HowToFixMe
Maintenance

How to clean pickup rollers on a Brother Printer

By Sai Kiran Pandrala · reviewed by Sai Kiran Pandrala, Editor Last verified: 2026-05-30

⚡ At a glance
Printer brandBrother
Taskclean pickup rollers
CategoryMaintenance
Time5-30 minutes depending on setup
DIY-able?Yes — no special tools beyond the printer + your phone or computer.

What this guide covers

Clean dusty / glazed pickup rollers to stop multi-feed and skipped pages.

Brother (HL/MFC/DCP) is reliable monochrome and colour laser brand popular with Indian SMBs. Brother iPrint&Scan app handles setup. Service via brother.in.

Step-by-step: how to clean pickup rollers on a Brother printer

  1. Power off and unplug the printer; let it cool 10 minutes if it was running.
  2. Open the paper tray, locate the pickup roller (rubber cylinder above the paper).
  3. Dampen a lint-free cloth with isopropyl alcohol (NOT water, NOT solvents).
  4. Rotate the roller and wipe gently until the rubber returns to a matte (not shiny) surface.
  5. Let the alcohol evaporate 5 minutes, then power on and test.

Tools and materials you'll need

Troubleshooting if the procedure fails

IssueFix
Printer doesn't respondPower-cycle, wait 60 seconds, retry.
Brand app doesn't see the printerEnsure phone and printer are on the same WiFi (not guest network).
Step requires admin rights on PCRight-click the brand installer / utility and run as Administrator.
Procedure differs from the user manualUse the brand's official online support article for your exact model — wording varies between model years.

Frequently asked questions

Will this void my warranty?

Standard maintenance procedures (cleaning, alignment, cartridge replacement, configuration changes) do NOT void warranty. Internal hardware swaps without brand authorisation usually do.

How often should I repeat this procedure?

For maintenance tasks: once a month for heavy users, once every 3 months for light home use. For setup tasks: only when needed (new WiFi, new computer, etc).

What if my Brother printer's menu looks different?

Brother uses slightly different menu wording across model years. The structure is similar. look for the closest matching menu. If lost, the Brother support site has model-specific articles for every model.

Can I do this from my phone?

Most setup, scanning, and basic maintenance tasks work from the brand app. Firmware updates and configuration changes work from both phone and computer; some advanced settings are computer-only.

Related guides worth a look while you sort this one out:

References

Reference material, not professional advice. When in doubt, call Brother authorised service.

What changed recently?

Fault diagnosis on the affected device goes faster when you map the symptom to a recent change:

The answer narrows the root cause to a manageable subset.

Before you start

A few things to confirm so this device fix goes cleanly:

How to confirm it's actually fixed

On this device, the test is rarely "reboot and see". Use this list:

When to call How support instead

Escalate if:

More frequently asked questions

Are there safer alternatives for non-technical users?

Yes, the manufacturer's self-service troubleshooter (HP Smart, LG ThinQ, Samsung Members, similar) usually walks through the same steps in a guided UI. Use that first if you're not comfortable with menu paths.

Does this affect other devices on my network?

Generally no. The procedure is local to this device. Network-side changes (firmware updates that affect TLS, SMB, or routing) are flagged explicitly in the steps.

What if the fix returns after a reboot?

Persistent fault returns mean either: a hardware fault (escalate), a configuration that's being overwritten by a sync source (check cloud profiles), or a regression in a recent firmware update (rollback).

Can I roll this back if something breaks?

Yes for software-level changes (firmware rollback, config rollback). Hardware changes are usually one-way. Always back up settings before starting.

Why is this happening on a brand-new unit?

Out-of-box defects do occur. If you've owned the device under 30 days and the symptom persists after a factory reset, escalate to the seller for replacement under DOA terms before opening a manufacturer support case.

Notes from the Brother service bench

A note on burstiness, since the rest of this guide reads like a manual. Quick fact. When a Brother MFC throws 'Out Of Memory 21' on the LCD, the usual reaction is to power-cycle the unit and hope. That works about half the time. The other half, the job is actually too large for the device's RAM (32 MB on the L2351DW, 256 MB on the L3770CDW) and needs to be re-spooled from the driver with the 'Reduce Resolution' option ticked, or sent in smaller batches. Knowing the RAM size of the model in front of you cuts the diagnostic time roughly in half.

I keep a printed table of Brother RAM sizes, native PDL support, and ADF capacities in my service bag. The HL-1218W has 32 MB and no ADF. The MFC-L2701DW has 64 MB and a 35-sheet ADF. The MFC-L2750DW has 128 MB, full PCL6 + PostScript, and a 50-sheet ADF. The MFC-L3770CDW has 256 MB and a 50-sheet duplex ADF. The DCP-T520W is an inkjet with 32 MB and no ADF. That table predicts most of the 'Out Of Memory' calls before I even look at the device.

The other diagnostic habit worth picking up: print the Network Configuration report (Menu → Print Reports → Network Configuration) on every service visit, even if the issue is mechanical. Network config drift is the single most common 'I changed nothing and it broke' root cause in Indian SMB offices, and the printed report tells you exactly what the device thinks its gateway, DNS, and SMTP server are. Five seconds saved, ten minutes of arguing avoided.

What the paper path actually looks like on a Brother MFC

The Brother paper path is short and forgiving. From the tray, paper goes through the pickup roller, then the separator pad, then the registration roller, then through the drum/transfer (laser) or printhead zone (inkjet), and finally past the fuser or drying rollers to the output tray. Each of those four contact points wears out on a different schedule.

I keep this map in my head because every cleaning visit is really a matter of finding which contact point is glazed, dusty, or has paper dust caked on. Pickup roller goes first in dusty Indian offices. Separator pad goes next, especially in homes near construction. The drum corona wire is third on the list, and I almost never touch the fuser unless the unit is past its rated duty cycle.

Configuration walkthrough, model-aware

The settings menu on a Brother varies between the touch-panel MFCs and the button-only HL siblings. I'll cover both. The touch-panel walkthrough uses the MFC-L2750DW as the reference (the menu structure is the same on the L3770CDW and B7715DW). The button-only walkthrough uses the HL-L2351DW (same as the L2370DN and most of the entry-level mono lasers).

The cleaning utilities on the device are honest. Use Settings → Maintenance → Clean Printhead on inkjet models. Use Settings → General Setup → Replace Toner → Continue on lasers, which actually triggers a corona-wire wipe cycle. Run these only when the LCD warning fires, not as a routine, because every automatic clean cycle consumes ink or toner.

For physical cleaning, the recipe is: lint-free microfibre cloth, 99% isopropyl alcohol (a 100 ml bottle is INR 180 at any chemist), and a 5-minute drying window. Do not use kitchen tissue (lints), do not use ethanol (slower evaporation), do not use WD-40 (oily residue glazes the rubber further). I learned the WD-40 lesson the expensive way in a Coimbatore school print room many years ago.

Troubleshooting commands by Brother model line

The Brother does not have a Cisco-style CLI. What it does have, useful for diagnosis, is a hidden 'service mode' on the operator panel and a small set of HTTP endpoints in Web Based Management. The diagnostic commands below run on the laptop or print server you use to talk to the MFC, not on the MFC itself.

From a Windows 11 admin laptop:

ping 192.168.1.50 Test-NetConnection -ComputerName 192.168.1.50 -Port 9100 Test-NetConnection -ComputerName 192.168.1.50 -Port 631 Get-PrinterPort | Where-Object {$_.PrinterHostAddress -eq '192.168.1.50'} Get-Printer | Format-Table Name,DriverName,PortName,PrinterStatus Get-PrintJob -PrinterName 'Brother MFC-L2750DW'

From a macOS or Linux print server (CUPS):

lpstat -p -d lpstat -t lpinfo -v lpadmin -p Brother_HL_L2351DW -E -v ipp://192.168.1.50/ipp/print -m everywhere cupsctl --debug-logging tail -f /var/log/cups/error_log

Against the Brother itself via Web Based Management API:

curl -s http://192.168.1.50/general/status.html | grep -i status curl -s http://192.168.1.50/general/info.html snmpwalk -v 2c -c public 192.168.1.50 1.3.6.1.2.1.43.10.2.1.4 snmpget -v 2c -c public 192.168.1.50 1.3.6.1.2.1.25.3.5.1.2.1

Brother error codes worth memorising on the service round: 35 (unable to print, often a stuck job buffer), 46 (waste-ink full on inkjet T-series), 49 (engine fault, escalate to ASP), 6A (SMTP auth failed), 72 (drum unit not detected). Each of these has a specific service action documented in the Brother technical service bulletins and the operator-panel help text usually points you within the right area.

India deployment + compliance notes

Brother sells in India through brother.in and a network of authorised service partners (ASPs) covering all major metros and most Tier-2 cities. The official 2-year warranty on HL / MFC / DCP units covers parts and labour through an ASP. Buying from amazon.in or flipkart.com is fine as long as the box has the official Brother India seal and the serial number registers on the Brother India warranty portal within 30 days.

For DPDP (Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023) compliance, two things matter on an MFC. First, scan-to-email pushes PII through the relay. Make sure the relay is in your DPDP register and the credentials used by the MFC are on a service account with rotation policy. Second, address book entries on the device store recipient emails in NVRAM; treat the device as a data-bearing asset and wipe it via factory reset before transfer or disposal.

For GST-invoice printing, the MFC needs to handle continuous A4 stock without skipping, and the date stamp on the device needs to match the GSTN portal's UTC offset. Enable SNTP pointing at time.google.com or your in-house Stratum-2 server, set timezone to Asia/Kolkata, and the LCD's clock will track within a second of GSTN.

Power conditions matter more than people think. Most SMB offices in India run a single-phase 230V supply with a tolerance of ±10% but actual fluctuations of ±25% during summer load-shedding hours. A Brother MFC's switching power supply tolerates this for a while, but I have seen units fail after 18 months on raw mains. Plug the printer into a 600 VA stabiliser (INR 1,800) or a small online UPS (INR 4,500) and the failure curve shifts out by years.

A real deployment I did

During board exam printing season I was at a Baner SME accounts wing in Mumbai working on a MFC-L3770CDW. The brief was simple: a chartered accountant office was getting two paper feeds at once on the MFC, with rubber marks streaking across the GST invoice copies. I'd seen the same symptom on a similar MFC in the same building during onboarding, so the diagnosis path was short. What turned out to be the actual issue: glazed pickup rollers from accumulated paper dust over 18 months of heavy use; a 90-second isopropyl wipe restored the matte surface and stopped the multi-feeds for the next quarter. The whole visit took about 35 minutes, including the obligatory chai.

A second one, shorter. In a Ahmedabad clinic last September I had to standardise five MFCs to identical scan-to-folder profiles so that the reception staff could move between desks without re-learning the menu. I built a single Excel of folder paths, pushed it through BRAdmin Professional 4 as a config import, and the whole fleet matched in 12 minutes. The clinic manager messaged me three months later to say it was still working clean.

If you do enough of these, the pattern becomes obvious. The hard part of a Brother deployment is never the device. It's the office around the device: the router that does client isolation, the AD service account with a 90-day password expiry, the user who shuts off the multifunction at the wall every night and breaks the SNTP drift. Plan for those three things and the printer side is the easy part.

More questions from the service bench

How often should I clean the corona wire on a Brother laser?

Every toner change is the right rhythm. Open the front cover, slide the green tab on the drum unit from left to right and back, three times. Takes 15 seconds. Skip it and you get streaky vertical lines down every page after the next 500 pages.

My inkjet still streaks after two head cleans. What now?

After two failed cleans, switch to a deep clean cycle through the Maintenance menu. If that fails, the printhead nozzles are dried out and need a manual soak with isopropyl. Worst case, the head itself is past replacement and the cheaper fix is a new MFC.

Can I use generic isopropyl from the chemist or do I need a 'printer cleaner' bottle?

Plain 99% isopropyl alcohol from a pharmacy works fine. The branded 'printer cleaner' bottles sold online are usually the same isopropyl at 4x the price. The thing to avoid is anything labelled 'rubber rejuvenator' which has silicone in it and ruins the rollers.