Brother Printer Paused or Offline

Brother printers are generally quite reliable, and the majority of users won’t encounter many Brother error messages, even during heavy use. One error that you may encounter infrequently, however, is a message that states “The printer status is Offline” or “The printer status is Paused”. Essentially, the system is alerting you that Windows has paused the device or that it is now considered “offline”. Luckily, this is actually very easy to fix, and it should take you only a few steps to get up and running again.

Printer Status is Offline

The instructions for getting the printer online depend on the operating system you are using:

• Windows XP — Click “Start”, then “Printers and Faxes”.  Right-click your Brother printer’s name, and then click “Use Printer Online”.
• Windows Vista — Choose “Start”, followed by “Control Panel”. Next, click on “Hardware and Sounds” and then “Printers”. Right-click your Brother printer and then click “Use Printer Online”.
• Windows 7 — Click “Start”, then “Devices and Printers”. Now double click on your Brother printer’s icon and click “See what’s printing”. Next, simply click “Printer”. You will now see an option that says “Use Printer Offline” with a checkmark in the box next to it. Click to remove the check mark from the box.

Printer Status is Paused

• Windows XP – Click “Start”, then “Printers and Faxes”. Right-click the Brother model, and then click on “Resume Printing”. If for some reason your printer has the option “Pause Printing” instead of “Resume”, this means your issue is not related to the printer being paused. Try restarting both the printer and the computer.
• Windows Vista – Choose “Start”, followed by “Control Panel”. Next, click on “Hardware and Sounds” and then “Printers”. Right-click the Brother model, and then click on “Resume Printing”.
• Windows 7 – Click “Start”, then “Devices and Printers”. Double click on your Brother printer’s icon, followed by “See what’s printing” and “Printer”. When you get to the next page, remove the checkmark from “Pause Printing”.

The Next Step: Cancel All Documents

If for some reason the suggestions above do not resolve the problem, you can try to cancel all of the pending documents.

Windows XP – Click “Start”, then “Printers and Faxes”. Double-click the Brother model icon, and then choose “File” and “Cancel All Documents”.

Windows Vista – Choose “Start”, followed by “Control Panel”. Next, click on “Hardware and Sounds” and then “Printers”. Double-click the Brother model icon, and then choose “File” and “Cancel All Documents”.

Windows 7 – Click “Start”, then “Devices and Printers”. Double click on your Brother printer’s icon, followed by “See what’s printing” and “Printer”, then choose “Cancel All Documents”.

If you have tried the steps above and you are still receiving an error message, try powering down both the printer and the computer. Unplug the printer and leave it unplugged for at least 5 minutes. This can sometimes clear the print queue and reset the devices. If you still receive the error after powering up both devices, you may need to contact Brother technical support.