Brother Printer Offline

Many technical issues can cause your device to stop responding, leading to the Brother printer showing offline error. This often happens because of a broken link between your computer and the hardware. Common reasons include a print spooler service that has crashed, a USB cable that is loose, or an IP address change that confuses your network.

Change the Printer Status

Sometimes Windows keeps the printer in a "stopped" state by mistake. You can fix this by changing a few settings in your computer menu.

1. Press the Start button and type Control Panel.
2. Open the Devices and Printers section.
3. Find your Brother printer and right-click on it.
4. Choose the option that says See what's printing.
5. Click the Printer tab at the top of the new window.
6. Look for Use Printer Offline. If there is a check mark next to it, click it to remove the mark.
7. While in that same menu, click Cancel All Documents to clear out any old stuck files.

Set Your Printer as the Main Device

If your computer tries to send files to the wrong place, you might see that your Brother printer offline but connected to wifi error persists.

• Go back to the Devices and Printers menu in your Control Panel.
• Right-click on the icon for your specific Brother model.
• Click on Set as default printer.
• Make sure the printer icon shows a green checkmark, indicating it is now the primary device.

Restart the Print Spooler Service

The Print Spooler is a piece of software that manages all the jobs you send to the printer. If it crashes, your printer will not respond.

1. Press Windows + R at the same time.
2. Type services.msc in the box, then press Enter.
3. Move down the list and look for Print Spooler.
4. Right-click on it and select Stop.
5. Open your file folders and go to C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Printers.
6. Delete all files in that folder to free up memory.
7. Open the Services window again, right-click on Print Spooler, then select Start.

Get the Newest Software

If these steps do not work, your printer might need a software update. Most connection problems happen because the driver is too old to talk to your computer.

• Go to the official Brother website.
• Search for your specific model number in the support section.
• Download the "Full Driver and Software Package" for your version of Windows.
• Open the file you downloaded and follow the prompts on your screen to install it.

Need Professional Help?

If you still need Brother printer offline help even after applying all of these steps, we are here for you. Our dedicated team of experts is here at All Printer Setup and waiting to provide you with the required online support.