Looking to print from your iOS5 iPod, iPhone or iPad without using a compatible AirPrint printer?
If so, this is the guide for you.
First things first though, read and do this:
How to print from an iPod, iPhone or iPad, without using a compatible AirPrint printer
Once done, iOS4 devices will be able to print fine.
With the release of iOS5 however, Apple
'broke' this trick and all iOS5 devices were suddenly unable to print to non-AirPrint compatible printers again.
This is how you get iOS5 devices printing once more:
1) You need to unregister your currently installed AirPrint Service. To do this, run a command prompt (make sure you run the command prompt as Administrator) and type:
sc.exe delete Airprint
2) Run services.msc and stop the AirPrint service (this will cause it to then be removed)
3) Now you need to re-register the AirPrint service, but with more detailed options. From your command prompt, type:
sc.exe create AirPrint binPath= "C:\Program Files\AirPrint\airprint.exe -R _ipp._tcp,_universal -s" depend= "Bonjour Service" start= auto
(note, those spaces should be there)
4) Now start the AirPrint service running again:
sc.exe start Airprint
5) That's it, you're back in business!
You'll now be able to see your shared printers in your iOS5 devices again.
A couple of points to note on the above. If you see a padlock next to the name of the printer, you'll need to enable the Guest account on your computer and / or give the Guest account permission to the printer share (under the Security tab of the printer properties). You'll need to restart the AirPrint service once you've edited the Guest account. Not ideal, would be interested in an alternative to making the Guest account live.
Another point to note if you're on a 64-bit system, the path in instruction point three (above) might be wrong, you might need to use a
\Program Files (x86)\ instead of
\Program Files\
Possible trouble shooting issues with the above, various things to try:
- If you get a "StartService FAILED 1053" error, it'll be because your command prompt wasn't being run with elevated Administrator permissions. Be sure to right click on the cmd.exe and select "Run as administrator".
- If not set already, run services.msc, double click on the AirPrint Service, select the Log on Tab, click the Log on as Local System account and set the Allow Service to Interact With Desktop check box.
- Reboot your iOS device.
- Add AirPrint.exe to your firewall exceptions.
Enjoy.
