If your Brother printer is so slow, this article will provide you with the reasons for this issue so that you can fix it within minutes with the solutions provided as well.
Table of Contents
Why Does My Brother Printer Print So Slowly? [Reasons]
Here are some reasons why your Brother Printer is printing so slowly:
i. Your Printer’s Back Cover Is Not Closed Properly
If your Brother printer is very slow to print, then it might be that the back cover of your Brother Printer is not closed properly. Since your printer is designed to print with the cover closed, an open cover sends a signal to the printer that there is something wrong. This is then translated as an error of sort.
If the cover is completely opened, the printer will not print. However, if it is slightly closed, the printer will juggle tasks between trying to figure out the issue while printing the document. If the cover remains partially closed for a while, your Brother Printer might stop the printing altogether eventually.
2. The Installation of Your Machine’s Duplex Tray Was Not Well Done
If your Brother printer is extremely slow, then you need to check the duplex tray of your machine if it was well-installed. In such a case, because of this improper installation, the tray is unable to feed paper well into the printer.
It could be that during the installation of the tray, the component was slightly inclined to one side. This mistake will cause the printer to exert more pull in picking the paper to print.
3. The Print Resolution of the Print-Job Might Be Too Large
If your Brother printer printing is extremely slow, then it could be that the print resolution is too large. The resolution of print jobs is measured in dots per inch (DPI). Hence, an image that has more resolution literally has more dots that need to be printed.
Therefore, when a document with a large resolution is to be printed, because there are more dots that are to be printed to ensure the high quality of the job, the printer will take more time in printing the document. Although print speed which is measured in ppm (pages per minute) remains constant in most cases, it is the resolution of the print job that determines how fast the job is printed.
Hence, if you want to stop your Brother Printer from printing slow, then you will have to change the resolution. However, note that when you do that, the print quality of the print job will be reduced.
4. Your Brother Printer Is Set To Quiet Mode
Brother printers can work in quiet mode where they make less noise. This mode is a low-power mode that conserves energy. Therefore, since much power is not being used by the printer in this mode, it cannot print at a fast speed. Hence, this mode could be responsible for your Brother printer going slow.
5. The Brother Printer Driver Might not be Properly Installed
If your Brother printer is slow to print, then the driver might have not been properly installed. The function of the driver is to act as a communication bridge between the computer and the printer that translates the data from the computer to the printer. In other words, the driver allows your printer to decode the print job data sent from your computer.
Hence, if this software is not properly installed, it will affect your printer’s ability to interpret and understand the data sent from the computer. This, in turn, will affect the print speed as it takes more time trying to understand the sent data.
Therefore, to fix this issue, all you need to do is to properly reinstall your Brother Printer driver.
6. The Driver Setting Might Be Affecting the Speed
Not only does improper driver installation affect print speed, but the driver setting of your printer might also be responsible for your Brother Printer’s slow printing. The driver settings you can set include ink, and flip horizontal.
Hence, when your Brother Printer is printing slow, you can change the driver settings to see if it will fix this issue.
7. The Type of Paper Used
If Brother Printer is running slow, then it could be due to the type of paper that you are using.
How Paper Types Affect Print Speed
Below are the main types of paper and how they affect paper speed:
i. Matte: This paper allows ink to dry quickly which is important to print speed. Why so? Well, the faster the ink dries within the printer, the faster the print job is sent out of the printer. Matte paper is the commonly used paper.
ii. Glossy: Mostly used for printing colored photographs, ink on this paper takes longer to dry compared to matte. As a result, if you use this paper type, you will experience a slower print speed.
iii. Bright White: This is the whitest type of paper. It doesn’t have a textured surface; therefore, it doesn’t allow ink to dry so fast.
iv. Copier and Laser Printer: This is another paper that is commonly used. It has a fast drying time which means it will make your print job faster. The thin, lightweight nature of this paper is another reason why jobs printed on this paper will come out faster than most of the other paper types.
v. Listing: Since this paper type is connected via perforated seams and must be fed continuously into the paper, this process takes much time. Hence, it has the slowest print speed.
vi. Photo: This is also glossy but just on one of its sides. It is heavy which means that its print speed performance isn’t as fast as the other lighter papers.
8. The Print Quality Settings Might be the Cause
“Why is my Brother printer printing slowly?” The answer to that question could be that your print quality settings are responsible. Print quality and print speed have an effect on each other. In most cases, when the print quality is higher, the print speed is slower, and when the print quality is lower, the print speed is faster.
Therefore, changing the print quality settings can fix this issue. Note that when you do this, you will lose the print quality of your print job.
9. Improper or Wrong Connections
If your USB, Ethernet cable, or wireless connections are not done properly, it could be responsible for your Brother printer printing too slow. Therefore, you need to check all your connections whether wired or wireless to ensure that they aren’t responsible for the problem.
If your Brother printer is slow to print PDF, then any of these reasons could also be responsible.
Now that we have looked at the reasons why your Brother Printer is printing slowly, let us discuss how you can fix this issue.
To read more awesome articles, click any of the links below…
Brother Printer Drum Error [Solved]
How to Make My Brother Printer Print Faster [Quick Guide]
Brother Printer Replace Drum Error [Quick Fix]
Can’t Find WPS Pin for Brother Printer [Quick Fix]
Brother Printer Manual Feed [Guide; Issues & Solutions]
How Do I Fix My Brother Printer Slow Printing
Your Brother Printer slow printing issue can be fixed by doing the following:
1. Confirm that your Brother Printer’s Driver is Installed
How to Confirm that Brother Printer Driver is Installed on Windows
i. Open Printers folder on your computer.
Follow the instructions below to open the Printers folder for your particular Windows version
Windows 10 Users
These steps will take you a step further to fix the issue of Brother Printer slow printing on windows 10:
Step 1: Press the Windows key + “R” on the keyboard.
Step 2: Once the Run dialog box appears, type in “control printers”, then press Enter or click “OK”.
Windows 8, 8.1 Users or Server 2012 Users
Step 1: While on your computer’s Desktop screen, hover the mouse around the screen’s top right or bottom right corner. This will cause the “Charms bar” to be displayed.
Note, if you try to get the charms bar via the Start screen, “Control Panel” will not be displayed.
Step 2: Click “Settings”.
Step: Click “Control Panel”.
Step 4: Go to “Hardware and Sound”, and then click on “View Devices and Printers”.
Windows 7 Users or Server 2008 R2 Users
Step 1: Click the Windows icon on the Taskbar.
Step 2: Click on “Devices and Printers”.
Windows Vista Users or Server 2008 Users
Step 1: Click the Windows icon on the Taskbar.
Step 2: Click on “Control Panel”.
Step 3: Go to “Hardware and Sound”, and then click on “Printers”.
Windows XP Users or Server 2003 R2 Users
Step 1: Click on “Start”.
Step 2: Click on “Control Panel”.
Step 3: Go to “Printers and Other Hardware”, and then click on “View Installed Printers”.
ii. Go to your Brother Printer’s properties.
For Windows 2008, Server 2003, Vista, XP, 2000
Simply right-click Brother Printer, then click on “Properties”
For Windows 2012, Server 2008 R2, 10, 8.1, 8, 7
Simply right-click your Brother Printer, then click “Printer Properties”
iii. Click the tab labeled “Advanced”.
iv. Confirm that the driver of your Brother Printer is listed in the Driver field. You should be able to identify this as your model’s name will be in the field.
If the driver of your printer is listed, then the printer’s driver is okay.
If the right driver isn’t listed, then click on the dropdown then select the right driver. After that, click “Apply”.
In case the dropdown doesn’t show your printer driver, then you have to uninstall the driver before reinstalling it. Click here to learn how to install a Brother Printer.
How to Confirm that Brother Printer Driver is Installed on Mac
i. From the Dock or Apple Menu, click on “System Preferences”.
ii. Click on “Print & Fax”, “Printers & Scanners” or “Print & Scan” icon. The name depends on your Mac’s operating system.
iii. Confirm that your driver is listed.
If you can find it on the list, then the driver is okay.
If it isn’t, then you need to add your printer driver.
How to Add Brother Printer Driver on Mac
i. Click on the button labeled Plus (+) on the bottom left side of the Printers section
ii. Click on the icon of your computer’s default browser at the upper part of the screen
iii. Choose your Brother Printer from the list
iv. Do this depending on your driver type:
– CUPS Driver: From the “Print Using” list, ensure that you select your Brother printer’s model name + CUPS.
– PostScript Driver: From the “Print Using” list, select Model name BR-Script. This driver type is not available to all models. It is also slower, so we recommend you use CUPS. The only exception should be if you have a special reason for using BR-Script.
v. Click on “Add”. Then close “Print & Fax”.
2. Confirm the Paper Type in Use
Follow the steps below to confirm the paper type being used:
Windows Users
Step 1: Go to the computer’s Printers folder.
Step 2: Right-click your Brother Printer.
Step 3: Click on “Printing Preferences”.
Step 4: Under the tab labeled “Basic”, check the “Media Type” to make sure that the paper type you choose is the right one.
Step 5: Click “Apply”, and then “OK”.
Mac Users
Step 1: Via the application you want to print from, click on “File”.
Step 2: Click on “Page Setup”.
Step 3: In the “Format for”, ensure that you select your Brother Printer.
Step 4: In the “Paper Size”, select the paper size.
Step 5: Click on “OK”.
Step 6: Click on “File”.
Step 7: Click on “Print”.
Step 8: If you see only “Printer” followed underneath by “Presets as the available options when the Print window appears, then you need to do the following depending on your Mac’s OS:
Mac OS 10.7 to 10.10 Users
Click on the button labeled “Show Details”. This will cause other options to appear.
Mac OS 10.4 to 10.6 Users
Click on the blue dropdown beside the listed printer name. This will cause other options to appear.
Step 9: Click the dropdown menu beside the application name or “Copies & Pages”.
Step 10: Click “Print Settings”.
Step 11: Under the tab labeled “Basic”, check the “Media Type” field to ensure that you select the correct paper type.
If your Brother printer is slow to print on Mac, then the above should fix it.
3. Check Your Connections
If your Brother Printer is very slow, checking your connections could fix the problem. These are the connections you need to check:
USB/Parallel
Do the following to check your USB/Parallel connection if your Brother printer is suddenly slow:
i. Check the interface cable you are using:
For USB Cable
Make use of a USB 2.0 type A/B cable on your computer’s USB 2.0 port if you can. You can also use a USB 1.1 port. Avoid the use of a parallel-to-USB adapter cable.
For Parallel Cable
Make use of IEEE 1284 parallel-to-parallel cable. Ensure that the length of the cable doesn’t exceed 6 feet. It should also be connected directly to your personal computer to the printer. Avoid the use of a parallel-to-USB adapter cable.
ii. Turn off the Brother printer.
iii. Disconnect your interface cable from both ends before reconnecting it.
iv. Turn on the Brother printer.
Wired Ethernet
i. All firewalls that could affect the printer’s speed should be temporarily disabled.
ii. As much as possible, ensure that the Ethernet cable is connected to your router directly rather than the switch.
iii. Reboot your router’s power.
Wireless LAN
i. All firewalls that could affect the printer’s speed should be temporarily disabled.
ii. Ensure that the printer is as close to your router as much as possible.
iii. Reboot your router’s power.
If your Brother printer is slow over wifi, then this should fix it.
You can find solutions to the other reasons which we didn’t address above in this article.
Brother Printer Slow Between Pages [How to Fix]
If your Brother Printer is slow to start printing between pages, do the following to fix it:
Windows Users
i. Choose the Color or Mono setting for either single job or all jobs. When you do this the following print jobs will use the same setting until you change it:
Single Job
– Select the print option you want from the application you intend to print from
– Click on “Properties”. This action will cause the “Printing Preferences” window to be displayed
All Jobs
– Open your computer’s Printers folder
– Right-click your Brother Printer
– Left-click “Printing Preferences”
ii. Under the tab labeled “Basic”, click on the dropdown for “Color/Mono”. Then select between “Color” and “Mono”. Your choice will be based on whether you’ll be printing in monochrome or color.
iii. Click on “Apply”, and then click on “OK”.
iv. If it is a “Single Job”, then click on “OK” or on “Print” to start printing.
If it is “All Jobs”, after configuring the driver, your following jobs will be printed using this setting.
Mac Users
i. Click on “File”.
ii. Click on “Print”.
iii. Choose your Brother printer from the list of printers.
iv. Select “Print Settings” from the dropdown of the application.
v. Under the tab labeled “Basic”, click on the dropdown for “Color/Mono”. Then select between “Color” and “Mono”. Your choice will be based on whether you’ll be printing in monochrome or color.
vi. You can then save preset print settings on your Mac by doing the following:
– Select either “Save Current Settings as Preset” or “Save As” via the dropdown Presets box.
– Type in your preferred Preset name.
– Click “OK”.
– Click “Print”.
Brother Printer Scanning Very Slow [Reasons]
Brother Printer slow scanning issue could be due to the following:
1. Scan Type
The scan type can affect your printer’s scanning speed. You can improve the scan speed by changing the scan type. Some options available to you include 24-bit color, 256 color, Grayscale, and Black and White.
If you opt for the 24-bit color, the file produced by this option is the largest of the bunch; hence, the time it takes to scan will be longer. On the other end of the spectrum, the black and white option is much faster.
2. Resolution (DPI)
The higher the resolution, the longer it takes for the document will take to scan. For example, text documents have a dpi of 100, while color images are around a dpi of 300 or more. Hence, the latter former will scan faster than the latter.
While images with higher DPI are sharper, due to their larger size, the scan speed will be much slower. You can increase the speed by selecting the right resolution.
3. Connection Type
This can also determine your printer’s speed. USB connections are the fastest. Hence, we advise using this connection for complex document scanning. If you are scanning via a network connection, we recommend the use of Wired Ethernet rather than Wireless.
Since using a wireless connection is the slowest; hence, the issue of Brother Printer is slow on a network is very common.
Brother Printer Slow To Copy [Quick Fix]
If your Brother Printer is slow to copy, then you can improve the speed by changing the Copy Quality Setting by selecting any of the options below:
– Fast: As its name implies, this is the fastest copy and it uses the least ink. This option is suitable for printing several copies as well as documents waiting for proofreading.
– Normal: This is the default setting that produces good copies while maintaining a good copy speed.
– Best: This setting is best for complex printing such as pictures. Its speed is the lowest but the best resolution.
How to Change your Brother Printer’s Copy Quality Setting
How to Change Brother Printer to Default Copy Quality Setting
Do the following to change the Brother’s Printer to default Copy Quality Setting:
i. Press the Menu button, then “3” for copy and then “1” for quality.
ii. Use the navigation arrow keys to choose your preferred Copy Quality Setting.
The options you can choose from are the ones we discussed above: Best, Normal, or Fast.
iii. Press “OK”.
iv. Press “STOP/EXIT”.
In this case, the setting will be the same for all copies. It will remain this way until you decide to change it.
How to Change Brother Printer to Temporary Copy Quality Setting
Do the following to change the Brother’s Printer to temporary Copy Quality Setting:
i. Press “COPY” to light up the button.
ii. Place the document you intend to copy into the feeder or tray.
iii. Input how many copies you desire with the printer’s dial pad. The maximum is 99.
iv. Press the key labeled “COPY OPTION S”
v. Use the navigation arrow keys to choose the “Quality”
vi. Press “OK”.
ii. Use the navigation arrow keys to choose your preferred Copy Quality Setting.
The options you can choose from are the ones we discussed above: Best, Normal, or Fast.
iii. Press “OK”.
iv. Press the “BLACK START” key or the “COLOR START” key to copy the document.
In this case, the setting will only work for the job you are about to copy next. Once you are done with that, the setting will go back to default.
Brother Printer Slow To Receive Data [Reasons & Solutions]
If your Brother printer is slow in receiving data, then the following could be responsible:
i. Your Computer Might Have a Virus
If this is the case, then you need to get rid of the virus using a trusted and reliable anti-virus program. Some good examples are Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Norton 360 With LifeLock, Webroot SecureAnywhere for Mac, and McAfee Antivirus Plus.
ii. Your Network Might be Hacked or about to be Hacked
If your Brother printer is slow to respond, then it could mean that your network has either been hacked or is about to be hacked. To fix this, you need to upgrade the security settings for your network.
iii. Issues with your Brother Printer Driver
If your Brother Printer is very slow to receive data, then it could be that there are issues with the driver such as:
– The driver is corrupt
– The driver settings are incorrect
– The driver was not installed properly
The above issues can be fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling the driver. We already showed you how you can do that earlier on in the article.
iv. Connection Issues
Connection issues such as improper connection, no connection, slow connection, etc. could cause your printer to receive data slowly. Hence, you need to check all your connections especially if you are using a wireless connection.
v. Slow Internet Speed
This happens if you are printing over an internet network connection. Since the internet connection speed fluctuates, when the speed is slow, it will directly affect how fast your Brother Printer receives data.
Therefore, you need to ensure that your internet device is in a location where it has enough network reception. You could also change your internet provider if you always experience this issue.
Linux Brother Printer Slow [How to Fix] – Brother Printer Is So Slow
If your Linux Brother Printer is slow, follow the steps below to fix it:
i. Turn off your Brother printer.
ii. On your computer under “System/Printing”, you will find where to remove your printer.
iii. After that, search for Brother Software on Synaptic.
You need drivers from Synaptic because the ones on the Brother site may not work for some Ubuntu versions.
iv. Remove the driver completely.
v. Reboot before heading back to Synaptic to run another search. At this point, you shouldn’t have any driver installed.
vi. Begin to click the CUP files until your Brother Printer’s model is shown.
vii. Mark it for installation. This should automatically add the right LPR driver.
viii. Once the installation is complete, turn on your Brother Printer; this should get fix the issue.
If your Brother MFC printer is slow, then all that we have shared will fix the issue including “Brother mfc-9130cw is slow” and “Brother mfc-9340cdw is slow to print” issues.
If after all the processes above and your printer is still slow, then you should contact Brother.