Setting up scan to email in HP Color LaserJet printer

Our library has a relatively new HP multi-function laser printer that has scanning and copying functions. Recently a patron tried unsuccessfully to use the printer’s “scan to email” feature, and I realized we had never configured the printer to enable this feature. Here are the steps I had to take to get this work.

The scan to email feature requires that you give the printer information about the email account that will be used to send scans, including its password and the SMTP server and port. When I tried to use our library’s Gmail account for this purpose, the printer reported an authentication failure. Eventually I figured out that due to recent changes in Gmail security policy, you need a Gmail account that has two-factor authentication and an “app password”.

Create new Gmail account

So rather than change the library’s Gmail account, I chose to create a new Gmail account for the sole purpose of using the scan to email feature.

This video explains how to do it:

Here is a brief summary of the steps:

Tell Gmail that you want to create a new account. Let’s call it mylibrary@gmail.com for this example. After Google creates the new email account, it will prompt you to enable two-step authentication. Do that using a cell phone for text messages.

Click on the circular icon at the upper right (the one with the first letter of your account name), then click on Manage your Google Account.

On left side, click on Security. Scroll down to App passwords. It will say “None”, so click on the ‘>’ to add one.

On the Select app dropdown, choose Other. Give it a name like Scan, and click GENERATE. A popup will appear with a 16 character app password. Copy this somewhere else and write it down just to be sure. Don’t insert spaces in the password.

Click Done.

Configure HP printer

Now it’s time to tell the HP printer how to use your new Gmail account to send scan emails. This video explains how to do it:

But note that due to Google security changes since that video was made, you must use the app password instead of the normal login password, and the SMTP port must be 587.

First, find the IP address of printer. In our library, we configured the printer to have a static IP address, so that it wouldn’t change if the printer or the router were rebooted. You can find the IP address by using the printer’s front panel to examine the network settings. Let’s say your printer’s IP address is 192.168.1.11 in this example.

In a browser on the same network as your printer, visit https://192.168.0.11 (use the printer’s actual IP address, not this one!). No password is required (!). Click on Scan at the top, then Scan To Email Setup on the left. Select Outgoing E-mail Profiles. Click the New button.

Enter your sender email address (mylibrary@gmail.com in this example). Give it a short display name (e.g., Scanner).

Set the SMTP Server to smtp.gmail.com . Set the SMTP port to 587. Check Always use secure connection.

Set the SMTP User ID to your sender email address (mylibrary@gmail.com in this example). Set the SMTP Password to your app password, not your normal login password. Check SMTP server requires authentication for outgoing e-mail messages.

I didn’t fill in the PIN, but if your printer is in a heavily-trafficked public space, you may want to use a PIN to prevent unwanted usage of the scan to email feature.

Under the Auto CC heading, uncheck Include sender in all e-mail messages sent out using this profile. This will ensure users’ privacy.

Click on Save and Test. This will take several seconds. If it reports an authentication error, you’ll need to make sure you told the printer the correct SMTP server, port, email address, and app password.