HP OfficeJet Pro 9012e All-in-One AMAZON
Ok printer, just dont bother…
22/07/2021 15:48
I decided to get one of these, mostly for duplex scanning of taxes/documents and the occasional printing. I realised during setup that there is a "smart tasks" function which implies that it can scan directly to your email address. This seems great, since I can put a task in for my mum to scan straight to her email address, and I won't need to provide scanning tech support every time she wants to use the scanner.
My experience with the feature was frustrating and an incredible waste of time, honestly it reminded me of the hassles involved installing old-school printer drivers from decades ago.
It starts off seductively - "set up a smart task, type in an email address, give the task a name, and you're good to go". That doesn't work, of course. You have to go into the advanced settings and set up an SMTP connection to your email provider. There's no link or anything telling you that this is necessary, and there's no automatic setup for common email accounts (yahoo, google, etc). First you have to google the printer to see how to add the account, then you need to google for your email provider SMTP settings. All with basically zero help from the "smart hp" app.
Once you get that working by sending a test email from the advanced settings, you get all excited - "now I will set up an email-to-my-mum" smart task, and she will be able to click the smart tasks icon on the printer and automatically email her scan to her account". Nope.
It doesn't work, "Can't connect to server". But, HP, I just tested my server connection, and I can even run a smart task from my computer, and everything works! No other info.
Back to google to see that lots of people have the same problem. Sometimes it was a firmware update that fixed it, sometimes a full factory reset. Sometimes it just never works. Again, reminds me of the bad-old-days of device drivers.
I foolishly start trying the internet suggestions. Firmware update! Nope. Power-down! Nope. Factory-reset and full re-install! Nope.
I finally give up and called HP support. On the bright side here, the woman on the phone was helpful, and seemed to know her stuff. First, of course, she tried to do a screen share with me, which didn't work on my mac (HP software FTW!) Fortunately, I was already deep into this, so she was able to quickly ask me about the setup. We shut down the printer and unplugged, then rebooted. Then she had me "scan-to-email" from the printer, and lo-and-behold, it worked perfectly! Fixed!
Just to double check, I tried one more time to use the smart tasks button on the printer panel while tech support was on the phone. Nope. "Can't connect to server".
"Oh", she says, "Smart tasks only work from your computer or app, they don't work on the printer itself".
What??
Long-story short - this feature, which would be great on the printer itself, but is basically useless on a mac or iphone that has a keyboard for easy-typing of email addresses, only works on those fancy devices. Even though I can scan-to-email on the printer, I can't scan-to-email via a pre-setup "smart task".
So the printer seems fine as a printer and scanner, but don't bother with any fancy features. I'll keep it because, really, it's a printer. After years in the tech industry, I blame myself for getting suckered into trying a fancy feature on a relatively cheap printer. Don't make my mistake.
SianRevolt
London , Spojené království
Age: 24
Gender: Female