Mac print driver problem

Factual Questions
1

I am using OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8) It is an old mac and the OS cannot be further updated. I have just purchased a Brother J480DW and there is no available driver that I can find to run the printer from the Mac. Is there a way around this, perhaps some generic or prior driver that I can use?

2

I looked here but I can’t even see your printer’s model number. I don’t know Brother printers - is yours on there, under a different name?

3

No it is not. It’s entire name is MFC J480 DW.

4

This is a GDI printer, so unless you can find a CUPS printer driver that is close enough, you are SOL.

Snow Leopard is a nice OS, but it’s almost 9 years old. Time to upgrade.

5

Your best bet will be to find news of someone who got theirs working, on either a Mac or on Linux, and try whatever worked for them.

Or confirmation that someone is sure why it can’t work.

There can be CUPS drivers that sort of work - and sometimes sort of working is good enough.

6

I was pointed to this set of drivers on a Mac forum.

It took several rounds of deleting the printer and restarting and deleting the printer again and restarting and creative swearing—but I finally got a page to emerge. However, it hasn’t reliably printed for me. Now I usually only get the top 15 percent of a page.

Other options I intend to try:

https://www.openprinting.org/printer/Brother/Brother-DCP-7020

7

did you buy the printer through ebay or amazon or directly from brother? when you were deciding on which printer, what was your focus priority? how much time did you spend researching features 'n quirks/limitations 'n compatibility issues? from what i have read (on amazon) …
[ul]
[li]the printer automatically cleans itself … this cleaning process wastes a lot of ink.[/li][li]if you use only black ink … once the black ink runs out, you will need to replace all four inks.[/li][li]if you need to use the scan feature, and one of your inks runs out, you cannot use the scan feature.[/li][/ul]
again … i have no practical experience with the product … just what i have read.

other points to keep in mind …
[ul]
[li]did you go to manufacturer’s website? did you visit their support website? have you read the manual? have you tried contacting brother support?[/li][li]brother offers a “complete driver package” which, purportedly, installs all drivers for the designated os of your choice.[/li][li]what was the motivating factor behind choosing a brother product … and not, say, an epson or canon product?[/li][li]when deciding on the J480 model … did you tell the salesman your os is 10.6.8 … or did you merely assume the printer would be compatible with your outdated os?[/li][li]have you checked questions*(371)* and reviews*(774)* on amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014U39MV0) for that particular product? yes … read every single excerpt in it’s entirety.[/li][/ul]
Brother Printer Drivers 2.10 for OS X
(driver may be incompatible with newest printers)

(mac os automatically installs drivers)

http://imefimovadotu.cba.pl/vapal75hjh7r3.html
(free driver available for 10.6.8 and j480)
[make sure you check for viruses before downloading (www.virustotal.com) … and, once the file has downloaded to computer, again scan file with your local av. back up any important personal files before installing. if that website implements a “managed” installer … i would look elsewhere … because the managed installer could piggy-back malware.]

http://www.brother-usa.com/askus/default.aspx?PGID=5&R3ModelID=MFCJ480DW
personally, i would use all three vehicles offered (phone, chat, email). even if they isolate “index-cards” to answer your query … you are bound to score a second prognosis by utilizing all three methods.

finally … check other mac-osx forums … usually they offer sub-forums for 10.6.8/printers/devices/etc … google filter: “apple mac-osx-10.6.8 forums”

disclaimer … owning a computer is a responsibility … it’s all on your shoulders going forward.

8

[QUOTE=albino_manatee;20891657
http://imefimovadotu.cba.pl/vapal75hjh7r3.html
(free driver available for 10.6.8 and j480)[/QUOTE]

This is a Malware site.

9

I don’t know if the lack of support for this printer is due to any fundamental changes in macOS or it’s simply a matter of Brother not spending the resources to fully test it on such an old OS. I haven’t done this before, but I would probably, as a long shot, try manually installing the 10.0.8 driver (4.0.4b). However this would take some shell/terminal expertise:

  1. Download the 4.0.4b macOS driver (this one)
  2. unarchive the .pkg file using xar
  3. rename the Payload file to Payload.gz and use gunzip to uncompress it
  4. use cpio -i < Payload to unarchive the install payload
  5. copy Library/Printers/Brother to /Library/Printers
  6. copy Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/* /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources
  7. run ‘lpinfo -m’ and verify your printer driver shows up in the output (Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/Brother MFC-J480DW CUPS.gz Brother MFC-J480DW CUPS)
  8. Add the printer from the System Preferences interface
  9. Press print and pray

HTH

10

You can email it to your iPhone/Android and print it from AirPlay / Google Cloud Print