If your Brother colour laser Printer is still displaying “Replace Toner” or has a red cross over a colour, even after you have replaced a toner cartridge, it may be that the counter has not reset. This can occur with genuine Brother TN321 or TN326 toner cartridges, compatible versions or even remanufactured versions.

How to I stop these ‘Cartridge Error’ and ‘Replace Toner’ messages?

Thankfully, there is a way to remove these messages that can be done directly from the printer. By following the relevant set of steps below, you should be able to get yourself up and running in just a few minutes.

Unfortunately, these resets have not been released by Brother themselves, but we have done our best to assemble guides below based on our own experience. We have included model numbers where possible, but if you have anything to add, please let us know here.

Printers Without a Number Pad

For machines without fax functionality, like the Brother HL-L8250CDN or HL-L8350CDW. These printers have a small mono LCD Screen and the reset requires pressing buttons found on the control panel of the printer.

Step 1. With the cartridge (or cartridges) installed, make sure that the printer is on and open the front cover. On most models, the LCD screen will change to display the message “Cover is Open”.

Step 2. Hold down the ‘Cancel’ button and then press the ‘Secure’ button. Then, release both buttons at the same time. If done correctly, the screen will now display one of the codes shown in the next step.

Step 3. The code shown on screen denotes the colour and Capacity of the black, cyan, magenta or yellow toner cartridge that is currently selected. Press the ‘UP’ and ‘Down’  (▲/▼) buttons on your printer to cycle through the options until you find the correct code for the cartridge you wish to reset.

Please use the table below to ensure you have the correct code selected…

Step 4. Finally, press ‘Yes’ or ‘OK’ to confirm, and the printer will get to work resetting the toner, displaying “Accepted” when it is done. Some machines may require an additional prompt to finalise the reset, but this will be displayed on screen if needed. You can now close the cover again and carry on printing.

If you have another toner that needs resetting, you can run through the process again.

Printers With a Number pad

For machines with fax functionality like the Brother DCP-L8400CDN, DCP-L8450CDW, MFC-L8650CDW, MFC-L8650CDW or MFC-L8650CDW. The reset procedure for these printers uses a combination of the touchscreen and the back-illuminated number pad found on the front of the printer.

If your printer’s number pad is not always visible or lit, we would recommend marking the position of the ‘*’ with a sticker or a removable dot with pen/pencil/chalk. You can force your printer to illuminate the number pad by navigating onto another page, like fax.

Step 1. With the cartridge (or cartridges) installed, make sure that the printer is on and open the front cover. On most models, the LCD screen will change to display the message “Close the Front Cover”.

Step 2. Hold down the ‘*’ button for a few seconds, until the screen changes to the reset menu. If done correctly, the screen will now display the list of codes shown in the next step.

Step 3. The code shown on screen denotes the colour and capacity of the black, cyan, magenta or yellow toner cartridge that is currently selected. Press the ‘UP’ and ‘Down’  (▲/▼) buttons on the touchscreen to cycle through the pages until you find the correct code for the cartridge you wish to reset.

Please use the table below to ensure you have the correct code selected…

Step 4. Now, press the correct option for the colour and capacity you need. The printer will now ask “Reset?” on screen, just press ‘Yes’ or ‘OK’ to confirm. Your printer will get to work resetting the toner, displaying ‘Accepted’ when it is done. If you have another toner that needs resetting, you can run through the last two steps again for any cartridge you require.

When you are done, simply close the cover again. Your printer will now show “Please wait.” on screen while it initialises the cartridges, eventually returning you to the screen we began on. The reset toner levels should now be showing as full, and you can carry on printing.

We hope this has helped, but please let us know any further questions by email or on Facebook.