Brother MFC-J6720DW "not connected" to MacBook Pro

Question

Yesterday I suddenly found that I could not print to my Brother MFC-J6720DW from my MacBook Pro (running Mac OS 10.12.6), nor could I use the scanning function. The other Mac on the Wi-Fi network cannot print on it either

The printer was connected by Wi-Fi and as far as I know nothing has recently changed on the network. My laser printer on USB is working fine.

I have reset the printing system as advised to another person who had a similar problem. However, when I try to add the MFC printer I get an error message. So, I connected the printer to the MacBook with an ethernet cable and found that I could now add the printer and actually print to it.

However, I cannot figure out how to add the scanner functionality. I downloaded the latest scanner driver from Brother & installed it, but I can't see how to add the scanner to the printers/scanners list. (I had no trouble adding my transparency scanner which is on USB.)

I'm sure the answer must be really simple but I'm somehow missing it. It would be good to know why I can't add the printer over Wi-Fi - I could connect to it with Safari and interrogate the administrative functions over Wi-Fi.

in friendship

Rowland

Answer 1

OK, it's working again but I'm puzzled how I achieved it.

I turned off the Wi-Fi on my MacBook to confirm that the connexion to the printer was definitely only via the ethernet cable, and after I turned it on again I saw "MFC-J6720DW multifunction" as the name of the printer. I added that and then was able to unplug the ethernet cable and both print and scan over Wi-Fi as before. I don't know why that should have been effective because I had already done a system reset on the Mac without success in being able to use the printer over Wi-Fi.

Sorry to have wasted anyone's time!

in friendship

Rowland