Reinstall USB Fax Modem Capabilities on macOS Sierra

macOS Sierra USB Fax Modem Reinstallation.md

macOS Sierra USB Fax Modem Reinstallation

This post tells how to reinstall USB fax modem capabilities on macOS Sierra, after Apple dropped support.

If dropping support for fax modems affects you negatively, please take the time to issue feedback at Apple's website.

To restore USB Fax Modem capability to Sierra, simply copy the files listed below from your old El Capitan install.

Here is this list of files you need:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.FaxPrefs.plist
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/PrintCore.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Fax.ppd
/Library/Printers/Fax.ppd # copy /System/Library/Frameworks/.../Fax.ppd file to /Library/Printers
/usr/bin/fax
/usr/bin/efax
/usr/bin/efix
/usr/share/man/man1/fax.1
/usr/share/man/man1/efax.1
/usr/share/man/man1/efix.1
/etc/efax.rc
/usr/libexec/fax/coverpage.py
/usr/libexec/fax/faxnotify
/usr/libexec/fax/imagestopdf
/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu extras/Fax.menu
/usr/libexec/cups/backend/fax

Here are the basic steps. I confirm that this works for me:

• This requires a Time Machine, Disk Utility, Carbon Copy Cloner, or other backup of your pre-Sierra image.
• Reboot your Mac with the Command-R recovery partition, and, if necessary (it should be if it's not), use Disk Utility to unlock and mount your encrypted boot drive.
• Open the Terminal, and disable SIP using the command csrutil disable.
• Reboot the Mac normally.
• Use cp -R or rsync to copy over all the files to your Sierra boot drive. Ensure that the files have no ACL's or extended attributes if necessary with chmod -N and xargs -c. Test with ls -e and xargs.
• Reboot your Mac with the Command-R recovery partition, and, if necessary (it should be if it's not), use Disk Utility to unlock and mount your encrypted boot drive.
• Open the Terminal, and enable SIP using the command csrutil enable. Do not ignore this step.
• Reboot the Mac normally.
• Open the Directory Utility app from the Spotlight search tool, unlock with admin credentials, and enable the root account.
• In Safari, browse to your Mac's CUPS server at http://localhost:631, Administration>Add Printer, authenticate as root and follow the steps to add the printer with a URI that looks like fax://dev/cu.usbmodem9804243. This will be the same printer in the previous plist prefs file, /Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.FaxPrefs.plist. Specify the PPD file /Library/Printers/Fax.ppd.
• You should now see a working USB Fax Modem in System Preferences>Printers & Scanners.
• Open the Directory Utility app from the Spotlight search tool, unlock with admin credentials, and disable the root account.

I needed to reinstall USB fax modem capabilities after upgrading to High Sierra; I had fax modem capability with Sierra using these instructions; however I now get "holding for Authentication" in the fax window after submitting a job. Any ideas ?