Pro (Lion 10.7.1) and this solved it.

  87. 2011/09/23Jack say:

    Im running Lion 10.7.1 and this fix hasnt worked, still experiencing the “On Hold: Authentication Required” problem. If anyone has any further tips please let me know.

  88. 2011/10/8Jerry Rocteur say:

    Thanks very much.

  89. 2011/12/5Robert say:

    I am running 10.6.8, and this problem came out of nowhere. This solution did not work for me.

  90. 2012/01/9Geoff1750 say:

    Using 10.7 and used guest for user and guest for password and it worked!

  91. 2012/03/29CN say:

    Thank you for taking the time to make this. I was able to reset the busted print system on a second-hand Mac with your help.

  92. 2012/04/20AAnon say:

    For 10.7, all I had to do was click the “Resume” button from the printer queue and then I was prompted to update the credentials in the key ring. This is easier and works better, as it does not delete you previously configured printers.

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