Unable to print multiple copies on Grother Printer

Bob Coleman · 27 Aug 2017

My printer (Brother MFC-J985DW) works fine when printing a single copy from an application Whenever I select more than one copy, nothing prints.

A canned response from Brother states This issue is typically caused by a damaged Print Spooler or Print Processor, which are components of the operating system that control printing. As a work around, you may set the driver to "Print Directly to the Printer".

That's correct. That is a work around, but I don't think it's the right long term solution.

How do I correct the "damaged Print Spooler"?

SoFine409 · 27 Aug 2017

You could try going to the printer properties and finding the setting for collating copies and turn it off (or maybe turn it on if it's off). That fixes the multiply copies problem on my HP 1300. It might work for you.

Bob Coleman · 28 Aug 2017

Thanks for the thought, but it doesn't help.

ArazelEternal · 28 Aug 2017

Unfortunately Im not nearly as good with Brother printers as I am HP, but I have an idea.

With HPs, this is commonly caused by the use of a Universal Print Driver. This is usually used by newer OSs when trying to run an older or especially a legacy printer. Sometimes with the UPD, it will try and configure itself to the printer, which at times all it has is a really good guess as to exactly which printer it is. It will configure itself improperly and cause this kind of issue.

One thing you can try is going to the printer in Devices and Printers, right click on the printer, and click printer properties. In there, you should see a device settings (or similarly titled, could be labeled as advanced as well) tab. Open that tab and look to see if there are settings that have names to the effect of Mopier mode. IF it does and its enabled, disable it. If it has settings for extra paper trays that the printer doesnt have, disable them if enabled. If it has a setting for telling the computer how much memory the printer has, make sure this setting is accurate, or as close as it can be.

Aside from that, make sure the driver its using is the proper driver. If the printer got the driver from Windows update, try going to Brothers website and downloading the proper driver directly from there. IF you didnt have to install the driver yourself, the driver likely came from Windows update.

Bob Coleman · 29 Aug 2017

Unfortunately, I don't see any of those options.

I think I originally installed the driver from a CD that came with the printer and I think multiple copy printing used to work, but I'm not absolutely certain.

I'm wondering if this got broken by the "Creators Update", but I don't l don't know.

Trying to get and install the latest driver from Brother is a good idea,.

play2mefish · 29 Aug 2017

Here is a way to clear all print jobs from the computer (from a cmd line prompt) in question:

net stop spooler
cd\windows\system32\spool\printers
del *.* /q
cd\windows\system32
net start spooler

This will stop the spooler
Delete any remaining print files corrupt or not.
Then restart the spooler.

Then as ArazelEternal suggested, goto Brothers web site and see if you can get an updated driver. Hope this helps.

Bob Coleman · 30 Aug 2017

There don't appear to be any pending print files corrupt or otherwise.

I've reinstalled the printer driver a few times to no avail.

I'm pretty well convinced it's a Windows problem which can be solved by re-installing Windows. I just have to decide whether I want this fixed badly enough to go through that.

SoFine409 · 30 Aug 2017

Bob Coleman said:

There don't appear to be any pending print files corrupt or otherwise.

I've reinstalled the printer driver a few times to no avail.

I'm pretty well convinced it's a Windows problem which can be solved by re-installing Windows. I just have to decide whether I want this fixed badly enough to go through that.

you can do an repair install and keep all of your setting and programs:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials
just be sure to do a full backup just in case anything goes wrong. You can use Macrium Free Version.

Bob Coleman · 31 Aug 2017

OK, thanks. That might have worked, but I finally solved the issue by restoring a backup from a few months ago which left a limited number of things to re-install or re-customize.

Bob Coleman · 01 Sep 2017

SoFine409 said:

you can do an repair install and keep all of your setting and programs:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials
just be sure to do a full backup just in case anything goes wrong. You can use Macrium Free Version.

Thanks for this excellent suggestion. I tried it and the result seems to be even better than my restored backup of a few months ago. As far as I can tell, this has completely fixed my problem with the printer and left everything else intact and up to date.