Can't scan but can print with Canon PIXMA MG5500

I have a Canon PIXMA MG5500 and a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.10.3

The printer and scanner are supposed to be wireless and I have no problems with the printer but when I try to use the scanner it just won't cooperate.

I have tried everything. I've uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled them, I've tried looking for answers in the manual and nothing.

When you want to scan something the scanner says I need to set my computer to scan. When I do that my computer can't find the scanner even though the connection is fine and sometimes it asks me to connect it with a USB cable which I don't have and it didn't follow the printer.

Solution 1:

The packaging for the Pixma printers is misleading. It's a wireless printer, but for scanning, you need to either tether to your computer, or plug a USB drive into the printer. When conducting the scan, you'll be prompted to choose the USB drive, and after scans are complete, you can walk the USB to your computer.

Solution 2:

Scanning is definitely possible over WiFi using the Pixma iOS app for iPhone/iPad, I use it often this way. To scan wirelessly from a Mac you need to use the Canon IJ Network Scanner Selector to install the scanner. Then you can scan using the Canon IJ Scan Utility 2 or any other scanning application. Note that the manual describes only the locations for Windows, but the utility is also there in Mac OS X if you installed the driver package or can be downloaded separately from the Canon website.

Solution 3:

I was having the same problem with Canon Pixma E560, can print but can't scan. The solution I found was in firewall settings. Go to firewall options in security & privacy in system preferences. Allow incoming connections for all canon utilities.