I have three different Brother printers, all with AirPrint capability. Lately, we have noticed that it takes unreasonably long time for devices to recognize that the printers are online. This was much less of an issue before the 26-editions of macOS, iOS and iPadOS. We see the same behaviour across all device types, with delays in discovery up to several minutes.
The network setup is unchanged (unless some auto-update have pushed an undesired “Default” value). The printer settings are also unchanged.
Anyone have some ideas on where I should start troubleshooting? Not sure what protocol is currently in use for network device discovery today - kinda hoping Bonjour has been replaced by something more robust by now
Yeah, I’ve considered just getting another switch and hardwire the damn printers in
Now, I did find a network setting that tries to be smart about “converting multicast to unicast when possible” and maybe it is a bit overconfident about when it is actually possible. From limited testing after disabling that setting, it appears to have helped a bit. There’s still a iPhone 15 that can’t see the printers though…
The quest continues!
EDIT: After disabling the network option in Unifi, under WiFi settings called Multicast and Broadcast Control and Multicast Enhancement my Airprint devices now show up like instantly. These may be handy settings in a business environment with lots of users, but here at home, I probably won’t even notice they are off. Plus, Airprint works and spousal-complaint-rate has reduced considerably.
