Unable to install Brother Printer driver on MacBook Air

AirPrint allows scanning on Mac, as well: Print wirelessly from your Mac to your printer - Apple Support

Connect an AirPrint printer to a Wi-Fi network - Apple Support

Set up a scanner to use with Mac - Apple Support

Canon has an example of scanning that should work the same here: https://oip.manual.canon/USRMA-0336-zz-SS-enUS/contents/SS729_mobile_184scanningwithairprint.html

Ensure the firmware is the most current available, too. Page 402 has the firmware update sequence from the orinter control panel: https://support.brother.com/g/s/id/htmldoc/mfc/cv_dcp520/mexlte/PDF/PDF.pdf

This printer also appears to have an embedded web server, which means you can enter the printer IP address in your web browser, and manage the printer from there.page 480 has info and passwords: https://support.brother.com/g/s/id/htmldoc/mfc/cv_dcp520/mexlte/PDF/PDF.pdf

Note: All of the above requires no vendor drivers be installed in macOS. Just the current firmware loaded in the printer, as that’s where the AirPrint drivers “hide”.

According to the support page, you need to install Brother's iPrint & Scan app which is supposed to be on the Mac App Store.

https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us_ot&lang=en&prod=mfct920dw_all&os=10083

It doesn't appear to support ICA, so you would be stuck using their scanning app.

They do have additional software to scan from the device directly--Is that what you installed?

DavidS508 wrote:

Downloaded brother printer driver for MFC-T929DFW to be able to scan using the driver software. I have this printer installed on my new MacBook and can print documents. If I request a scan it asks "scan to iPhone". I wish to scan documents from my files to my computer. I therefore thought I would need the driver. The Brother site gives a list of OS and I chose 15*

On downloading this the brother page appears but it cannot find the printer. I checked the wifi and also tried the IP address. still no success. Are you able to assist please?

A "printer" driver has nothing to do with scanning even if both features exist in the same device.

If they provide their own scanning app, then you can install that. Many devices support Image Capture Architecture (ICA). It is similar to AirPrint, but for scanning not printing. If they support ICA on that device, you can scan directly from Image Capture or to many apps via the "Import from <scanner>" in the File menu.

Barney-15E wrote:

According to the support page, you need to install Brother's iPrint & Scan app which is supposed to be on the Mac App Store.

https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us_ot&lang=en&prod=mfct920dw_all&os=10083

It doesn't appear to support ICA…

TWAIN support is listed.

Adding to the other replies the way I do it is to use the Preview app. It's already included in Applications.

You can scan using it or the Image Capture app. Brother printers are excellent but I never spent too much time attempting to use their front panel controls to "scan to computer" or whatever it may be called on it. It never seemed to work. I don't use their apps either.

Just tried it. The front panel said "check connection" which is already too much trouble for me.

May I ask you to double-check the printer model? Is it possibly a Brother MFC-T920DW or MFC-T925DW (both AirPrint-supported)?

Hello DavidS508,

Thank you for the information about the printer/scanner model.

Some ways have already been suggested by others. If necessary, if nothing else works, you could perhaps also investigate whether (a trial version of) a paid third-party scanner driver would allow use as before:

https://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/brother_mfc_t920dw.html

DavidS508 wrote:

/.../ surprise surprise, a menu appeared on my desktop “scan from printer” and it worked. /.../

Thank you for the report. Electricity moves in mysterious ways... :-)