A Tale of 3 MBAs and a Printer

The issue you're facing with the M4 MBA getting stuck on "Sending data to printer" while the M2 and M3 work normally usually indicates a communication problem between macOS Tahoe on the M4 and the Epson L360 USB driver layer.

In many similar cases, the problem isn’t the printer itself but a corrupted USB printing cache or a missing legacy plugin that Epson models like the L360 still depend on.

[Edited by Moderator]

That's good information. I think you're getting closer to determining what's wrong. I will to look into it a bit more and follow up later today.

Fixing what's wrong might be a different story. For now, investigate that printer's documentation on Epson's website... I have to translate it. On those support pages, look into the possibility of a firmware update.

You're probably way ahead of me but confirm you downloaded and installed the following (long URL) on the subject Mac?

L360 Series

It is supposed to include any required firmware update, should that be a factor. Beware the URL may be different for me here in the US.

The most popular is that this is a problem with the client user's keychain and the solution is to delete the keychain entry for this printer. I have searched and can find no suspect in the keychain that has anything to do with any printer.

That is a reasonable suggestion. I looked for one as well; can't find anything that might be related to it in Keychain.

I remember when printing did not demand authentication credentials. Next thing you know you'll have to prove you're a human before you are permitted to print anything. I thought we did that by reading what gets printed. After all zebras don't read.

I'm approaching the limit of what I can suggest. The only remaining suggestion would be to contact Epson and I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

If all else fails read the manual?

https://download4.epson.biz/sec_pubs/l360_series/useg/en/manual.pdf

I constantly read contradicting information and claims about printers and printer drivers and I don't know what to think.

The conflicting information is at least in part Apple's fault. In the distant past printer manufacturers did provide their drivers to Apple, who did little more than curate it and make it available through Software Update. That method preceded the App Store. The responsibility for curation and distribution quickly became a growing burden for them.

Shortly after the iPhone came out Apple made it abundantly clear they were no longer interested in hosting installable third party drivers of any sort, leaving AirPrint as the way forward for printers / scanners / MFDs. Notably, Brother was the first manufacturer to wholeheartedly embrace it (as they did with CUPS even earlier). Other printer manufacturers eventually caught on but it took nearly a decade for them to see the light.

So how did Apple contribute to the confusion? An earlier version of Add a printer on Mac (since retitled Add a printer to your printer list so you can use it on Mac - Apple Support) contained the following passage that specifically instructed the user to not install anything from the manufacturer's website:

Don’t install the software that came with the printer or from the manufacturer’s website; follow the instructions in one of the tasks below, and macOS will prompt you to download the latest software if it’s needed.

(emphasis added)

However, the passage that preceded it implied it was only applicable to AirPrint-enabled printers, which (among many others) the HP 1022 is not. That passage has now been revised to read:

If your printer isn’t compatible with AirPrint, install the latest software that came with the printer or from the manufacturer’s website.

(emphasis added again)

So we had to install drivers, until we were told not to, only to be told to install drivers again. Apple did a full 360.

So when Apple replied to @Buahdai saying Epson had not provided drivers to them what does that mean then? Boilerplate nonsense?

Boilerplate or not, it was not helpful. Miscommunication, misunderstanding, apathy, probably all three.

And FWIW my HP 1022 (USB, no network) works wirelessly even though it has no such capability. I’ve been using a software printer server called Printopia for years on the HP.

Printopia was an excellent hack. My Apple ImageWriter works wirelessly too, and it predates USB. As do other old, abandoned, non-AirPrint printers. A story for another day.

Want more confusion? There are AirPrint-enabled printers that are not wireless. For them, AirPrint works over USB. AirPrint is primarily a communications protocol that does not necessarily require a wireless connection.

Obviously I have no way to confirm, but I suspect Apple made the unilateral decision years ago that paper printouts shall henceforth cease to exist. How's that been working out I wonder. I have not bothered to check, but if had to guess there's more paper being produced now than ever before.

And, a commensurately increasing number of cheap garbage inkjet printers being sent to landfills every year...

Your summary confirms my understanding of the circumstances, and resembles what I would have done — and have done — with every Mac ever purchased, going back to the mid-90s or so, to the extent it was possible to do anything at all back then. You described a by-the-book indisputably ideal way of upgrading hardware and migrating content. The only conclusion I can possibly draw is that the Epson driver has a flaw, and a hardware-specific one at that. The error message (printed) is its only indication, which suggests a failure to authenticate. You did everything reasonable to address that as well. I may be biased toward Apple but I can't find any justification not to suggest Epson is at fault.

My current plan is to set up a spare Raspberry Pi as a print server. I’ve done the same thing with a no-longer-supported-by-Apple Canon Lide 30 scanner which still produces beautiful scans for any computer on the LAN. What did you have in mind?

Exactly what you did. As far as I can tell the Raspberry Pi's Debian OS incorporates drivers for every printer known to exist, or at least those anyone cares about, the Apple ImageWriter series among them.

I had a little to do with that, but I also had a lot of help. Among them is a legendary Apple alumnus, and another gentleman who knows almost nothing about Apple but is detail-oriented to a fault. He does amazing work. Several fellow Apple Support Communities participants also contributed to the effort.

As I alluded to earlier, there aren't many people with that kind of motivation, but they have a passion that impersonal corporations literally can't afford, multi-trillion dollar market valuations notwithstanding.

Trying to understand here. Printer manufacturers are supposed to supply Apple with drivers which Apple adds to macOS. When adding a printer you are not supposed to have to download and install a driver, it’s already there (as Apple indicates in its response to you). For me personally I have never downloaded a driver from a manufacturer. I add the printer by selecting it from a list provided by the macOS print system. I have an Epson WF-2860 and an ancient HP 1022 LaserJet that have continued to work through numerous updates of macOS.

Did you download a driver only after trying and failing to add the printer using Apple’s supply or did you download and install right away.

Not suggesting anything or arguing with your process. Just trying to understand why you chose to download the drivers you did.