Why is Brother Printer Showing Offline?

Jun 04, 2026 4 min read 4,103 views

Fix Brother Printer Showing Offline:

It simply gets frustrating when your brother printer showing offline. Yes, you heard it right. If you use a Brother printer, the possibility is that you are unable to print with that printer and you find that the status is Brother printer showing offline. What to do in the case when you certainly want to print something urgently?

Here is How You can Solve the Brother Printer Offline Issues by Following up the Given Steps:

Set Brother printer as a Default Printer
Unpause the printer and set it online
Cancel all print jobs in queue
Update printer firmware
Update printer driver software
Check your printer state

Steps to Resolve Brother Printer Offline Issue:

1) Set Brother Printer as a Default Printer

When you are about to print something, your system won't choose your printer in case if the brother printer is not set as Default Printer. To make it default printer:

Press Win + R keys and type “control” in the space. Hit Enter.
Click on Devices and Printers in Control Panel.
Under Printers, right click the Brother printing device. Click on Set as default printer option.
Your printer is set as Default Printer.

2) Unpause the Printer and Set it Online

If you pause your printer or set it offline, it wont function properly.

To set it online, you can:

Open Devices and Printers under Control Panel.
Right-click on the Brother printer the select option See what’s printing.
A popup window will appear. Click on Printer, and then select Open As Administrator.
Choose your Printer device again. Check whether the options Pause Printing and Use Printer Offline are ticked or not. Untick these items if ticked.
Close the window and you will see that printer is back online.

3) Cancel All Print Jobs in Queue

Sometimes, the lined up printer jobs might prevent your further printing operation. Clear all the pending queue jobs that stucks while printing a new job.

Right click to check printer options in Control Panel.
Click on Cancel All Documents and Yes button to confirm your action.
Close the window and see if your printer gets back to printing.

4) Update Brother Printer Firmware

Some issues resolved just by updating the firmware of the Brother printer device. To update the Brother printer firmware:

Visit the official Brother website and search the firmware for the product you are using.
On the Downloads page of your printing device, choose your respective system OS and hit the Search button.
Select Firmware Update Tool under the Firmware section.
Hit Agree to the EULA and Download button provided downside.
Open the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions to update the printer firmware.

5) Update Brother Printer Driver Software

Outdated Brother printer driver relatively causes many issues to the printing process. So always make sure that your printer driver is updated to the latest version so that the printer functions perfectly.

Open Devices and Printers under Control Panel.
Right-click on your Brother device and select its Remove device option. Confirm your action by pressing Yes button on the dialog popup.
Visit the official Brother printer software download website and search the driver download page for your device.
Make a selection for Full Driver & Software Package download.
Open the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions to install the latest driver for your Brother printer.

Note: Updating drivers is one of the best ways to deal with brother printer showing offline issues. Updating the drivers manually goes a little bit difficult. If you look for a hassle free method to update driver, it is recommended to use Driver Easy which quickly scans out the problematic drivers and download the latest and current version of drivers for your printer.

You can also opt for Pro version which is much more powerful driver management tool letting you update all of your drivers quickly and automatically within just a few clicks.

6) Check Your Brother Printer State

Ensure whether your printer is powered on or awakened from sleep mode if you find it offline. Meanwhile, check the LCD screen of your printer for any error messages which can help you to troubleshoot Brother printer.

Try to restart your Brother printer and check whether the Brother printer offline issue is fixed. You may even restore the printer settings to default factory settings.