This article explains how to configure IPP printers on macOS devices using Factorial IT. The process involves discovering the printers available on the network, identifying their IP addresses, and importing the configuration into Factorial IT via a custom MDM setting.
Scan IPP printers on the network
If you already know your printer config, you can skip this part.
- Open Terminal on a macOS device.
-
Run the following command to discover all printers available through the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP):
ippfind - Note the list of discovered printers and their IPP URIs.
Identify the printer IP addresses
If you already know your printer config, you can skip this part.
- For each discovered printer, run a ping command to verify its availability and obtain its IP address:
Replace [printer-hostname] with the actual hostname displayed by ippfindping [printer-hostname] - Record the IP addresses and corresponding IPP URIs.
Generate the mobileconfig file
If you need help generating the mobileconfig file with ippfind command and ping, you can run this script on your mac while you’re connected to your office network. It will display the mobileconfig file in your terminal.
#!/bin/bash# macOS + bash 3.2 compatible# Discovers IPP printers and generates a .mobileconfig# Dependencies: ippfind, ipptool, uuidgen, ping, nc, plutil, arp# Usage:# ./gen_airprint_profile.sh [-o file.mobileconfig] [-i com.profile.id] [-s CIDR]# Example:# ./gen_airprint_profile.sh -o Factorial IT-AirPrint.mobileconfig -i com.getprimo.printer.airprint -s 192.168.1.0/24set -euo pipefailOUTPUT="AirPrint.mobileconfig"ROOT_ID="com.getprimo.printer.airprint"CIDR=""TIMEOUT_DISC=5PING_WAIT_MS=1000while getopts ":o:i:s:" opt; do case "$opt" in o) OUTPUT="$OPTARG" ;; i) ROOT_ID="$OPTARG" ;; s) CIDR="$OPTARG" ;; \?) echo "Invalid option: -$OPTARG" >&2; exit 2 ;; esacdoneneed() { command -v "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "Missing required tool: $1" >&2; exit 1; }; }need uuidgen; need ping; need plutil; need ipptool# ippfind and nc are recommended; without ippfind the script will fallback to CIDR/ARPcommand -v ippfind >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "⚠️ ippfind not found: mDNS discovery will be skipped."command -v nc >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "nc (netcat) is required for the network fallback."; exit 1; }xml_escape() { sed -e 's/&/\&/g' -e 's/</\</g' -e 's/>/\>/g' \ -e 's/\"/\"/g' -e "s/'/\'/g"}# -------- mDNS discovery via ippfind ----------URIS=()discover_mdns() { [ -x "$(command -v ippfind)" ] || return 0 # --timeout varies across versions; try short IPv4 timeout when available local out if ippfind --help 2>/dev/null | grep -q -- '--timeout'; then out=$(ippfind --timeout ${TIMEOUT_DISC} _ipp._tcp,_print _ipps._tcp,_print -q 2>/dev/null || true) else out=$(ippfind _ipp._tcp _ipps._tcp -q 2>/dev/null || true) fi if [ -n "$out" ]; then while IFS= read -r line; do [ -n "$line" ] && URIS+=("$line") done <<< "$out" fi}# -------- Fallback without mDNS ----------# 1) Build candidate IPs: explicit CIDR (/24 only) or ARP tablecandidates_from_arp() { arp -an 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $2}' | tr -d '()' | grep -E '^[0-9.]+$' | sort -u}candidates_from_cidr() { # Minimal /24 generator (e.g., 192.168.1.0/24); other masks are not supported here local cidr="$1" if ! echo "$cidr" | grep -qE '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+/24$'; then echo "⚠️ Unsupported CIDR for this mini-scanner (only /24): $cidr" >&2 return 1 fi local base="${cidr%/24}" local net=$(echo "$base" | awk -F. '{print $1"."$2"."$3"."}') local i for i in $(seq 1 254); do echo "${net}${i}"; done}# 2) Probe port 631 and try common IPP pathstry_make_uri() { local ip="$1" local path for path in "/ipp/print" "/.well-known/ipp" "/printers/print" "/ipp" "/printers/ipp"; do if ipptool -T 3 -q "ipp://$ip:631$path" get-printer-attributes.test >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo "ipp://$ip:631$path" return 0 fi done for path in "/ipp/print" "/.well-known/ipp" "/ipp"; do if ipptool -T 5 -q "ipps://$ip:631$path" get-printer-attributes.test >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo "ipps://$ip:631$path" return 0 fi done echo "" return 1}discover_fallback() { local candidates if [ -n "$CIDR" ]; then candidates=$(candidates_from_cidr "$CIDR" || true) else candidates=$(candidates_from_arp || true) fi [ -z "$candidates" ] && return 0 local ip uri while IFS= read -r ip; do [ -z "$ip" ] && continue if nc -G 1 -z "$ip" 631 2>/dev/null; then uri=$(try_make_uri "$ip") [ -n "$uri" ] && URIS+=("$uri") fi done <<< "$candidates"}# -------- Collect attributes for each URI ----------IPs=(); Ports=(); Paths=(); Names=(); Models=(); Locs=(); ForceTLS=()extract_components() { local uri="$1" scheme host port path ip name model loc scheme=$(printf '%s' "$uri" | sed -E 's#^([a-zA-Z0-9+.-]+)://.*#\1#') host=$(printf '%s' "$uri" | sed -E 's#^[a-zA-Z0-9+.-]+://([^/:]+).*#\1#') port=$(printf '%s' "$uri" | sed -E 's#^[a-zA-Z0-9+.-]+://[^/:]+:([0-9]+).*#\1#') path=$(printf '%s' "$uri" | sed -E 's#^[a-zA-Z0-9+.-]+://[^/]+(/.*)$#\1#') [ -z "${port:-}" ] && port=631 [ -z "${path:-}" ] && path="/ipp/print" ip=$(ping -c 1 -W ${PING_WAIT_MS} "$host" 2>/dev/null | sed -n '1s/.*(\([0-9.]*\)).*/\1/p') [ -z "${ip:-}" ] && ip="$host" name=""; model=""; loc="" if ipptool -T 5 -q "$uri" get-printer-attributes.test >/tmp/ipp.$$ 2>/dev/null; then name=$(sed -n 's/^printer-info[^=]*= //p' /tmp/ipp.$$ | head -n1) model=$(sed -n 's/^printer-make-and-model[^=]*= //p' /tmp/ipp.$$ | head -n1) loc=$(sed -n 's/^printer-location[^=]*= //p' /tmp/ipp.$$ | head -n1) rm -f /tmp/ipp.$$ fi [ -z "$name" ] && name="$host" [ -z "$model" ] && model="$name" IPs+=("$ip"); Ports+=("$port"); Paths+=("$path"); Names+=("$name"); Models+=("$model"); Locs+=("$loc"); if [ "$scheme" = "ipps" ]; then ForceTLS+=("true"); else ForceTLS+=("false"); fi}# --------- RUN ----------discover_mdnsif [ ${#URIS[@]} -eq 0 ]; then echo "ℹ️ No printer visible via mDNS (ippfind). Attempting network discovery…" discover_fallbackfiif [ ${#URIS[@]} -eq 0 ]; then echo "No IPP printer found" >&2 exit 1fi# Remove duplicates / keep stable ordertmp_uniq="$(mktemp)"printf "%s\n" "${URIS[@]}" | awk '!seen[$0]++' > "$tmp_uniq"URIS=()while IFS= read -r line; do [ -n "$line" ] && URIS+=("$line"); done < "$tmp_uniq"rm -f "$tmp_uniq"# Gather attributesi=0while [ $i -lt ${#URIS[@]} ]; do extract_components "${URIS[$i]}" i=$((i+1))done# --------- Generate .mobileconfig ----------PROFILE_UUID=$(uuidgen)AIRPRINT_UUID=$(uuidgen)MCX_UUID=$(uuidgen)TMP="$(mktemp /tmp/airprint.XXXXXX.mobileconfig)"{cat <<'XML'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"><plist version="1.0"><dict> <key>PayloadContent</key> <array> <dict> <key>AirPrint</key> <array>XMLidx=0for uri in "${URIS[@]}"; do ft="${ForceTLS[$idx]}"; ip="${IPs[$idx]}"; port="${Ports[$idx]}"; path="${Paths[$idx]}" printf ' <dict>\n' printf ' <key>ForceTLS</key>\n' [ "$ft" = "true" ] && printf ' <true/>\n' || printf ' <false/>\n' printf ' <key>IPAddress</key>\n' printf ' <string>%s</string>\n' "$(printf '%s' "$ip" | xml_escape)" printf ' <key>Port</key>\n' printf ' <integer>%s</integer>\n' "$port" printf ' <key>ResourcePath</key>\n' printf ' <string>%s</string>\n' "$(printf '%s' "$path" | xml_escape)" printf ' </dict>\n' idx=$((idx+1))donecat <<XML </array> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string>AirPrint</string> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>com.apple.airprint.${AIRPRINT_UUID}</string> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>com.apple.airprint</string> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>${AIRPRINT_UUID}</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer> </dict> <dict> <key>DefaultPrinter</key> <dict> <key>DeviceURI</key> <string>$(printf '%s' "${URIS[0]}" | xml_escape)</string> <key>DisplayName</key> <string>$(printf '%s' "${Names[0]}" | xml_escape)</string> </dict> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string>Printing</string> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>com.apple.mcxprinting.${MCX_UUID}</string> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>com.apple.mcxprinting</string> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>${MCX_UUID}</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>UserPrinterList</key> <dict> <key>Printer</key> <array>XMLidx=0for uri in "${URIS[@]}"; do name="${Names[$idx]}"; model="${Models[$idx]}"; loc="${Locs[$idx]}" cat <<XML <dict> <key>DeviceURI</key> <string>$(printf '%s' "$uri" | xml_escape)</string> <key>DisplayName</key> <string>$(printf '%s' "$name" | xml_escape)</string> <key>Location</key> <string>$(printf '%s' "$loc" | xml_escape)</string> <key>Model</key> <string>$(printf '%s' "$model" | xml_escape)</string> <key>PPDURL</key> <string>file://localhost/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/PrintCore.framework/Resources/Generic.ppd</string> <key>PrinterLocked</key> <false/> </dict>XML idx=$((idx+1))donecat <<XML </array> </dict> </dict> </array> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string>AirPrint</string> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>${ROOT_ID}</string> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>Configuration</string> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>${PROFILE_UUID}</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer></dict></plist>XML} > "$TMP"plutil -lint "$TMP" >/dev/nullplutil -convert xml1 -o "$OUTPUT" "$TMP"rm -f "$TMP"echo "✅ Profile generated: $OUTPUT"echo "🖨️ Default Printer: ${Names[0]} (${URIS[0]})"cat "$OUTPUT"Import the configuration into Factorial IT
- Access MDM > Profiles. Select the profile you want to target.
- Select Add a custom MDM setting.
- Upload the following .mobileconfig file, replacing the placeholders (IP, UUID, etc) with your printer’s configurations details:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"><plist version="1.0"><dict> <key>PayloadContent</key> <array> <dict> <key>AirPrint</key> <array> <dict> <key>ForceTLS</key> <false/> <key>IPAddress</key> <string>[IP_ADDRESS]</string> <key>Port</key> <integer>631</integer> <key>ResourcePath</key> <string>[RESOURCE_PATH]</string> </dict> </array> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string>AirPrint</string> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>com.apple.airprint.[UUID]</string> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>com.apple.airprint</string> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>[UUID]</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer> </dict> <dict> <key>DefaultPrinter</key> <dict> <key>DeviceURI</key> <string>ipp://[IP_ADDRESS]/[RESOURCE_PATH]</string> <key>DisplayName</key> <string>[DISPLAY_NAME]</string> </dict> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string>Printing</string> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>com.apple.mcxprinting.[UUID]</string> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>com.apple.mcxprinting</string> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>[UUID]</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>UserPrinterList</key> <dict> <key>Printer</key> <array> <dict> <key>DeviceURI</key> <string>ipp://[IP_ADDRESS]/[RESOURCE_PATH]</string> <key>DisplayName</key> <string>[DISPLAY_NAME]</string> <key>Location</key> <string>[LOCATION]</string> <key>Model</key> <string>[MODEL]</string> <key>PPDURL</key> <string>file://localhost/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/PrintCore.framework/Resources/Generic.ppd</string> <key>PrinterLocked</key> <false/> </dict> </array> </dict> </dict> </array> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string>AirPrint</string> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>com.getprimo.printer.airprint</string> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>Configuration</string> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>[UUID]</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer></dict></plist> - Save and deploy the profile.