HP Photosmart C4680 printer will not work with Big Sur 11.1

I have an old HP printer too. The drivers are at

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1888?viewlocale=en_GB&locale=en_GB.

They may not install, though I think maybe Apple have made changes recently, to enable this again. But anyway, I eventually I used Pacifist to do so. Now, both the printer and scanner function as before.

https://www.charlessoft.com

click this link to the HP Support page for your printer, https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-photosmart-c4600-all-in-one-printer-series/3739148/model/3739149

You will see there that your printer was last supported by HP in Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9 and the last update was in Jan 2014.

There are no drivers available for Big Sur, before you upgrade your mac to a new OS it is important to check if apps and any peripheral hardware will still function in the new OS. you cannot rely that a printer that you bought with your mac

will still be supported as you upgrade the OS, and you cannot rely on Apple to make its OS's backwards compatible with older

apps and hardware.

If your printer has been operating in other macOS's after Mavericks and prior to Big Sur then you have been lucky.

There is a slim chance your printer may operate again if you download the Gutenprint drivers from here,

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net

Downgrading your OS is the other possibility which is an arduous process.

Back up your Mac.

Download the OS you want to downgrade to.

Make a bootable USB installer.

Erase your mac.

Install the OS from the bootable installer.

Restore your personal data only from the back up you made earlier.

I would definitely click on the link provided by putnik

then download the HP drivers 5.1 once downloaded you will need to install

them by double-clicking on the downloaded file.

Your printer is on the supported list,

these will be the old drivers that you took out earlier but you never know it might spark some life into

your printer, will not hurt to try.

Also make sure your printer is added to the System Preferences> Printers & Scanners preference pane.

Add the printer to the panel on the left by clicking on the + button and then select your printer

from the menu next to Default Printer:

You could try VueScan https://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/hp_photosmart_c4680.html There's a free trial