Setting Up a Brother Printer: Common Setup Problems (Using Brother iPrint&Scan)

A new Brother printer should take ten minutes to set up. In practice, it's often a loop of "device not found," a driver that won't finish installing, or a printer that connects to WiFi one minute and drops offline the next. None of that means the printer is defective. Almost every Brother setup failure traces back to one of a handful of known causes: network mismatches, an incomplete driver install, or a security setting getting in the way. Below is what actually causes each one, and the fix for your specific operating system.

Common Causes of Brother Printer Setup Problems

Before running through fixes, it helps to know what's actually breaking. The most frequent causes we see are:

• Wrong WiFi band. Most Brother printers only join 2.4GHz networks. If your router broadcasts a single combined 2.4GHz/5GHz name, or you renamed your network after a router upgrade, the printer can't find it.
• Changed WiFi password. If the password was updated on the router but never on the printer, the machine keeps trying to authenticate with an old credential and fails silently.
• Partial or conflicting driver install. A previous installation attempt that didn't finish can leave a broken printer entry that blocks the new one from installing cleanly.
• Windows Protected Print Mode. Introduced in Windows 11, this security feature can prevent older or unsigned Brother drivers from installing at all.
• Outdated firmware. Older firmware sometimes doesn't support the security protocol your current router uses, which causes the setup wizard to fail at the connection step.
• USB hub or cable issues. Brother's setup software often can't detect the printer through a USB hub or a low-quality cable; a direct port connection resolves this more often than any software fix.
• Security software. Antivirus or firewall tools occasionally block the installer's local network discovery, which shows up as the printer "not found" even though it's powered on and connected.

How to Fix It on Windows 11

1. Turn off Windows Protected Print Mode. Go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners > Printer preferences, and switch off Windows Protected Print Mode. This is the single most common reason a Brother installer fails silently on a new Windows 11 PC, since the feature can block drivers that aren't fully code-signed for it.
2. Remove stuck printer entries. In the same Printers & scanners menu, delete any existing or "unknown" Brother entries left behind by a failed install before running the installer again.
3. Power cycle both devices. Turn off the printer and restart the PC, then power the printer back on and reconnect it to WiFi before reinstalling.
4. Run the installer as administrator. Right-click the downloaded Brother installer and choose "Run as administrator" to avoid permission errors mid-install.

How to Fix It on Windows 10

1. Run Brother's Network Connection Repair Tool. Available from Brother's support site, this tool automatically finds your printer's current IP address and updates it inside the printer driver, which fixes most "offline" errors caused by a router handing out a new IP address.
2. Confirm both devices share a network. Check that your PC and printer are on the same WiFi network, not a guest network or a separate 5GHz-only SSID.
3. Check Windows Update. A pending Windows Update can interrupt driver installation; install any waiting updates, restart, and try again.
4. Temporarily disable antivirus. If the installer can't detect the printer at all, disable third-party antivirus or firewall software just long enough to complete setup, then turn it back on.

How to Fix It on Mac

1. Add the printer through System Settings. Open System Settings > Printers & Scanners > Add Printer, and select your Brother machine from the list.
2. Check which driver macOS picked. Before clicking Add, confirm the "Use" field shows the actual Brother driver, not "AirPrint" or "Generic PostScript." AirPrint will let you print, but it doesn't pass scan commands, so anyone relying on scan-to-computer needs the real driver.
3. Install iPrint&Scan for scanning. If printing works but scanning doesn't, install Brother's iPrint&Scan app or the full driver package, then remove and re-add the printer.
4. Re-add after a network change. If the printer disappears from the list, your router likely assigned it a new IP address overnight; remove it and add it again.
5. Bypass a Gatekeeper block. If macOS says the installer "cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified," go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway next to the blocked file.
6. Last resort: reset the printing system. Right-click inside the Printers & Scanners list and choose Reset Printing System. This clears every printer on the Mac, not just the Brother one, so use it only after the steps above haven't worked.

Setting Up Wireless Printing with Brother iPrint&Scan

Brother iPrint&Scan (free on the App Store and Google Play) lets you print and scan from a phone or tablet, but it only works when your mobile device is on the same WiFi network as the printer, or connected via WiFi Direct on supported models. If the app shows "No Supported Devices Found," the two most likely reasons are that your phone is on a different network than the printer, or your router split your WiFi into separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz names and the printer joined one while your phone is on the other. Switching your phone to the same 2.4GHz network the printer is using resolves this in most cases.