Advanced properties of printer greyed out for one user

[HCHTech]

Ok - this must be a permissions issue, but I sure can't find it.

This a Server2016 domain, workstations are all Win10-20H2. The DC has the print server role and we are sharing two printers, a Xerox copier and an HP Pagewide XL 3200 via group policy.

A single user reported today that when printing from Adobe Acrobat XI, the "advanced" features are greyed out and non-changable for the HP Pagewide. I remoted in and confirmed this, and I noted that the advanced tab of the normal printer properties dialog is also completely greyed out for him. All of the other tabs are normal and he can print fine, he just can't change any of the advanced options. This is where the orientation lives, as well as other very commonly changed features. The user has confirmed that on other employees computers the advanced tab is available and works normally.

I uninstalled the printer and did a reinstall with a gpupdate /force, but that didn't change anything. So next I logged onto the DC and looked at the printer there in control panel (looks normal). It is shared, and the "Everyone" group has print rights on the security tab (identical to the Xerox copier, which is not exhibiting the symptom for this user).

As a test, I added this user specifically on the security tab and gave him print rights. After another gpupdate, I see that the advanced page under printer properties in control panel is now lit up as it should be. I thought I was done, but when testing it in Adobe Acrobat, the advanced features were still greyed out. Restarting the print spooler service and rebooting the workstation did not change things.

Next, I removed the printer again and deleted the driver in the printui.exe dialog, verified with device manager. Another reboot reinstalled the printer on login (so group policy is working), but the symptom is still there. Manually running Adobe as administrator did not change things either. Everything looks fine in Print Management on the server, and it's working for everyone else, just not the unlucky guy.

Googling this error didn't turn up much other than reinstalling the printer, which I've done. I'm stumped - anyone run into this before?

 

[phaZed]

That's a weird one. Can't say I've seen that one. Sounds like you did the usual things... did you happen to check to see what the users were? Local or MS account?

Sounds like a permissions issue to me, and with what you've already done, that's the last idea I have for ya. Wonder if a MS account has mucked up "permissions"/DC... etc.

 

[timeshifter]

I may have missed it, but did you try printing from other apps? Adobe printing can be a pain sometimes.

Have you tried logging in as him in another machine?

Reinstall Adobe Acrobat?

 

[HCHTech]

Everyone is using domain accounts to log on, but they have O365 Business Premium (Now M365 Business Standard I guess) so Microsoft is involved, I'm going to try the Adobe reinstall today once they dig up the installer source. It's Acrobat XI, so old - I'd blame this whole thing on that if it weren't for the other happy users with identical setups.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

The GPO to push out the printers, is it deployed to "users" or "computer"?

I have seen this error before.....quite some time ago. I always have the GPO deploy to "computers". ...and I think the one time I saw this issue, the prior person who setup that GPO had it deploy to users, but I'm not recalling the "why" yet....

 

[HCHTech]

I'll have to check that GPO, can't guarantee it isn't deployed to users without looking.

However, I did figure out the problem. From Control Panel, Devices and Printers. In the printer properties for this thing, the driver selection offers 3 choices:

1. HP PageWide XL 3900 MFP V4
2. HP PageWide XL 3900PS MFP PDF V4
3. HP PageWide XL 3900 PS MFP V4

#2 was selected. I switched to #3, which did not work, then I switched to #1 and Adobe is now happy and the fix survived a reboot. I don't know if they need Postscript or not, so I don't know if this is the final fix.

The clue was in this Adobe forum post. I would have thought completely removing the driver and uninstalling/reinstalling the printer would have changed that things, but apparently not.

Guess I'm glad I figured it out, but these 30-second fixes that take 4 hours of effort to find aren't my favorite kind of learning.

BTW, @YeOldeStonecat the GPO is definitely deployed per user. It seems to have worked for everyone until now, so I don't want to risk breaking things for the other 20 users just to test it for this one guy. If it turns out this fix is not workable, that will be the next thing to do. "Per Computer" doesn't need specific permissions, while "Per User" deployment runs with the rights of the user in question, yes? It makes sense then that it could affect things like this, but doesn't explain why the other users aren't having this problem. Hmm.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

"Per Computer" doesn't need specific permissions, while "Per User" deployment runs with the rights of the user in question, yes? It makes sense then that it could affect things like this, but doesn't explain why the other users aren't having this problem. Hmm.

I agree it doesn't explain why it isn't working for him, yet is fine for other. Just...not being able to know the setup of the OUs here, and how things are applied....
I started doing "per computer" as my usual way, because....often computers don't move, yet...people may log into different computers around the office. So....computers are a "location thing". The computers are the reception area will usually prefer the workgroup printer up there, not the printers over in the phones bullpen. But the same employees may go back 'n forth across those computers.