The ‘Unable to Clean’ error or ‘Error 46′ prevents you from printing on your Brother inkjet printer. It is especially frustrating when you realise there no reason why you can’t carry on printing other than this message. Continue reading to find out what makes me say this and how you can rid yourself of this error.
This guide will deal specifically with Brother inkjet printers that have a number pad on the front of the printer. If you printer has a touchscreen as well as a numerical pad please see here. If however your printer does not have a number pad at all, the guide found here should be of use.
What is Error 46?
‘Error 46: Unable to Clean’ indicates that your Brother printer believes the ink absorber in the base of your printer is saturated with ink and any further printing could cause ink to overflow. How full this waste ink tank is has been estimated by monitoring how many pages your Brother printer has produced and how many manual/automatic cleans have performed. Sadly this is not a particularly accurate method of measuring how full an ink absorber is and the majority of the time your printer could prints hundreds of pages before there was any danger of any ink escaping. However getting the waste ink tank changed and resetting the counter can be an expensive procedure if you get a service centre to do it on your behalf. In many cases owners of Brother inkjet printers report the cost of the procedure outweighs the value of their printer.
With this in mind we suggest resetting the purge counter of your Brother printer using the method described below and continuing to use it until waste ink begins to overflow inside/outside the printer. This ensures you get the most out of your printer and can avoid replacing it until it becomes necessary to do so. I do however recommend you protect any surfaces around the printer should you decide to reset the purge counter to save any surfaces becoming stained with printer ink.
What printers will this reset work with?
This reset procedure should be compatible with almost any Brother inkjet printer with a numerical keypad on the printer itself (and not touchscreen panel) and has been tested on every current compatible printer at our disposal. You can find a full list of compatible printers below:
Brother MFC-210C, MFC-215C, MFC-3240C, MFC-3340CN, MFC-3342C, MFC-410CN, MFC-420CN, MFC-425CN, MFC-5440CN, MFC-5840CN, MFC-620CN, MFC-640CN, MFC-640CW, MFC-820CW, MFC-235C, MFC-260C, MFC-240C, MFC-3360C, MFC-440CN, MFC-465CN, MFC-5460CN, MFC-5860CN, MFC-660CN, MFC-665CW, MFC-680CN, MFC-845CW, MFC-885CW, MFC-250C, MFC-255CW, MFC-295CN, MFC-297C, MFC-490CW, MFC-5490CN, MFC-5890CN, MFC-5895CW, MFC-6490CW, MFC-6890CDW, MFC-790CW, MFC-990CW, MFC-J615W, MFC-J220, MFC-J265W, MFC-J410, MFC-J415W, MFC-J430W, MFC-J5910DW, MFC-J625DW, MFC-J6510DW, MFC-J6710D, MFC-J6710DW, MFC-J6910DW, MFC-J825DW
If you have a printer with a numerical pad not covered above and find the purge counter reset works for you then please let us know so we can update our list.
Video Guide
Purge Counter Reset Instructions
Please note that some of the terms used below to describe buttons may change from one printer to another. For example:
- START may be down as MENU or SET on your printer or be a green button
- STOP may be referred to as EXIT or a red button
Before you begin the reset procedure your Brother inkjet printer needs to be in maintenance mode, but depending upon the model of your printer the method of doing this will vary. For most modern Brother printers please try the following:
- With the printer turned on and ready to print remove the power cable from the printer.
- Hold down MENU/SET/START and re-insert the power cable.
- Keep the button held down until the screen reads MAINTENANCE.
If your screen does not now say MAINTENANCE it will need to be put into maintenance mode using one of the two methods below:
- Printers with a built-in Fax: Hold down MENU/SET/START and quickly press * 2 8 6 4.
- Printers WITHOUT a Fax: Hold down Menu/Set and the Black Start key before pressing the UP arrow four times.
Now your printer should say MAINTENANCE on the screen and you are ready to begin the process of actually resetting the purge counter.
- Type in 80 using the numerical keypad.
- Use the DOWN key to locate the purge counter. eg. PURGE0060025
- Use the number pad to enter 2783 (this should zero the numbers after PURGE).
- Press STOP/EXIT to return to the first stage of maintenance mode.
- Press 9 and 9 to exit maintenance mode.
Your purge counter is now reset and you can now resume printing as normal. If however this has not cleared the error message I advise going through this guide again following the instructions to the letter. If the error persists please let us know.
I hope you have found this guide useful. If however you have anything to add or any further questions please don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments.
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87 comments
Brother
October 4, 2012 at 10:54 pm (UTC 0)
This is absolutely fantastic, thank you very much! My Brother MFC 640-CW is working again.
Faraj
October 13, 2012 at 4:15 am (UTC 0)
Wow!! Matthew!!! You are definitely a life-saver!! This fix worked, thanks to you!! My brother MFC 425 CN is working fine. Wish you and your website all success! In the meanwhile, do you offer printer products so that we can support you in some kind of way?
billy chew
November 8, 2012 at 3:11 pm (UTC 0)
unable to get my j414w into maintenance mode.
RefreshCarts
November 8, 2012 at 3:45 pm (UTC 0)
I am unfamiliar with this particular model of Brother printer. Could you please confirm for me your exact model number?
radzmi
November 10, 2012 at 8:05 am (UTC 0)
my model is mfc j220 brother printer and ink absorber is full, how do i clean this and where i find
Keith
November 15, 2012 at 1:33 pm (UTC 0)
Excellent instructions. Mt MFC820CW is printing again. Thank you – I appreciate all your effort in putting this page up.
vic
December 1, 2012 at 9:37 am (UTC 0)
Thank you for this advice.
Can you post on how to change the waste ink tank in Model MFC6490Cw.
Thx.
Vic
Karlo Tejada
December 5, 2012 at 1:25 am (UTC 0)
hi! how about unable to init.48? had you encountered that? i cant find any solution to that problem. tnx!
RefreshCarts
December 5, 2012 at 4:01 pm (UTC 0)
Looking around online it seems this relates to the print head cable or circuit board being defective. This can apparently be resolved by cleaning the encoder strip with a lint free cloth or replacing the relevant parts. However this level of technical expertise is beyond me sadly.
hardeep
December 9, 2012 at 3:43 am (UTC 0)
Hey, I have MFC 240c and I manage to re-set the purge but I can't print. Could you please help
Thx.
HB
RefreshCarts
December 12, 2012 at 9:41 am (UTC 0)
Are you getting any error codes or messages stating the reason why you cannot print?
Scott
March 23, 2013 at 10:09 pm (UTC 0)
replace yellow, replace magenta (but I already did)
jmh
December 14, 2012 at 10:05 pm (UTC 0)
You are BEUATIFUL!
Thank you – how the hell would I have known how to do that – was about to junk but had all these carrtridges I had not used!
Saved me money, saved the environment.
Rock on, friends.
joy
December 17, 2012 at 6:02 am (UTC 0)
thanks for the help!, my printer is now working.
jun lim
December 17, 2012 at 4:09 pm (UTC 0)
thanks a lot you are indeed heaven sent. you have just extended the life of printer. your instruction was super clear and so easy to follow that i got it on one try. a million thanks again.
GalsGirl
December 18, 2012 at 3:49 pm (UTC 0)
Ok on my printer the screen and buttons are blinking and wont stop even if after we unpluged it and pluged it back in it was still do it. I dont know what to do is there a way i could reset it?
RefreshCarts
December 18, 2012 at 4:42 pm (UTC 0)
Strange. Is the printer blinking "Error 46" or "Unable to Clean"?
Ryan Zach
December 20, 2012 at 6:33 pm (UTC 0)
I was able to go in and reset the counter but the Unable to Clean error is still there. I have the MFC640CW.
Thanks,
TD Jenx
January 2, 2013 at 5:30 pm (UTC 0)
Wow…your site saved me a 10 mile trip and $35 to have my Brother MFC210c purge reset! Thanks for the tutorial.
Regards,
TD Jenx
Joey E.
January 9, 2013 at 6:26 am (UTC 0)
Sir,
how about error 44 on my printer Brother MPJ220 .
Any guide or solution?
Thanks.
Judy C
January 9, 2013 at 5:24 pm (UTC 0)
I I have a brother MFC 420 CN and I don't know what buttons to push to get it to go to maintainance mode. I have several "start buttons" , a green- color start, a black start, and a menu/set under the large chrome arrow button. I tried all ways and failed. I'd appreciate the help. Thanks
imperial donix
January 11, 2013 at 5:55 pm (UTC 0)
Absolutely fabulous thank you – saved the day
Dx
russell
January 13, 2013 at 1:39 am (UTC 0)
thanks for the tutorial. you saved my P1000.00 to have my bother mfc j220 purge reset… have a nice day..
Juan Luis
January 16, 2013 at 7:45 pm (UTC 0)
My mfc-490cw don´t print i have black ink but the page don´t print…why? thanks you.
RefreshCarts
January 17, 2013 at 9:45 am (UTC 0)
Sounds as if the black portion of the printhead is blocked, dried or unable to function mechanically. I would recommend doing some headcleans from the printer to try and clear any blockages and pull through some ink. If however ink comes through and then drops out quickely when printing it is likely that the printheadhas a mechanical problem and I would recommend calling Brother or a printer technician.
umar
January 17, 2013 at 2:42 am (UTC 0)
i have a brother MFC-J615W and ink absorber is full how to reset it. thanx bfore.
fathi
January 19, 2013 at 10:20 am (UTC 0)
erreur 48
Mark
January 21, 2013 at 7:03 am (UTC 0)
Hi, I have gone through the procedure twice and I am sure the purge counter is reset but the message is still "unable to clean see troubleshooting and routine maintenance chapter in user's guide". My machine is a MFC-640CW. Any further ideas please?
juvy baradillo
January 22, 2013 at 3:11 pm (UTC 0)
my brother mfc-j220 printer model had a troubleshooting about ink absorber full, could you help me and fix this???
Stejo
January 23, 2013 at 10:45 am (UTC 0)
Thank you,Thank you, Thank you very much for your help. I just love the internet.
imra aryati
January 25, 2013 at 2:39 am (UTC 0)
Hi, Thank you very much for your tutorial. I cannot get it right the first time on my MFC-J415W but then I try the MENU button instead of GREEN START button and now I can print again.
ken
January 25, 2013 at 5:07 pm (UTC 0)
I have a MFC-J515W with the message unable to printF4 and have reset the purge counter to 0 as per your guide but the message is still their? can you help me?
fathi
January 26, 2013 at 9:09 pm (UTC 0)
mfc5890cn erreur 48
Arom
January 30, 2013 at 7:21 pm (UTC 0)
Hi there,
Thank you for the instructions to clear error code 46. It was fine & cleared it. However each time I send something to print it comes back as a blan page. Any idea why this might be? The machine is Borther MFC820CW. Thanks!
Mike
January 31, 2013 at 3:27 pm (UTC 0)
Yes, I have the same problem. Brother J415W – "MACHINE ERROR 4F", cleaned the purge counter and also the error, but it comes again and it didn't print.
Any help?
Albe
February 2, 2013 at 12:28 am (UTC 0)
worked great on my mfc210c —-thanks
Gleen Tamparong
February 5, 2013 at 6:13 am (UTC 0)
tanx… it really helps me…….
lemmor
February 6, 2013 at 2:02 pm (UTC 0)
Your an angel.. it works..
Gagan
February 17, 2013 at 7:27 am (UTC 0)
Wow!!! Matthew you are awesome, Thank you so much. Error INK ABSORBER FULL is gone from My brother DCP-J125
janusz
February 17, 2013 at 11:23 pm (UTC 0)
It worked fine for my mfc820c – up and printing again. Thanks!
NegrosPortal
February 22, 2013 at 1:22 am (UTC 0)
Thank you very much. It saves me $35 for your post to fix my printer. Thank you.
paininthebrother
February 22, 2013 at 3:47 am (UTC 0)
Hi, I have a J265w and it won't work for me I get " Unable to print 4f " on mine please help thanks.
edgar corpuz
February 23, 2013 at 6:28 am (UTC 0)
thank you very much ….it helps me a lot have a good day
roberto
February 27, 2013 at 11:19 am (UTC 0)
Dear Matthew, we have a MFC-6510DW that asks for new cartridges, but there's ink left in the tanks.
I don't know if there's just one counter for all. Does your procedure work on the ink counter?
Thanks moltissimo
Roberto
RefreshCarts
February 27, 2013 at 12:00 pm (UTC 0)
Sadly the ink level estimates for Brother printers cannot be reset. Due to the way Brother printers estimate ink levels there will always be a little ink left over to stop the cartridge running out prematurely. In my experience throwing a little ink away when the printer believes that cartridge is empty is preferable to the damage that can be caused to a printhead that is sucking air into it thinking the cartridge is still full anyway.
roberto
February 27, 2013 at 1:46 pm (UTC 0)
Ok, thanks. But there’s more than a little ink left, evironmentally speaking this is a waste of resources.
Ciao
mari
March 1, 2013 at 2:39 pm (UTC 0)
its not working on my brother printer mpc 195cn.. please help
RefreshCarts
March 1, 2013 at 3:31 pm (UTC 0)
I am unfamiliar with this model. Could you please confirm for me the exact model of the printer from the front of the machine?
Norvin
March 2, 2013 at 5:39 am (UTC 0)
HI! Thanks so much! it saves me trouble of bringing the printer to the shop. Great post! You helped a lot of people.
I have a question though. What happens to the physical ink absorber? Will it overflow? Thank you again sir!
RefreshCarts
March 7, 2013 at 9:36 am (UTC 0)
Thanks. The ink absorber will eventually overflow if left unchanged, but in most instances you will get hundreds of extra pages out of the machine before this occurs. I have known people to site down with a machine, take it apart and physically change the sponge. Most people however will just protect the surface under the printer and continue to print until they notice the overflow.
Herbert
March 5, 2013 at 3:19 am (UTC 0)
Nice! U r great bro!
Logan
March 6, 2013 at 9:47 pm (UTC 0)
Thanks for you help. I have a brother mfc420cn. unplug method didn't work so I tried the next one. When I get to the step to enter *2864 it wont register 8 and 6, only 2 and 4. Any help would be great.
Thanks,
Logan
Aleezah
March 7, 2013 at 3:10 am (UTC 0)
Thank you so much Matthew. You are a money saver and a life saver. This worked fantastic!
Argentfemme
March 7, 2013 at 9:50 pm (UTC 0)
Hi Matthew, The message that I was getting is "Unable to clean 50." I am assuming that I have to clean the head of the printer. Please, advice how to get to the Maintenance mode that I could not. I followed your instructions from the video and the ones up above to clean my Brother MFC 440 NC to no avail.
Delilah
March 18, 2013 at 5:10 pm (UTC 0)
Thank you so much Matthew!! Your steps worked great on my Brother MFC-465CN!!
jon
March 20, 2013 at 3:41 pm (UTC 0)
I am not sure how I got there but I did eventually and clear "Error 46" Thank you
Scott
March 23, 2013 at 10:15 pm (UTC 0)
Brother MFC-295CN gives error message…CANNOT PRINT… replace Y Ink, replace M ink….. but I already did replace them both.
ad
March 24, 2013 at 11:21 pm (UTC 0)
is there a way to get rid of message “print unable” err 44
mary ann
April 2, 2013 at 3:22 am (UTC 0)
Hi Matthew thank you very much for tutorial my printer is MFC-J220 its working back again thans alot.! more power
N.Young
April 4, 2013 at 8:22 am (UTC 0)
PERFECT INSTRUCTIONS. MFC-820-CW not working again as good as new.
Many thanks.
Fernando
April 4, 2013 at 11:49 pm (UTC 0)
Tank you is perfect for brother MFC-j220 greetings from México
Monteview
April 7, 2013 at 1:35 pm (UTC 0)
Perfect. Working! Thanks!
andrew
April 11, 2013 at 7:59 am (UTC 0)
Hi,
I've done this, but i still don't get any ink on my paper when printing?
RefreshCarts
April 11, 2013 at 12:55 pm (UTC 0)
If no ink is being printed this would indicate a blocked printhead rather than a purge counter that needs resetting. I would recommend running several cleaning cycles from your printer or printer software to hopefully start to pull fresh ink through. If you see no improvement after 1-3 cleans it is likely that the printhead is irreversibly blocked or has failed mechanically.
Rahul Jalan
April 12, 2013 at 6:52 am (UTC 0)
Thank you !! Worked like a charm on MFC J415W
kat
April 13, 2013 at 3:08 am (UTC 0)
thanks! this tutorial helped me a lot !:)
Queenmist
April 16, 2013 at 12:09 am (UTC 0)
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! – My "Unable to Clean" error message is gone!
Bramz
April 25, 2013 at 2:20 am (UTC 0)
Thanks for info
Nine-nine
April 29, 2013 at 6:08 am (UTC 0)
Very good, thanks
Martin Kent
May 1, 2013 at 8:13 pm (UTC 0)
Genius, thank you so much
virgilio generalo
May 7, 2013 at 11:29 am (UTC 0)
thank you so much…you are our savior,,,,,,God will bless you more…..love yah ….
Mark
May 12, 2013 at 3:33 pm (UTC 0)
Thank you this worked on my MFC 6490CW
Terry M
May 12, 2013 at 8:11 pm (UTC 0)
MFC-425CN Many thanks – worked fine, but having started printer whilst holding down MENU button, now fault code 46 shows with lights flashing, not showing maintenance. *2864 wouldnt enter, so just tried 80 & got into maintenance mode no problem.
Mike
May 13, 2013 at 9:55 am (UTC 0)
Hi there,
I've followed your instructions on a DCP-J315W to clear "Unable to Print4F" message but it will not clear. Have tried this about six times with no luck. Any ideas?
kishor tavale
May 14, 2013 at 12:31 pm (UTC 0)
You are the great person and thank you very much to help me and all of us. you save my time and money………… You have great knowledge …………………………………… Thanks Once again, If you have such tips regarding brother please give
Guest
May 15, 2013 at 9:13 am (UTC 0)
Thank you so much for this! Just as a note for other people with the Brother MFC-240C Model: To enter maintenance mode, you hold down the menu button rather than the green start button. Anyway, thank you once again!
Carlos Menat
May 24, 2013 at 5:05 am (UTC 0)
My Brother J615W Printer at last was enable to print. PURGE was terrific. Thanks so much my friend. You are a great person.
Muhammed Ismail
May 25, 2013 at 2:06 pm (UTC 0)
Hello,
I have an MFC 665cw and it has the “unable to clean 46″ error. Please help. The printer is not in the list u have.
RefreshCarts
May 28, 2013 at 1:43 pm (UTC 0)
This guide should be just fine for the MFC-665CW. Hope it works for you.
lakelover
May 31, 2013 at 8:59 pm (UTC 0)
Absolute magic. My printer (MFC-620CN) was in the car ready to go to the tip, when I found your instuctions. It took about 9 trys as the *2846 would not work but eventually got there using just *2 Could not find a replacement printer that fit my space so am really thrilled and hate throwing things away.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.
ESA
June 5, 2013 at 4:42 am (UTC 0)
AFTER DOING THE ABOVE PROCEDURE I RECEIVED…MACHINE ERROR4F. ANY ADVICE? TQVM
@SuzanneHazelton
June 5, 2013 at 9:38 am (UTC 0)
Thank you – got it working!
jeromebird
June 7, 2013 at 6:00 am (UTC 0)
my mfc-j220 ink absorber is full was fixed…thank you
Alan Andrews
June 8, 2013 at 8:03 am (UTC 0)
Brother MFC790CW with touch screen. Cannot get into maintenance mode – tried both methods – also tried using touch screen. Another problem is Machine language is PORTUGUESE how can I change it to English – Brother could not help. Any ideas. Thanks Alan
Angela
June 8, 2013 at 2:30 pm (UTC 0)
Hi, thank you very much for this tutorial! It saved me from having to buy a new printer and I am very, very grateful. Thank you thank you!!! I have a MFc-5440CN and I had to play around with your alternative instructions above, but I got it to work.
Thanks a million!!!
Christopher Crook
June 14, 2013 at 8:30 am (UTC 0)
Hi Matthew. I was impressed with your guidance above however I don't seem to be able to get it to work with my Brother MFC240C. I have just changed the heads on the printer and have had to run clean several times to get the ink flowing. The next thing I was about to do was to set up the alignment when error 46 came up. So I tried your directions, I saw the Maintenance word flash up as I held the Menu Key, in my case as I powered up, but then the message "Machine Error 46" shows in the display. No matter what I do it doesn't seem to want to go in order for me to reset the purge counter. Sorry for the Pun, But if you have encountered this problem before, can you tell me if there is a way out. The four lights on the panel are flashing as if in Maintenance mode. I have followed your proceedure several times now with out result, so Please, Please. If you can help I would be most grateful. Thanks in anticipation. Chris
Yuliana
June 16, 2013 at 6:44 pm (UTC 0)
I tried this step by step 2 times and this didn’t clear the error. Please help!