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I deleted my really old printer, now I can't get it back

Printer question

I deleted my (extremely old and no longer supported) Brother 8460N printer from my installed printer list (I can’t remember why), thinking I could reinstall it later. But it doesn’t show up in the dialog box when I go to System Settings/Printers & Scanners and click the "Add Printer, Scanner or Fax…" button. I don’t know what to type in the Search field to search field - "Brother 8460N" doesn’t find anything. What actual file in the System Library folder was deleted when I deleted it from the printer list? I have a clone last updated on July 21, so I thought I might be able to copy the file from the clone. And what is the file, and where do I look? There is a file called "Brother MFC-8460N CUPS.gz" in the "Mac HD/Library/Printers/PPDs" folder, but that folder is empty on the clone. I copied "InstalledPrinters.plist" to /Library/Preferences but it still didn’t show up.

The most current driver available on the Brother website is really old - it’s for OS X (10.10). I installed it anyway, but my printer still doesn’t show up. Is there maybe a way to use Time Machine to look for the file I need?


This printer is over 20 years old, but still works fine. Until I deleted it from the printer list. Please tell me I haven’t lost the use of it forever. The ethernet port is dead, so I have it connected to my Mac Mini by USB.


Mac Mini 2018 (Macmini8,1)

Sonoma 14.6.1

Brother 8460N

Mac mini, macOS 14.6

Posted on Aug 31, 2024 7:45 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 31, 2024 1:02 PM

TWAIN scanning support usually means that the macOS Image Capture app will work with the scanner.


The other potential option here is the third-party VueScan app, as that supports many different scanner vendors and models.

10 replies

Aug 31, 2024 12:22 PM in response to John Haley1

John Haley1 wrote:

Color me embarrassed. I solved the problem - the USB cable was unplugged. 🙄


Good that you got it working.


It’s also a network-capable printer with 10 MbE and 100 MbE Ethernet wired support available, and the scanner supports TWAIN for scanning.


Switching from USB to network access has various advantages, including enabling printer sharing.


This printer also supports a useful variety of printing protocols including IPP, and IPP was later used as the basis for AirPrint. (This printer does not support AirPrint though, as it is too old for that.) IPP is widely supported for printing, and usually avoids needing add-on drivers.

I deleted my really old printer, now I can't get it back

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