How To Fix Brother Printer Won’t Print Black Problem?

Brother MFC printers are the most popular device for multi-color printing. They use the ink cartridges to print the color and black & white prints.

Due to this, these machines are primarily used in small offices. Due to which it becomes the default choice of all those people who need more color printouts.

Usually when you give a print command to a brother printer, it completes it in a few moments. But sometimes, some users cannot print black ink from it due to technical faults.

Why does my brother printer not print black? 

Generally, the Brother printer won’t print black because of the empty cartridge. If the Black ink cartridge is full on the brother printer, Is it is not printing black. There might be a problem with the printhead, nozzle, or other equipment.

• The nozzle has been clogged.
• The print head requires it to be clean.
• Cartridge setup issue.
• Data cable or corona wire issue.
• Driver or windows settings-related issues.

How to fix Brother printer not printing black on paper? 

When Brother MFC Or DCP printers are not printing black on the paper, you should cancel all print jobs from the printer. Now reboot the printer and copy something. Is it copying into the black text or not? 

If the Brother machine copies the documents in black, the problem is within the driver settings. So you have to jump to step 5. Otherwise, continue from step 1. 

Step 1- Check the ink level – 

When a Brother printer is printing blank pages instead of black text, you should begin with checking the ink level on the printer. Be sure that the cartridge or toner has enough black ink to print the documents. 

1. Power on the brother printer. 
2. Press the home/menu button. 
3. Go to the ink section. 
4. Click on the ink volume.
5. Press the ok button. 

If the printer shows a low ink indicator, you have to replace the cartridge to print documents. 

Step 2- Remove the protection tap- 

When you have installed a new ink or toner cartridge on the Brother printer, it won’t print black. Please make sure that the printer recognizes the ink cartridge. If the printer is not detecting the ink cartridge, you need to remove the ink cartridge from the printer. Now make sure that there is no protective tap available on the cartridge. 

After removing the protective tap from the printer, you should reinstall the ink cartridge into the printer. 

Step 3- Ink has been dried- 

When you do not use the printer for a long time, the cartridge remains attached to it. So the ink present in it starts drying after a particular time, because your brother printer cannot print black or any other color.

In this case, you should leave the printer powered on for about 30 minutes and then try to print something. 

Step 4 – Install a new cartridge – 

Sometimes, Brother printers don’t print black because of the cheap ink. When you use the cheap quality of black ink cartridges, and the printer doesn’t detect it properly. Also, if the ink has been dried into the cartridge, Brother printers won’t be able to print the black text. In both cases, you have to replace the ink cartridge. 

1. Open the front panel of the brother printer. 
2. Unlock the black ink cartridge by lifting the lock lever. 
3. Take out the cartridge gently. 
4. Now unpack the new cartridge and remove the protection tap. 
5. Insert into the black cartridge slot of the brother machine. 
6. Lock the cartridge by pulling down the lever. 
7. Close the front cover and then reboot the printer. 

Step 3- Clean the print head- 

When Printheads are jammed with the flushed chunk of ink, you might have trouble printing the documents in the black or some other colors. Also, in such a case, you might get the blurry print from the brother printer. 

In that case, you have to clean the brother’s printhead using these techniques. 

1. Power on the brother printer. 
2. Press the home/menu button. 
3. Scroll towards the ink option using the up and down key and push the ok key.
4. Move to the cleaning option using the arrow keys and push the ok button again.
5. Select black color and press the clean option.

Perform the head cleaning at least twice and then give the test print command again. 

Step 4 – Unclog the nozzle – 

When some big chunk of ink particle gets stuck on the cartridge nozzle, it will not produce the ink to the printhead. Due to this, the brother printer can’t print the black screen. 

Although, The printer will automatically unclog the nozzle during the printhead cleaning process. But if It doesn’t work, you need to clean it manually by following this process. 

1. Connect the Brother machine to the computer. 
2. Go to the control panel. 
3. Click on the devices & printers. 
4. Right-click on the brother printer property. 
5. Press the printing preferences. 
6. Go to the maintenance tab now. 
7. Click on the Nozzle cleaning option. 
8. Press the start button. 

Step 5 – Restart the spooler services –

When the brother is not printing black from the windows computer, it is copying fine. There might be a problem at the print spooler end. So you have to restart the printer spooler services. After that, give new print command. 

1. Open the windows service manager (run >> services.msc).
2. Click on the print spooler service. 
3. Click not the reboot the service button. 
4. Now close the service manager. 

Step 6- Reinstall the brother printer driver- 

If the brother printer is still unable to print the black ink from the windows or mac computer. I will recommend you uninstall the brother printer driver from the computer. Now Open the brother support website and download the new printer driver. Once the setup is downloaded, you need to run it and install the brother printer again. 

For Windows computer- 

1. Go to the programs and features. 
2. Select the brother printer driver. 
3. Click on the Uninstall. 
4. Press the Yes button on the UAC control. 
5. Click on the uninstall button. 

For mac computer- 

1. Open System preferences. 
2. Click on the prints & Faxes. 
3. Press the Brother printer. 
4. Click on the – option. 
5. Press the remove button. 

Reset the printer- 

After trying the above tricks, if the brother printer doesn’t print black, there might be a problem with the internal settings. So you need to reset the printer and then retry to access the printer using these settings. 

• Let’s switch on your printer.
• Press the menu button and reach the setup option using the arrows key. Now push the ok key on the printer keyboard.
• Scroll down and choose the reset option and push the ok key.
• Select reset the printer. 
• Press the ok button. 
• Now click on reboot the machine, begin reset and push the ok key again.

Once your printer reboots itself with the default settings, you need to connect the brother printer to the wireless network.  Now set it on the windows computer again. 

Bonus Point- 

When you make these changes into the brother printer, it will start printing the black ink. But you know about a few things, so you will not get such problems in the future again. 

1. Do not use the cheap quality ink cartridge. Always use the branded cartridge. You can buy it from the brother store or official website. 
2. Make sure that the printhead quality is in good condition. 
3. Do not leave your printer free for a long time; otherwise, you might be printing related issues. 
4. Reset the ink cartridge on the brother machine to make it work properly. 

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