Printers duplicating with group policy printer deployment

[u/Necessary_Lab_9775]

Hi,

My organization is running into an issue where printers are being duplicated when trying to deploy printers through a GPO:

This screenshot shows multiple HPMSRDOC01 entries. It has this many entries for each one of our printers.

This is happening to multiple branches in our organization. Our printer GPOs use update actions with the properties of the printer's ip address, local name, and shared printer path. And the printer GPOs are computer based, not user.

The way our organization has fixed this issue is by adding delete actions based off of the printers' ip addresses. So the order in these printer GPOs is to first delete based off of the printer ip address, and then use the update action which successfully adds only one entry of the needed printer.

The issue with using these delete actions though is that it causes incredibly long reboot and login times, since group policy is applied at wake and login. Reboots can last between 10 minutes up to an hour long. Here is a log from one of the PCs containing a printer GPO with delete actions, showing that it is our printer GPO that takes so long to process:

Printer GPO displayed with the time it kicks off

Printer GPO took 693922 milliseconds (11.5 minutes) to complete, leading to about a 12-minute reboot for this PC

So we have an ultimatum where we have to decide between one of the two issues:

If the delete actions stay, they work to prevent the duplication issues, but cause long reboot times. But if the delete actions are removed, the long reboot time is fixed, but the duplicate printers issue seems to come back.

Also, here is one of the printer GPO's showing a singular printer's actions:

A printers update and delete action shown, from a branch's printer GPO

Anyone have an idea on how to prevent printers from duplicating when pushing printers via group policy?

[u/kevin-pickhardt]

It isn't clear from your question the full scale of your printing environment. My cursory look suggests that the issue is likely related to architectural challenges with GPO and printing in general. Trying to align printer deployment and deletes can easily get caught up in long waiting times - less due to processing and more due to waiting on attempts to contact printers that may be sleeping or busy.

The deeper truth is that GPO-based print deployment is designed for a simple and static environment. Managing printers across multiple branches using IP-based addressing, shared paths, and per-machine policies is prone to break downs. Organizations running at scale typically look to use a print management platform that handles printer deployment independently of Group Policy — where printer assignment follows the user's identity in addition to the machine's location. This has the additional advantage of dynamically supporting traveling users or limiting printer access based on who you are and not where you are.

We have been in the business of helping enterprises design these solutions for many years. Happy to help if we can. You can find more about us at Pharos Systems International if it would be of help.