Brother Printer Setup is among the most reliable printing machine available. However, being reliable doesn’t in any sense mean the device is 100% efficient. Your Brother printer can go offline due to factors beyond your control. The Brother Printer Offline in Windows 11 error can thus appear, affecting your day-end productivity.
Getting error messages like the printer is offline or the printer is not printing can be frustrating. Reasons can vary from connectivity issues to hardware malfunctions to missing driver files and more. Whatever the reason be, you can always follow some easy troubleshooting steps to resolve the issue and change the status of your Brother Printer to online.
Changing the offline status to online
If the Printer status is offline, it means it has problems communicating with your device. Check if the computer and the printer are connected. Inspect the cables that run through these devices and check if they are connected to a wifi network router. Also, check if the network cables you are using are good enough and in the best shape.
Again, check if your computer is on the same network as the printer. You can confirm the connection using the Ping command. Use the Command Prompt application to do that. If you are using a VPN connection, disconnect from it and check the status of the printer. You can also power cycle your computer and printer to remove issues due to the temporary malfunctions. Since these petty issues can set the active printers offline, you’ll need to reboot the devices. Stop all the printing jobs by clicking on the “Cancel All Documents on the Printer” button. This will help clear the print queue and lighten up the load on the printer. You can check for Printer driver updates if you want. Download the latest printer drivers if required.
Additional troubleshooting steps
- Open the windows control panel and look for Printers and Scanners.
- The Devices screen will open. A list of already paired devices will appear on the screen.
- If not, click on the Add Printer button, and the list of available printers will appear. Connect your printer to the computer now and set it as the default printing option.
- Again, right-click on the printer name and select the “See what’s printing” option from the screen.
- A new window will now launch on the screen. Click on the Printer option. The checkbox next to Pause Printing and Use Printer Offline option should be unselected.
- This will change the status of the printer from offline to online.
Fixing Brother Printer Offline in Windows 11
Make sure that the printer device is set up correctly and is connected to the right USB port on your computer.
- Now, open Control Panel and then go to the Printers and Scanners option.
- Find your printer and right-click on its name to choose Printer Properties.
- Head to the Ports tab from the screen and select the appropriate port for the printer to connect to.
- Once done, you can save the details and close the control panel screen. Try printing a test doc on your printer and it should be working fine.
Eliminating Print Spooler-related issues
The Print spooler can help you control the order in which the documents are printed. Therefore, this service must be working to complete the print jobs. Here are some steps you can follow to make the service work fine:
- Press the ‘Windows+R’ key combination to open the Run dialog box. Type ‘services.msc’ in the search field and click on the ‘Ok’ button.
- The Windows Service Console will now open. Scroll on the screen to find the Print Spooler service and see if the status is set to Running.
- If the status shows stopped, right-click on the service and select the Start Service option.
- If you are unable to see the status, the print spooler service isn’t working. You can double-click to open the properties of the Print Spooler and change the Startup type to automatic from the Start the Service section.
- Click on the Apply button and the printer service will change to online.
Using the Built-in troubleshooting tool
If the Brother Printer Offline in Windows 11 issue doesn’t go away, you can use the built-in troubleshooting tool to fix it. This tool is a great method to detect, resolve and remove driver, connectivity, and other printer-related issues easily.
- Go to the Troubleshooting wizard from the start menu.
- Click on the Additional troubleshooting button you see on the screen.
- Locate the printer, select it and click on the Run Debug tool option.
- It will now detect and diagnose problems related to the Printing process automatically.
- Once the troubleshooting tool has completed the process, you can restart your computer and the printer. This should help fix the offline status of your Brother Printer easily.