Brother MFC-J4510DW printer - losing connection

If anyone is still having this issue, I recommend that you go into your router settings and add the printer manually. Depending on your router, you should be able to insert your printer's static or reserved IP address. I found my printer's IP address on the printer menu (on the printer itself) under printer settings. It will print out a page, you insert the IP address listed into the router settings, and voila no more loss of connection.

I hope this helps, cheers!

I was having the same problems. For four days!! My internet and wi-fi working fine with all devices other than the printer, it kept loosing connection to printer. I am using a apple airport, but with the internet working I didn't think about un-plugging and plugging it back in. I finally tried that today, and my printer has now stayed connected for several hours. Simple solution that I should have tried at first.. But with the internet connecting and all other devices connecting I just didn't think about it.

I have a Brother MFC-J4620DW that had this problem. After changing the IP address from Auto to Static, the printer now stays connected. So thanks for this solution!

My Mac Mini is also set to a static IP address. Thinking of doing the same to the Epson wireless printer I have, as it has the same disconnection issue from time to time.

Thanks so much! We just moved and now have our service provider's dual band width router. I have an older (2014) Brother J650DW that kept dropping the connection after about 5 minutes. My service provider did some troubleshooting and tweaked the network name for the 2.4 ghz band. Then wanted $130 for tech support to see if they could actually fix it. Uh, no thanks. Tried JustAnswer online tech support, they wanted $26, then + $52 and remote access to my computer. Uh, no thanks.

It's been a week of frustration trying to troubleshoot and figure this problem out and not get nailed for a bunch of $, or scammed.

My printer is too old for the CUPS driver, it seems. Doesn't come up on the Brother download site. I did update the driver with what they had there for OS 10.12.x (Sierra).

Back to Google, I saw your post here.

Entered my printer IP in safari and Enabled IPv6.

made no other changes.

It Worked!! Both the computer and the airprint are happily connected.

I share your elation.

Thank you lots.

Thanks for this. I set up our new Brother printer yesterday and was about to throw it out the window. It would lose the wireless connection after 5–10 minutes. I'd have to reestablish the connection manually in order to print again.

I followed your steps, plus put the printer's IP address in the AirPrint section. The printer seems to be maintaining its connection now. Thanks again!

I tried various suggested solutions. What eventually worked for me was setting up the connection to the printer using its IP address. The printer's IP address is displayed under the printer's TCP/IP menu (settings>wi-fi>TCP/IP). I chose the IP address method of connecting in the Mac 'add printer' process.

Good luck.

I tried everything Brother had suggested and instructed. WiFi connection would still drop after about 5 minutes or so. In addition to coming here, I also had submitted the problem to Brother's site. They suggested that, WiFi setting be Static on the TCP/IP setting rather than "Auto" or "Dynamic".

Upon setting the TCP/IP to Static, the problem went away. The printer stays connected to WiFi.

I hope the foregoing helps.

i have an apple TC AC how did you do that?

with the router or on settings with the printer

thanks for any help have the same problem

Any further on where to set this? I too am having issues with the connection dropping.

System Preferences/Network/Wi-Fi/Advanced/TCP/IP

Was there but looks like my IP was already a static one. For now the problem was resolved by re-entering the Wifi password into the printer.

Setting TCP/IP to static isn't an option in Yosemite (OS 10.10.5) Network preferences.

You choose System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced -> TCP/IP -> Configure IPv4: Manually, and then you will be able to specify a specific IP address for your Mac. The IP address is static, and you configure the Mac 'manually' to use the static IP address.

Bob, when using DHCP the Mac's IP address is 10.0.1.2. Is that the value I would enter manually? Is IPv4 specific to printers/scanners?

After my first post to this discussion I spent some time searching for a possible fix. On two separate forums it was suggested that when using the Brother Airprint driver the connection is lost when the printer goes into sleep mode. Changing the driver to Brother (printer name) CUPS driver fixes the problem. I changed the printer driver to the CUPS option and so far I have been able to print without a problem.

I haven't posted this as a solution yet because I want to be certain that it isn't temporary. One unexpected perk when using the CUPS driver is I gain more printing setting options. They include more paper choices, and resolution settings as well as advanced options such as Toner Save Mode and Improvement Print Output.

There is something odd though. . . When the Brother printer is selected it shows an exclamation mark in a triangle next to the printer name. Normally I would expect this to mean that the printer is not available but it is printing anyway. Might that exclamation mark be a duplicate of the low toner warnings located elsewhere in the dialog window?

Switching from the Airprint driver to the CUPS driver seems to have done the trick! It's February 22 and I have been successfully printing without a single problem. That includes waking the printer from sleep, after computer restarts/shutdowns and powering off/on the printer. I've printed using a variety of apps on two Macs. I haven't had this kind of success printing since I bought the Brother printer late last year.

The fix is to select the Brother CUPS driver instead of the Airprint version when adding the printer to your printers and drivers in System Preferences. I had to do it two different ways on my Mac Mini and MacBook Pro. Both Macs are running OS 10.10.5 but I don't see any reason why this won't work with other operating systems.

Mac Mini

1. Turn off the printer.

2. Delete the printer from your printer list.

3. Turn on the printer and add it to your printers. (If it doesn't show up close the Printers and Scanners window and then reopen it. It should appear in the drop-down menu when you click the "+" button.)

4. You may see a window telling you that the printer software is not available. Click the blue button.

5. The next window will say "Add" at the top. Select the Brother printer if it isn't already highlighted.

6. At the bottom of the Add window click the "Use" button and select Brother (printer name) series CUPS.

7. Click the "Add" button.

On my MacBook Pro Steps 4-7 did not occur. I had to add the printer 3 times before the CUPS driver was automatically added instead of the Airprint driver. I have no idea why that happened. And one would think that the Airprint driver is the one to choose for wireless printing, but apparently not. There can be some mystery/magic involved when dealing with printer drivers and Macs.

Good luck!