Long periods of use of your printer not only drain energy but also cause the fuser unit, especially in laser printers, to overheat. Therefore, Brother printers have a dedicated sleep mode that helps conserve energy and guards against fuser unit damage.

According to Brother, as soon as a print job is sent, the printer awakens. The users reportedly couldn’t wake the printer by sending a print job, though. Additionally, it goes into a deep sleep mode that requires a manual press of the power button to wake it up.

So, if your printer frequently goes into sleep mode, you might think about lengthening the sleep timer or turning off the sleep mode.

4 Ways to Turn Off Sleep Mode

Caution: Brother strongly advises against disabling the sleep mode feature due to the risk of a system overheating over long-term use.

Using the Printing Preferences

You also receive a special tool to modify the printer’s printing preferences when you initially install the Brother printer driver on your PC.

4 Ways to Turn Off Sleep Mode

This program allows you to modify a number of printer settings, including those related to sleep mode.

  1. Open Run on your computer. You can do it by pushing the Windows and R keys simultaneously.
  2. Type control printers and press Enter.
  3. Go to your Brother printer, right-click it, and select Printing Preferences.
  4. Click the Advanced tab.
  5. Click the Other Print Options button.
  6. Disable this option.
  7. If available, turn off the sleep mode or choose your preferred time.
  8. Click OK.

Using the Embedded Web Server

If you are aware of your printer’s IP address, you can access its Embedded Web Server (EWS) and quickly change the settings for sleep mode.

  1. Open Chrome or any browser on your computer.
  2. Type the IP address of your printer there and hit the Enter key.
  3. Once the EWS of the printer loads, go to Sleep Time settings.
  4. Choose the sleep time from the drop-down. If available, choose Off.
  5. Click Submit.

Using the Display Panel

You may modify the sleep timer settings from your Brother printer’s display panel as well. The steps are listed below.

  1. Launch Settings.
  2. Go with the All Settings option.
  3. Tap General Setup.
  4. Scroll down and click Sleep Mode. In some models, you may need to choose the Ecology option before accessing the sleep settings.
  5. Select your preferred sleep time from the list of options. If prompted, you can also enter the sleep time using the numeric keypad.
  6. Once you set the sleep time, click OK.

Using the Printer Buttons

Some printer models, like the Brother HL-2350DW, also give you the option to modify the sleep time settings in addition to turning off the deep sleep mode. The steps to configure it are as follows.

  1. Use the Up or Down buttons on the printer to go to General Setup. Then hit OK.
  2. Press the Down button a few times until you see the Ecology option. Then tap OK.
  3. Again move down to choose Sleep Time.
  4. Specify your preferred sleep time there.
  5. Or, push the Down and Back buttons at once. It will pop up a Deep Sleep menu.
  6. Hit OK.
  7. Press the Down button to select Off. Hit OK.