Nine times out of ten, an "offline" Brother printer isn't actually broken. It's a stuck print job, a Wi-Fi hiccup, or a Windows setting that flipped on by itself. Work through the fixes below and you'll likely be printing again in under ten minutes.
Common Causes of a Brother Printer Going Offline
Before you start troubleshooting, it helps to know what actually triggers the offline message. The most common culprits are:
- A stuck or crashed print spooler. One jammed print job in the queue can convince Windows the whole printer has disappeared.
- An IP address mismatch. If your Brother printer gets a dynamic IP from your router, that address can change after a restart, while your computer keeps trying to reach the old one.
- "Use Printer Offline" switched on. This is a real Windows setting, and it's easy to toggle by accident while clearing a failed job.
- An outdated or corrupted driver, often after a Windows update.
- A dropped Wi-Fi connection. Several Brother models only support 2.4 GHz networks, so if your router auto-switches to 5 GHz, the printer can quietly fall off the network.
- Firewall or antivirus software blocking the connection between your computer and a networked printer.
- A physical issue holding the queue, like an open cover, a paper jam, or the printer being asleep or powered off.
Once you know which of these fits your situation, the right fix below usually takes just a couple of minutes.
How to Fix a Brother Printer Offline on Windows
Work through these in order. Most people are back up and running after step 1 or 2.
1. Turn off "Use Printer Offline"
Open Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, select your Brother machine, and open Printer properties. Or, right-click the printer icon, choose See what's printing, then open the Printer menu. If Use Printer Offline has a checkmark next to it, click it to clear the check. If the option is greyed out, close the window, right-click it again, and choose Run as administrator first.
2. Set your Brother printer as the default
In the same Printers & Scanners list, make sure your Brother machine (not a PDF printer or a different device) is set as default. Windows sometimes reroutes print jobs to the wrong device after a driver update, which can make the real printer look offline.
3. Restart the Print Spooler service
Press Windows + R, type services.msc, and press Enter. Find Print Spooler, right-click it, and choose Restart. This clears out jams in the print queue without deleting your printer setup.
4. Check the port and IP address
Right-click the printer, go to Properties > Ports, and confirm the listed IP address matches what's shown in your printer's network settings menu (found on the printer's control panel under Network or Wi-Fi status). If your printer uses a dynamic IP, reserving a fixed address in your router settings will stop this from happening again. While you're there, select Configure Port and uncheck SNMP Status Enabled if it's ticked; on some Brother models, this setting causes Windows to misreport the printer's status.
5. Reinstall the full driver package
If the printer is still offline, download the Full Driver & Software Package for your exact model from Brother's support site, uninstall the current driver from Settings > Apps, restart your computer, and install the fresh download. This resolves most lingering offline issues tied to a corrupted or outdated driver.
How to Fix a Brother Printer Offline on Mac
macOS handles printer status a little differently, so follow these steps instead of the Windows ones above.
1. Check the print queue
Open System Settings > Printers & Scanners, click your Brother printer, and open the queue. If a job shows a yellow warning icon, click Resume. Delete any job that's stuck at 0% or has been sitting for a while.
2. Reset the printing system
Still in Printers & Scanners, right-click (or Control-click) in the printer list and choose Reset Printing System. This clears out any corrupted printer configuration on macOS, though you'll need to re-add your printer afterward.
3. Re-add the printer with the latest driver
Before re-adding it, download the current Full Driver & Software Package for your model from Brother's support site. This installs the CUPS driver macOS needs. Then click the + button in Printers & Scanners and select your Brother machine from the list.
4. Confirm both devices are on the same network
For wireless models, check the Wi-Fi network name on the printer's control panel and make sure it matches your Mac's network exactly, including whether it's the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band.
5. Restart both devices
If the printer still shows offline, power-cycle the printer and restart your Mac. This clears temporary network handshake issues that a reset alone doesn't fix.
