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

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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.

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

  1. Joel

    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.

  2. Scott

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

  3. Thommy

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

  4. Harold

    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.

  5. TheGator7

    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!

  7. Lisana

    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.

  11. Jack

    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.

  12. helene James

    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

  15. Maxtcc

    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!

  16. Alex

    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!

  17. Ask MacTalk - Episode 12 - MacTalk Forums

    [...] 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 | [...]

  18. Marc

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

  19. George

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

    Thanks so much

  21. Claire

    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 …….

  22. Squished Spider

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

  25. Mark N

    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.

  27. KCG

    Still struggling.

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

  28. rick jarvis

    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!

  29. Wynona

    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.

  31. Nick R.

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

  32. bap

    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.

  33. Ian

    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

  34. Ian

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

  35. Marina

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

  36. PT Seadog

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

  37. Jack

    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.

  39. Robert

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

  40. Geoff1750

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

  41. CN

    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.

  42. AAnon

    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.

  44. Marc

    FWIW, the last step wasn’t necessary for me. Thanks for these instructions.

  46. France-Leigh

    Thank you – very helpful! Solved this very annoying problem for me :)

  47. Rickard

    Thanks so very much – you are a real genious ;-) Spared me a lot of work!

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