I have a client who has an end user who uses a Mac at home and remotes into their office to a PC.  They need something to be able to consistently and reliably print from the PC side back to an HP printer attached to their Mac.  I researched and reached out to Team Viewer and they said that they could print from PC back to Mac, not a problem.

I had my client purchase two licenses for Team Viewer’s Premium license and come to find out that it’s a half-baked solution that does not even work right.  First of all, they don’t tell you that you need to purchase, yes, purchase an XPS Viewer (they blamed this on Microsoft).  Initially, they said to get any XPS Viewer and it’ll work.  They don’t even have documentation on why you need this XPS Viewer on their website.  When you try to enable remote printing without the XPS Viewer installed on your Mac you get a vague message indicating you need an XPS Reader or Viewer.  That’s it.  When you Google and check Team Viewer’s documentation there were one or two forum posts with NO answers from any of their staff.  You’re basically made to figure this out on your own.

You need an XPS Viewer because you are NEVER going to be able to print from a PC back to  Mac.  They shouldn’t even call it remote printing.  They should call it TRANSFERRING YOUR FILES BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN COMPUTERS TO PRINT on your Mac, maybe, might work, not entirely sure and because of legalese we cannot guarantee that it will work.

Not only that but they’ll continue to tell you just get whatever free one you can find on the App Store.  So I get the one free one available in the App store.  You go to try and print, it opens a window up saying to send a document to Mac and it opens in the XPS Viewer program.  BUT, the free version has a limitation of only showing you like 10 lines before you have to PURCHASE the premium version!  Yes, after spending $2000+ for two licenses you have to spend another couple of dollars.  You might be thinking well what’s a few more dollars when you already spent $2000… that’s not the point.  You shouldn’t have to do this if you’re paying $2000!  Team Viewer should have just said they can’t do remote printing from PC back to Mac!

If you’re trying to print remotely from a PC back to a Mac, do not use Team Viewer as it does not work.  You’ll be sorely disappointed.