Can't find driver for Canon Pixma MX860

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I’m trying to connect a Canon Pixma MX860 multifunction printer to a High Sierra iMAC. When I connect the USB cable and go to printer preferences, the iMAC recognizes the printer correctly as an MX860. But under choose a driver it says the driver is not available from Apple and to contact the manufacturer. Unfortunately, when I go to the Canon support pages for the MX860 it says there is “no driver available, or you may not need a driver”. With no driver, though, the iMAC won’t let me add the printer!

This is a fairly old printer, purchased sometime in 2014. Am I just out of luck? Or is there some generic driver I can get somewhere? I hate to give this printer up because it’s excellent, IMHO

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

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I got my MX 860 in 2009.  In the Windows world, Canon has not produced a driver for Windows 10; drivers top out a Windows 8.  The 8 driver still lets me print, but the scanning software does not see the scanner any more.   I think Canon would rather see us by new Canon printers so has basically stopped supporting the MX 860.

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DrBonzo

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Under the caution section it says to reinstall the printer and scanner driver after upgrading to Windows 8.1. Sigh, do IT people sometimes ponder what else they could have done with their lives?

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Something else to try: Will macOS High Sierra 10.13 accept the Pixma MX860 macOS Yosemite 10.10 drivers?

Do you have the original driver CD and another computer to copy the CD contents to a flash drive?

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DrBonzo

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@anonymous #1908472: Thanks. It worked! The original CD is long lost, but I did download the Yosemite drivers. They installed just fine and I’ve got a functioning printer. Not quite sure about the scanner, yet, but that’s just a bonus anyway.

Thanks for your help.

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DrBonzo,

How did you go about getting a driver for your printer meant for Yosemite and how did you install it successfully in a Mac running High Sierra? I think that it can be very useful to know how to get and then install a driver from a version of the macOS older than the one in the Mac.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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@OscarCP – I went here: https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/printers/support-inkjet-printer/mx-series/pixma-mx860 and clicked on Drivers and Downloads. You’ll see the detected OS and also links for software, firmware, and utilities.

But you can choose any operating system you want and download anything you want for that choice of OS.

As far as installation, I installed just as I would any .dmg file. It installed just fine, and the drivers were recognized when I went to printers and scanners Preferences to add the printer. I printed off a test page and a random pdf file and everything seems to work just as it should.

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Myst, OscarCP

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You can also go to Canon Global and search on some of the different country’s pages. I found a Canon driver once on the Canon Thailand page.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Yes! another good printer saved from an untimely disposal. Can the scanner be use for its intended purpose when connect to the computer?

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I installed the scanner driver listed for Yosemite. It did actually install – at least it said it did – and I’ve got a scanner icon in the upper right of the monitor. But when I tried to scan it told me I had to scan using the control panel on the MX860. So, I don’t know if it’s a driver incompatibility or not. I scan enough to want the scanner, but not enough to make having to use the control panel an issue.

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If you simply can’t get the scanner to work on your iMac, you could set up a virtual machine with Windows as the OS, then install the scanner in the VM. Then click over to the VM whenever you need to scan. A bit of a hassle, but at least you can scan.

If you’re willing to pay a few dollars, you could try VueScan (https://www.hamrick.com/). It works well in Linux; it probably would work well on the iMac. You can try it free before buying it. (The free version has a watermark in the scanned image.)

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Nathan Parker, DrBonzo

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A little more snooping around on the Canon support site reveals I may need something called MP Navigator EX, which is downloadable from the site.

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Myst

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[geekdom]

Here:
https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/printers/support-inkjet-printer/mx-series/pixma-mx860/pixma-mx860?subtab=downloads-drivers

with notice:
Canon will not issue drivers for this model to support the Windows 10 operating system. The Windows 7 or Windows 8 drivers should function in the Windows 10 environment with some limitations which are currently unknown to Canon.

There’s also a Windows 8.1 driver.

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by geekdom.

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There is a way to set printers on a Mac to use a generic PostScript driver in CUPS. If you still have issues, let me know, and I can dig up the instructions.

Nathan Parker

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Myst, DrBonzo

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Good to know there’s another method with a generic driver. So far the “MX860 Series CUPS Printer Driver” I downloaded from the Canon support site is working fine. According to that website, Yosemite is the last OS version that has any downloadable drivers. On the other hand the driver I downloaded was dated 8/25/2017. So, perhaps the site isn’t being kept totally up to date.

On the other hand when you look here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201465, (a site which says it is no longer maintained) it says the MX860 driver software is available from Apple. Well, it’s not! Interestingly, the High Sierra iMAC correctly identified the MX860 (connected with USB cable) even without any installed drivers.

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Nathan Parker

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DrBonzo wrote:

On the other hand when you look here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201465, (a site which says it is no longer maintained) it says the MX860 driver software is available from Apple. Well, it’s not! Interestingly, the High Sierra iMAC correctly identified the MX860 (connected with USB cable) even without any installed drivers.

You could report the issue to Apple.com/Feedback, but Apple does seem to be pushing more AirPrint printers now. Here are the Generic PostScript drivers instructions:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4592941

And macOS printing is based on CUPS:

https://www.cups.org/

Nathan Parker

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DrBonzo

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I’m sort of nonplussed with some of the Apple documentation, so I might report it.

I connected the same printer to an old laptop running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Interestingly, you follow almost exactly the same directions that Apple gives – the only difference is that those instructions work flawlessly on the Ubuntu computer! Ubuntu searches a database for the correct driver, finds and installs it, and just like that you’re ready to print.

At the risk of going a bit off topic, can an AirPrint printer be connected to a Mac with a USB cable and still work? I have no need or desire to connect wirelessly or set up a network, etc.

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Nathan Parker

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DrBonzo wrote:

At the risk of going a bit off topic, can an AirPrint printer be connected to a Mac with a USB cable and still work? I have no need or desire to connect wirelessly or set up a network, etc.

I think it can (and it would just pull the driver from Apple). My Canon AirPrint printer has a USB cable. Only reason I use AirPrint is to print from iPad, and since I have to put it on the network anyway, I might as well network print with my Macs.

Nathan Parker

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DrBonzo

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Well, this is kind of weird. After being told in Add Printer (Preferences—>Printers and Scanners) that Apple could not provide drivers for the Canon MX860, I got an update through the App Store last night for Canon driver software! I had already installed the driver listed for Yosemite (I’m running a High Sierra iMAC) from the Canon Support site and gotten the printer to work. It turns out that the offered update is the same as listed here in the Apple Support site:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201465#Canon

I installed the update and everything still works as before. But I wonder why Apple didn’t just offer the driver in the update to me when I first tried to add the printer?

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Nathan Parker

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I just got a refurbished MacBook Air today. It was originally released in 2017 (June, I think) but had Mojave 10.14.5 installed on it. So far I think it’s a very nice machine, although In my opinion, the initial setup was EXTREMELY annoying. I must have had to enter an apple id and password about 10 times – even had to do it to install some software updates to Pages, Keynote, etc. I hope I don’t need to enter passwords every time an update comes down the pike. I don’t have to on the High Sierra iMAC.

To the point of this thread’s topic, though, I set about to install the Canon Pixma860 printer, and to my amazement it worked just as advertised: I connected the printer via USB cable, turned the printer on, and immediately got a pop-up window asking if I would like to download and install software for the Canon Pixma860 printer. I did and in about 2 minutes, I was printing. The scanner works, too.

I’m glad it was so simple but I’m wondering why It worked so well on Mojave and so poorly on High Sierra.

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Nathan Parker

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DrBonzo,

I have Mojave on a MacBook Pro from mid-2015 and have never, since installing Mojave, had to enter my password to get an update of those applications you mention. Usually, I only need to use my password when I install a totally new application, right after downloading its dmg installer. Perhaps, your password exercise was necessary because that was the very first time you updated the applications in your McBook Air (?) I already had those installed in the same machine from earlier on, when running Sierra, the OS it came with, so I probably did the same whole password bit when I just got this Mac, more than two years ago; not that I would remember something like that, as it is just the sort of thing to forget as soon and as thoroughly as possible. However, if it turns out that you have to keep on entering your password every time you want to install new updates for the same applications, something that would be truly weird, I would suggest seeking professional help. Some time ago, Nathan mentioned a few places where Macs can be serviced and repaired, even if they are already out of support from Apple, so probably not the “Genius Bar” at an Apple shop. I made a note and put it somewhere… If I find it, I’ll let you know which were those places.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker, DrBonzo

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At the moment I’m thinking the password marathon was a one-time, initial setup deal. About an hour after I finished the setup and the initial updates to Pages, etc., I got another update notice for updating 10.14.5 to 10.14.6. I was able to install that as I normally would have on the iMAC; i. e., I did NOT have to enter a password.

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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DrBonzo wrote:

I installed the update and everything still works as before. But I wonder why Apple didn’t just offer the driver in the update to me when I first tried to add the printer?

It’s supposed to. This is likely some bug somewhere that needs to be reported. If Apple can update the driver, then it’s supposed to be able to install the driver when you plug in the printer in the first place.

In fact, that’s one thing I’ve always loved about Macs (how flawless it is to work with drivers versus Windows devices, where I had more driver issues than I have on Macs).

So your issue definitely sounds like a bug that Apple needs to be aware of.

Nathan Parker

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OscarCP, DrBonzo

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Well, I must say that after the initial setup my Mojave laptop has been the very definition of simplicity in setting up my printer and also Time Machine.

Thinking back on what I did with the High Sierra iMAC, I’m wondering if the order of operations I carried out had something to do with my issues.

On Mojave, I connected the printer, turned it on, and boom, I was downloading/installing software, then I went to Add Printer to finis it off.

On the High Sierra iMac I think I was already in Add Printer, when I either connected or turned the printer on. At that point it did recognize the printer but nothing else happened. So I’m wondering if perhaps the High Sierra OS (perhaps other versions of the OS, also?) can’t handle certain changes ‘on the fly’ (dynamic changes, or something like that?). Or is my thought here ridiculous?

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Nathan Parker

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My Macs have always come up with something automatically for my printers. It’s not always full-fumction (sometimes it is), but it has allowed basic printing. Now, if I want the scanner to work from the Mac, I may have had to go look on the mfg’s website to get the rest of the functionality.

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Nathan Parker, DrBonzo

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The software Mojave downloaded is terrific – full feature printing and scanning, with a much nicer interface than on Windows7.

The software I finally got from High Sierra is the same and even better than the Canon software I initially downloaded.

So, ultimately, everything turned out fine. I guess there’s just no such thing as frustration free computing.

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Nathan Parker, OscarCP, geekdom

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