Is it possible to prevent Sequoia from searching for and/or querying network printers when the print command has been selected in apps?

[MikeDr206]

Background: I have a giant, lumbering Lexmark network printer that has served us well. It enters sleep mode after 1-2 minutes of inactivity.

Prior to upgrading to Sequoia (i.e., in Sonoma and before), when I selected the print command in applications like the native Mail app, the print dialog box would show up, and if I selected a printer other than the Lexmark (or pressed cancel, or selected saved as PDF), the Lexmark beast would not wake up.

However, with Sequoia, the printer wakes up as soon as you select the print command. The problem is that it's loud, so if I'm on the phone, or if my partner is still sleeping (small-ish condo), this is annoying.

It appears that Sequoia is either doing an active search on the LAN for printers, and/or is querying known (and/or found) printers for their capabilities and current status levels. Presumably this allow you to print to an AirPrint printer on the network even if you haven't previously added the printer to your printer list -- similar to how iPadOS works (which also wakes up the Lexmark, but which isn't a big deal since I print infrequently from my iPad).

Is there any way to shut off this functionality? I suspect not, but am hopeful. I'm wondering, for example, if there's a terminal command to either disable this functionality, or perhaps even disable AirPrint?

 

[tensixturtle]

What’s the exact model of the printer? Since the problem is that the printer waking up from sleep is the problem, I wonder if you can just disable sleep mode on your printer.

Also, if it is feasible in your setup, I wonder if having the printer connected to the Mac over USB and not AirPrint would lead to the same behaviour.

 

[MikeDr206]

tl;dr -- make sure that every printer discoverable on your network is in your list of printers with the exact name it's discovered as; do not change the name to something else, or else Sequoia will query the printer when you select the print command, causing it to wake up.

FULL STORY:

OK, I solved this problem. Basically, in at least some applications, when you select the print command Sequoia searches your local networks for printers. If it finds a printer with a name that is not currently in your list of printers, it then queries the printer to obtain information about its capabilities to show as an AirPrint printer. This is what woke up my Lexmark.

In my case, I had renamed my printer to "Lexmark C792de" (which is more accurate), but the printer presented its name to Sequoia as "Lexmark C792". Because "Lexmark C792" wasn't in my list of printers, Sequoia queried it for its capabilities, which woke up my printer.

The "Lexmark C792de" uses the Lexmark printer driver, which has additional capabilities that AirPrinter doesn't provide. Therefore, what I did was add the printer "Lexmark C792" to my list of printers.

Problem solved. Now when I select the print command, when Sequoia searches the network and finds "Lexmark C792," it sees that the printer is already in my list, and doesn't query the printer, such that the printer isn't woken up.