Your Brother wireless printer may not connect to your Wi-Fi for several reasons, like incompatible router settings, weak signals, or outdated drivers.
To fix it, first change the Wi-Fi authentication method in your router settings to to “WPA2/WPA3-Personal” and the encryption method to “AES“. Thanks to the Reddit user (Sun_Aria) for this trick.
Here’s how to do that:
- Login to your router web interface.
You can access it by either visiting 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 in the browser.
- Enter the login details.
- When logged in, go to Advanced -> Wireless Settings.
- Change the Authentication method to WPA2-Personal or WPA-3 Personal.
Brother wireless printer only supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band, so if you have selected 5 GHz in your router settings, change it to 2.4 GHz.
If this doesn’t work, reboot your printer and router, reset its network settings, and update drivers.
Reboot the Printer and Router
In most cases, the Brother printer not connecting to a Wi-Fi network can be resolved by restarting your printer and Wi-Fi router.
To soft reset your Brother printer, follow the below steps:
- Turn off the printer.
- Disconnect it from the power source.
- Now, press the power button on your printer for 15 seconds to clear its cache.
- Next, plug it back in and turn it On.
Now the router’s turn. Here’s how to power cycle or restart your router:
- Turn off your Wi-Fi router using the power button on its back.
- Unplug it from the power source.
- After 1 minute, plug it back in and turn it on.
Still your Brother printer fails to connect to the network? Continue reading.
Reset Printer Network Settings
If restarting the printer and router does not help, the next thing to do is to reset your Brother printer network settings. To do that, follow these steps:
Press the Settings button on your printer. Select General Setup.
Next, select Initial Setup and then Reset. Select Network to reset your printer saved network settings.
The Wi-Fi chips on most wireless printers cannot detect weak signals, so even if other devices in the exact location can connect to the network, your printer may not. To improve connectivity, you can try moving the printer closer to the router or vice versa.
Update Printer Driver
If your Brother printer is experiencing connection issues due to a bug, installing the latest driver update is likely to resolve the problem.
Here’s how to update it:
Windows
Open Device Manager. You can open it by right-clicking on the Start button and then selecting Device Manager.
Expand the Printers section and then right-click on your Brother printer.
Select the Search automatically for updated driver option.
Mac
Open the App Store.
Click on Updates in the left panel.
If any update is available for your Brother printer, install it.
Factory Reset your Brother Printer
If none of the above works, the last resort is to restore the default settings on your Brother printer.
Here’s how to factory reset it:
- Press the Settings button on your printer.
- Select General Setup.
- Next, select Reset.
- Select Machine Reset.
- Press and hold the Forward (Play icon) button on your printer for 2 seconds to confirm reset.
The printer will reboot after the reset.
If none of these solutions work, your printer’s network card may be faulty. In this case, you should contact Brother support for assistance.
If your printer is still under warranty, they will provide free repairs.
