How to Disable Two Sided Printing on Mac

Duplex printing can sometimes be confusing when you do not know which options to tick and choose. This article details how you can disable two-sided printing on Mac, and you do not need any particular application or software to do this. This is because not every single document needs to be duplex printed; things like airplane tickets, college assignments, or resumes must be printed on a single sheet of paper.

You need to access the CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) browser on your Mac, after which you’ll be able to make changes to the type of printing you want to choose. These methods will work for all versions of the Mac, including MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and the iMac.

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How to Disable Two-Sided Printing on Mac

You can call it front and back printing or duplex printing. This is always available on any printer you use, whether it is a smart printer or an inkjet printer. However, if you want to revert to single-sided printing, you can follow the steps below on your Mac.

Open your Mac and sign in to it.
Open a Finder window from the dock or use a Spotlight search to do the same.
Once inside the Finder window, head over to the Applications tab from the side menu.
Open the Utility folder and open the Terminal app by double-clicking on it.
Subsequently, you can also open a Terminal window using Spotlight. Press the Command-Space shortcut to launch the search bar, type in “terminal,” and hit the return key to open the app.
Once a terminal window has been launched, copy and paste sudo cupsctl WebInterface=yes this code, and hit the return key to run it. After this command is executed, you’ll be able to access the CUPS browser on your Mac.

How to Disable Two Sided Printing on Mac

Now, open your preferred browser and go to https://localhost:631/ this page, which will route you to the CUPS settings page.
A little side note is that you do not need to be connected to the internet to access the CUPS interface, even though you’re using a web browser to access it. All of the information is already present on your Mac by default.

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Disable Two Sided Printing on Mac

Type in your login details when prompted to enter the CUPS interface.
Once you’ve gained access to the CUPS system, head over to the Printers tab at the top of the webpage.
Select the printer for which you want to disable duplex printing from the list of printers that have been associated with your Mac. Now you will be taken over to the selected printer’s settings.
Select the Administration tab and choose Set default options.

How do I turn double sided printing off — Disable Two Sided Printing on Mac

After that, click on the Printing tab and select Off next to the Manual Duplex option.
However, if you do not see this option, head over to the General tab as for some printers, the duplex printing option is located there.

After you’ve made the changes, choose Set Default Options, and the settings will be saved.

Connect your Mac to the printer you made the changes to and print a document. You’ll see that duplex printing is not enabled by default on Mac. This is especially handy as if you decide to switch back to duplex printing, you can do it easily through the CUPS browser.

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How to Enable Duplex Printing on Mac

If you’ve decided to switch back over to duplex printing on your Mac, all you need to do is enable it from the CUPS browser, for which the steps are identical to the one mentioned above. Read the steps provided below to see how you can do it.

Open your Mac and sign in to it.
Since you’ve already activated the CUPS browser from the terminal app earlier, you do not need to do it again. If you haven’t, read the steps mentioned above again and return to this.
Now, open your preferred browser and go to https://localhost:631/ this page, which will route you to the CUPS settings page.
Type in your login details when prompted to enter the CUPS interface.
Once you’ve gained access to the CUPS system, head over to the Printers tab at the top of the webpage.
Select the printer for which you want to disable duplex printing from the list of printers that have been associated with your Mac. Now you will be taken over to the selected printer’s settings.
Select the Administration tab and choose Set default options.
Head over to the General tab for some printers, and change the option beside 2-Sided Printing.
After you’ve made the changes, choose Set Default Options, and the settings will be saved.

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How to Troubleshoot Printers on Mac?

There are a few ways to troubleshoot your printer if you face any problems with printing items. Sometimes the problem might get fixed just by reconnecting the printer with your Mac.

Log in to your Mac, move the cursor to the Apple logo on the menu bar and click on it. Select System Preferences from the list.

Open the Printers & Scanners tab.
Select the printer you want to troubleshoot from the left-hand side menu.
Select the Options & Supplies button.

Select the General tab and look at the driver version and check to see if it is updated or not.

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Conclusion

As you can see, there’s only one way to disable two-sided printing on your Mac by default: the CUPS browser. You also have the option to choose between duplex or single-sided printing right before printing from your printer.

However, many people forget to do that and end up printing both sides instead of one. We hope this article helped you understand how to access the browser and then change its settings.

Furthermore, it’s easy to switch between duplex and single-sided printing once you’ve enabled the CUPS browser.

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Robert

Robert is a tech expert (with more than 10 years of experience in using mac os and iPhone) who loves to help others learn about the Mac operating system and iPhone. He provides helpful tutorials on how to use Mac OS, tips and tricks for getting the most out of your Mac operating system, iPhone tips and tricks, and more. He’s always up for a challenge and enjoys learning new things about his favorite OS. When he’s not helping people get the most out of their technology, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two cats. Check out more.