2 Ways to Turn off Printer Sharing on Mac

In this tutorial, I will show you how to turn off printer sharing on Mac using two methods. You can disable printer sharing on your Mac through Settings and Terminal. Both of these methods will be covered.

Printer sharing is a feature in Mac that, when enabled, configures the computer as a print server, accepting print jobs from other computers. It is primarily for non-network or non-wireless printers that are typically connected directly to your computer.

Apple recommends using a dedicated print server or direct IP printing instead of printer sharing. By turning off printer sharing, you reduce the possibility that hackers will try to use the print server as a means of gaining access to the system.

If your organization uses Intune MDM to manage Macs, you can disable the printer sharing feature on multiple macOS devices with the help of a shell script. Learn more about disabling printer sharing using Intune.

Turn off Printer Sharing on Mac

To turn off printer sharing on a Mac, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open System Settings

Click on the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen. Select “System Settings” (or “System Preferences” in older macOS versions).

Step 2: Go to Sharing Settings

In the System Settings window, click on General in the left pane and now select “Sharing.”

Step 3: Turn off printer sharing

In the Sharing settings, under the topic “Accessories & Internet” you will see a list of sharing options. Set the toggle for Printer Sharing to Off.

Step 4: Confirm Changes

Now you will notice that printer sharing is disabled. Close the System Settings window. The changes should take effect immediately.

By following these steps, you will disable printer sharing on your Mac, ensuring that your printers are not shared over the network.

Disable Printer Sharing on Mac using Terminal

The printer sharing can be disabled by running a simple command in the terminal. On your Mac, click on the Launchpad and in the search box, type “Terminal.” From the results, select the terminal to launch.

Run the following command to disable printer sharing on your Mac:

$ sudo cupsctl --no-share-printers

In the below screenshot, you can see that running the above command disables printer sharing. If required, you can turn it on manually in settings.