Updated 25/09/2019
Does this sound familiar? You press print and walk over to your Brother printer only to see an error message on the LCD screen; Unable to clean: Brother Machine error 46 or just ‘Error 46’.
You won’t believe how common this is, in fact the Error code 46 affects the majority, if not all Brother inkjet printers and there is a fix that you can try yourself to get your trusty printer working again before it takes a swan dive through the window.
We’re going to teach you what you need to know to fix your Brother printer by changing the settings and without having to replace anything.
Here’s what you’ll learn from this post:
- What causes Brother Machine Error 46 on my printer?
- What is an ink absorber / why does my printer need it?
- What is a purge counter & how do I reset it?
- How to reset and clear the Brother Machine Error 46 on your printer
What causes Brother Machine Error 46?
According to the Brother support website, Error 46 on a Brother printer is displayed when something called the ‘ink absorber pad’ is full and needs to be replaced (don’t worry, you won’t need to replace anything when trying our fix).
This is an essential part of the printer and there’s a very good reason for having a correctly functioning ink absorber pad, but it’s a lot simpler than you might think.
What’s more, the error code is often triggered when the ink absorber isn’t full, which is why there is a simple way to clear out the error and get your printer up and running again.
What is an ink absorber pad / why does my printer need it?
The ink absorber, also common in Canon printers, is simply a small sponge pad, and its purpose is to collect excess or spilled ink that builds up during printing. The pad also collects any excess ink that might be spilled when a cleaning process is run (a printer often cleans itself before or after a print cycle and this uses a large amount of ink).
If your ink absorber is full, you will firstly see excess ink on your prints. The absorber can be replaced, but will need to be done by a brother printer technician and will likely cost more than the printer is worth. Ouch!
The ink absorber pad can be found in the bottom of the printer and without it, it’s likely that your printer would eventually leak ink and stain your desk or carpet in no time without one.
Why does my printer think the ink absorber is full if it isn’t?
Once an ink absorber has been used many times it can become saturated with ink, but because there is no easy way for software to determine how saturated the sponge is, instead it roughly calculates based on the number of cleans and print cycles that the printer has performed and often as a precaution, over estimates and gives the error message before the sponge is full.
What is a purge counter & how do I reset it?
As the printer effectively counts the number of print and clean cycles, this is done by something called the purge counter. The purge counter can be reset using the menu system on your printer via the LCD panel.
How to reset and clear the Brother Machine Error 46 on your printer
Firstly before we start, check if your printer is in warranty (you will get a 1 year warranty when you buy your printer), if your warranty is still valid then always contact Brother support first of all who should fix your printer for you. Don’t attempt the following fix unless your printer is out of warranty.
To fix and clear the Error 46 message, follow these simple instructions. There are 2 different processes for those Brother printers that have a number pad like a phone (ones that can Fax), and for those that just have buttons.
Part 1 – Put the printer into Maintenance mode:
- Unplug the power cord from the side of the printer.
- Hold down either the Menu, Set or Start button (you only need to hold one which is normally the menu button, but if you don’t have a menu button, then try the Set button, grey or green Start button or the down arrow).
- Keeping the button pressed down, plug the power cord back in and hold the button until you see a maintenance mode message (or ‘Error 46’ as Glenn pointed out in the comments) on the screen.
- Your printer screen should now read ‘Maintenance’.
If your printer has an LCD screen, the button you need to hold down as you unplug the printer will be either ‘set’, ‘start’, a green button, or menu button. Hold this down, then unplug the power cord and plug back in will still holding the button down. It may take some trial and error to find the correct button.
Part 2 – Resetting the Purge counter
There are different ways to reset the counter on printers that have a number keypad, compared to those that just have arrows. Here’s how to reset on each…
A – For printers with a number key pad:
- Type 80 on the keypad to open the options up.
- Use the down arrow key to scroll through the options until you see Purge followed by a number (this is the clean cycle count)
- Enter 2783 and the number next to the word PURGE should set to zero
- Press stop or exit to get back to the maintenance mode menu.
- Type 99 to exit and restart the printer.
Some more modern keypad printers have a different method to get into maintenance mode (thanks to BajaRon for his tips in the comments). If the above didn’t work, try the following:
B – For Modern printers with a number key pad:
- Hold down the home button (shaped like a house) until you see Serial No. / Rom Version / Print Page and a blank option.
- Press the blank option at the bottom of the list on the LCD screen.
- Press 0# on the LCD screen to enter maintenance mode.
- Enter 80 on the touch screen
- Use the arrows to scroll to ‘Purge Count’
- Enter 2783 and press ‘Mono Start’ which will reset the purge count
- Press stop to exit maintenance mode.
C – For printers without number buttons (printers that can’t fax):
- Once in maintenance mode, follow the same instructions above but instead of setting the numbers with the key pad, use the up and down arrows to scroll through the numbers…Scroll to 8 – press OK (or Set), then scroll to 0 and press OK (or Set).
- Then scroll through the options until you see the word Purge with a count next to it.
- Using the OK button again, enter the numbers 2,7,8,3. And the purge counter will set to 00000.
Hey Presto! This should reset the purge counter back to zero and stop the Printer Error code 46 from appearing again, at least for a good while! Who knew you could do this?? Mind well and truly blown! 🙂
If you’re looking for solutions to other Brother Error codes, you can find what they mean on the Brother Support Website.
Did this help? Let us know in the comments or if you need more advice or are struggling, let me know and I’ll do my best to get back to you!
About Stuart DeavallI have been working in the printing industry with TonerGiant for over 12 years and am the resident technical printer expert. I'm also the Digital Marketing Manager at TonerGiant.co.uk (degree qualified) and I have a passion for helping people fix their printer issues. I'm also a big fan of all gadgets and technology.
Saved my life! Error 46 came up on the same day as I had a presentation to prepare & needed colour printouts.
Only heart stop was that “Error 46” appeared instead of “Maintenance” after plugging in but all your instructions still worked fine.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Glenn,
that’s fantastic, I’m glad I could help. Thanks for the note, I’ll change the content to let everyone know about the maintenance message.
Stu
Brilliant your a life saver ( of the printer as the window was looking good)
i have a new brother DCP-T710W your advice is not working on my printer, please help me how can I reset the purge counter.
thanks so much.
Jennifer delacruz
Hi there, do you have the error 46 message on the lcd screen? I’m not sure if the same method will work on an ink tank printer such as the Brother DCP-T710W as the technology is different.
Thank you very much, allows me to carry on with the project I was trying to get finished.
I reset the purge and ‘sen purge counter’ in a BROTHER MFC j4410dw but when I switch on the above mentioned printer, even if the purge counter states ‘0000’, the ‘ink absorber almost full’ is displayed on the tiny lcd screen…
I do no know how to get rid of it; I have done the resetting procedure 4 times.
I wonder if the printer will work anyway, since the purge counter is reset and display 0000… or will it stop working?
Thank you in advance for your reply.
NG
Hi Nico,
If the problem still occurs after resetting the purge counter, then the ink absorber pad is full. This fix only normally works because in most cases, the message comes before the pad is full, so resetting the counter gives you some more time. Replacing the pad can be very expensive, depending on the printer so you may need a new printer unfortunately (unless you’ve had it less than 12 months, then Brother should replace it for free).
I reset to 00000 the purge and sen purge counter but the message ‘ink absorbing near full’ still appear. It is quiet annoying… any suggestion to get rid of it? I did the procedure 5 times but the message still there…
it doesn’t work on mfc-j4420dw
Daniel is correct, it doesn’t work for Brother MFC-J4420DW. Any suggestions for getting into Maintenance mode for my printer? Please help!
I hope that I am writing to Stuart…
I have a MFC-J985DW Brother printer and I received the Ink Absorber Pad Full message on my LCD screen. I followed the instructions by turning off the power and then turning it on again and pressing the green start button at the same time (there is no menu button) but it doesn’t take me to a maintenance window just the same window that says “see troubleshooting in Users Guide” and Ink Absorber Pad Full at the top with an exclamation mark. Please advise.
I’m unsure which buttons appear on the newer Brother models but try holding down the button that looks like a house.
Why does my Brother DCP-T710W one i entered maintenance 80 will flash error code? and its error 4600?
Error 4600 is different to Error 46 and means the laser unit is at the end of it’s life.
It’s work ! Fantastic. Thank you sir for helping me out from ‘Error 46 ‘on my printer Brother MFC-295CN
Rokiah, you are welcome! 🙂
Thank you for your quick response. If I do nothing but the above mentioned procedure will the printer stop working?
I mean, the pad full is not a problem if it only means son drop of in on my desk… I feel like it is nothing but programmed to fail, to make us buy a new printer 🙁
Hi Nico, if just left its likely that your prints will start to get ink marks on them, rather than there be a mess on the desk. Eventually the printer will also stop working at all. Unfortunately there isn’t anything you can do beyond repair or replacing the printer. I think it may be possible to replace the ink pad yourself but I’ve never done it so I can’t give you advice on it myself.
Works a treat! Thanks so much
If you’ve reset the purge counter and it is still giving you an error, it is likely because the cycle count for the BLK and CLR is also a high number.
You can also reset these to enable printing again, but after you do I’d suggest taking a paper towel and ripping it into strips and blotting out the ink absorber until not much ink transfers to the paper towel. The colors are usually just saturating the foam on top, while the black dumps into a lower holding area. You can use a q-tip to clear some of the black ink off the “ramp”. I stuck the full paper towel bits and q-tips into a Ziploc bag to cleanly dispose of them and I’d highly recommend wearing nitrile/rubber gloves used for painting/etc to avoid getting the ink on your hands.
Love it! Thanks!
Worked very well, thanks.
My MFC-440 CN printer seems to do a cleaning cycle very often, can you advise if this can be addressed or does the printer have another problem?
Hi Terry, the cleaning cycle is normally triggered each time the printer is switched on and off so the only way to reduce is to keep it in standby mode although some newer printers with larger ink tanks / print heads do automatically clean on a regular basis but I don’t think it can be changed. If yours is over cleaning it’s likely a separate issue that you’d need to speak to Brother about.
i did reset the purge counter, now its back in 0. but the machine error 46 still in display. what should i do?
If you still have the error 46 on a purge counter set to 0 then the ink absorber pad is too saturated with ink and unfortunately it would cost more to replace than get a new printer!
thanks so much it worked perfectly
Marvelous advice and fix. Even someone as hopeless as me with computers and devices managed to clear the error fault in a couple of minutes. Thank you very much.
Getting to maintenance mode by reconnecting the power cable worked where digital methods suggested by other sites had failed. Many thanks for the clear instructions, printer rescued – for a while anyway!