FIX: Brother Printer Is In Error State 2023 [SOLVED]

If your Brother printer is behaving weirdly and showing errors then follow this article.

Here, I am going to discuss what to do when the Brother printer is in an error state.

What To Do When Brother Printer In Error State?

Table of Contents

When your Brother printer is showing errors then perform the solutions given below and fix the problem.

1) Check The Network And The Cable

When Brother printer is in an error state, first check the cable connecting your PC and the printer. Sometimes you may get the error due to connectivity issues.

If you are using a wireless connection, then restart the router.

To check if your printer is online, follow the steps given below:

Enter Control Panel in the Windows search box and choose the top option.

Click on Devices and Printers. Click on your printer and check if it has online status.

If not then right-click on it and choose the Online status. You will see a Ready message in place of Offline when your printer is online.

2) Restart Your Printer

Sometimes a fresh restart can fix most of the simple problems quickly.

So, give your printer a fresh restart when you find an error while printing on Brother printers. To do so, follow the steps given below:

Press the Power button on the Printer and shut it down.

Disconnect the Brother printer from the wall outlet.
Wait for a couple of minutes before reconnecting everything.
Restart the printer and check if this has solved the problem.

3) Check For Jammed Paper

Make sure that there is no paper jammed in the printer and that there is enough paper in the paper tray.

To check that open the access door of the Brother printer. You may also need to remove the toner cartridge to check for the jammed paper.

Remove the jammed papers and place the papers properly in the paper tray.

Make sure there is enough ink in the ink cartridges. Refill the empty ones and replace the damaged ones.

Sometimes because of these two reasons the printers do not function properly and show errors. So check this before moving on to some advanced solutions.

4) Clear The Printing Queue

You should also clear everything in the printer queue when you are getting a printer error.

To do that, open Control Panel and set the View by the option to Small icons or Large icons.

Click on the Devices and Printers option.

Right-click on your Printer and select See what’s printing option. Cancel all the items from the printing queue.

4) Run The Troubleshooter

You can also run the Windows built-in Printer troubleshooter when you are getting errors on the Brother printer.

Follow the process described below to do so:

Type Troubleshoot in the Windows search box and choose the Troubleshoot Settings option.
Next click on Additional troubleshooters.

Click on the Printer option and Run the Troubleshooter.

Follow the on-screen prompts and complete the process. The Brother printer should work properly now. If not then go to the next step.

5) Clean The Print Head

Sometimes the head of the printer gets clogged with ink. Due to this, the printer cannot function properly.

So, clean the printer’s head. To do that, open the printer’s door and disconnect the head of the printer.

Take it out carefully and hold it under hot tap water. Make sure that all the old ink gets cleared this way.

Dab a paper towel on it to dry it. Besides, you can use some non-oil-based cleaner or pure alcohol.

Take a micro-fiber cloth and dip it in the cleaner to clean the printer’s head.

The printer head is very fragile, so, handle it with extra care.

After cleaning the print head, turn the printer on. Check if the problem is solved or go to the next solution.

6) Update Or Reinstall The Drivers

Outdated printer drivers can also be the reason for the error. So, update the printer drivers if you have not updated them recently.

To do so, follow the steps given below:

Right-click on the Windows Start button and click on Device Manager from the list.
Double click on the Print queues section and right-click on your Brother printer.

Select the Update driver option.

After updating the drivers check if the printer is working fine, else reinstall the printer drivers.

To do so, check the given steps:

Open the Device Manager and expand the Print queues section.
Right-click on the Brother printer and select Uninstall device option.

Follow the on-screen instructions and prompts to finish the process. Restart your PC and the latest printer drivers will automatically get installed.

7) Reset The Brother Printer To Default Settings

To fix the error printing on the brother printer, reset it to factory settings. Follow the step given below to do so:

Open the cover of the printer and then turn it off.
Again turn it on and press the “Go” button on the printer seven to ten times.

This will reset your Brother printer to its default settings. Check if this has fixed the problem, else move on to the next step.

Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs]

Here I have answered to few questions asked by the Brother Printer users:

Why is my Brother printer in error status?

If the connection between your PC and the printer gets disconnected then your Brother printer can be in the error status.

How do I get a printer out of the error state?

To get a printer out of the error state, check the connection, reset the printer, reinstall the printer drivers, run the printer troubleshooter, and clear the printer queue.