Printer is not Connected?

resjudicata1916 has the fix here. My printer has been driving us insane but not being connected the second it goes to sleep and requiring a restart to print.

This is the ONLY thing that worked, adding the printer by IP address. Not one of the other suggestions here was effective, and I tried them all. Don't waste your time uninstalling and reinstalling software. Go to your printer, select WIFI then TCP/IP and get the IP address.

Delete the printer in System preferences.

Click the + to add the printer, but instead, click the IP tab, then enter the printer's IP.

It should find the appropriate driver, if not point it to it.

Shame shame shame on Brother for this. I'm sure Apple didn't help either. Remember this thing called Plug and Play? Look it up. It is something Apple did in the 1990s. Unbelievable we have to deal with this nonsense in 2017.

To add to this, I just fixed the problem using this method, but I restarted my MacBook Pro after deleting the printer from System Prefs, then added it by using the IP address. You can get the printer to print out its network connection details, which should contain its IP address.

Adding the printer by IP address was the only thing that worked for me as well. I simply followed the instructions in this archived article: How to connect to an IP-based printer

Hello Joe,

It sounds like you are not able to print to your Brother MFC-9120CN. I found an article with steps you can take to troubleshoot printer issues on a Mac:

Follow these steps until the issue is addressed:

1. Make sure that the printer is powered on, has ink / toner, and that there are no alerts on the printer’s control panel. Note: If you cannot clear an alert on the printer's control panel, stop here and check the printer's documentation or contact the manufacturer for support.
2. Ensure the printer is properly connected to a USB port on the Mac or AirPort base station / Time Capsule. If the printer is a network-capable printer, make sure that it is properly connected to your home network.
3. Use Software Update to find and install the latest available updates. If an update is installed, see if the issue persists.
4. Open the Print & Scan pane or Print & Fax (Snow Leopard) pane in System Preferences.
5. Delete the affected printer, then add the printer again.

If the issue persists, try these additional steps:

1. Reset the printing system, then add the printer again.
2. If the issue still persists, reset the printing system again. Download and install your printer's drivers. Then, add the printer again.
3. Contact the printer vendor or visit their website for further assistance.

Additional Information

Note: If your printer is wireless-capable, you should first add the printer to your network. Use the printer's control panel, or temporarily connect the printer to your Mac via USB. For more details, see this article.

You can find the full article here:

Troubleshooting printer issues in OS X

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3147

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Best,

Sheila M.

I have a macbook pro, I also have 3 brother printers all different models for home use and work. I have downloaded the necessary drivers and installed them. Printer (s) will work when connected with green dot and the moment it goes into sleep mode the printer is "idle, in use" thus a yellow dot. Even when you delete the printer or reset system it does not stay working, it goes into sleep and guess what, the cycle continues. I live in an area where there is a lot of wireless transmissions, someone told me that because there are so many wireless transmissions I will need to hard wire my printer with cable to my laptop to avoid this problem. If i need to use my printer wirelessly I should not have to reset system, download/install drivers etc...Something is clearly wrong here either on Apple side, or Brother side or they just aren't meant to work together and there is a technology flaw here...Its very frustrating when you pay top $ for technology that constantly gives you headaches...

I'm having EXACTLY the same issue. Brother doesn't know how to handle it it and I've spent so much time working on a solution with none in sight.

if it's a problem due to wireless activity. You can go into your router settings under wifi and select the channels you wish to broadcast over. You might have to play around to find what one work the best.

I'm having the same issue. With my old Brother printer, I used to be able to turn off wifi on my Macbook Pro and then turn it back on and printing worked fine. Then I gave that printer to my son and got another for myself. Now I get "printer not connected' chronically. I suspect restarting my Mac will help; it used to with the old printer before I hit on just turning off/on wifi. Sigh. Anybody got any answers? Thx.

I am having the same problem and the "solution" above does not work. I spent 2 1/2 hours both waiting for the chat help with brother (which failed after I was #1 in line) and then on the phone. The person helping me online had me reinstall the drivers on our 2 computers - they had already been installed by me - then we went through a lengthy delete and add printer over and over again. Nothing worked. This printer is going back to Amazon. I've never had an issue with HP printers but looked forward to a toner printer instead.

I have a Macbook Air. I've had the same problem with my Brother HL-L2380DW on two different networks trying to use the printer wirelessly. I took the first HL-L2380DW back to Bet Buy, thinking that the first one was defective. The replacement one does the same thing. I've since learned through Amazon reviews of my printer that everyone with Macs has this problem with this printer and other Brother printers. Luckily, I'm such an old codger and I've lived in my house so ling, that I have Ethernet networks in my houses. When the printer is connected into my networks with Ethernet, all functions work flawlessly. This was my workaround to Brother's un-admitted problem.

I had the same problem with Brother and wireless network between my Imac. You may have already figured this out, but the way i dealt with it was to go to System Preferences, Printers and Scanners. I deleted the Brother printer and then searched for the printer again using the printers IP address information from the Brother Machine menu (you'll find it there). The IMAC searched and found the printer and then started printing again.

To those of you that have not fixed this problem: I deleted the printer and re-installed it using the CD-Rom that came with it ,instead of the driver download on the Brother webpage. For whatever reason that seems to have solved the problem, at least for now. 🙂

Had this problem today as well.. A 5 min fix.. Uninstall your printer by searching brother uninstall drivers. Follow instructions on brother website then reinstall drivers for your printer style, again via the brother website. Easy and worked!

Source(s):

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20141117205723AArNcNM

This worked like a charm. Easy fix and shocking that Brother doesn't have it on its own support website. Thanks again!