How to Reset a Brother Toner Cartridge (and Keep Printing After "Replace Toner")

If you own a Brother laser printer, you've probably had this happen: the screen tells you to Replace Toner, the printer refuses to print, and when you pull the cartridge out you can see a perfectly good amount of toner still sloshing around in there. That's not your imagination — Brother (and most laser printer makers) count pages, not actual toner. The chip on the cartridge tells the printer "you've printed X pages, you must be empty," even when there's plenty left.

You can usually keep printing for hundreds, sometimes thousands, more pages by resetting the cartridge or telling the printer to ignore the chip. Here's how, by model family.

First: When This Is Safe (and When It's Not)

Resetting a toner cartridge is fine. The toner inside the cartridge isn't "used up" the way ink in an inkjet evaporates — it's a dry powder that lasts. As long as your prints still look full and dark, you have toner. When prints start coming out faded or streaky, you're actually low, and at that point you should swap to a fresh cartridge.

If you're starting to see streaks or fade, here's our guide on what's causing it — it walks through how to tell low toner apart from a printhead problem.

HL-Series (HL-L2300D, HL-L2350DW, HL-L2370DW, HL-L2390DW, HL-L2395DW, etc.)

This is the most common Brother home laser line, and the reset is straightforward.

1. Open the front cover where the toner sits, but leave the toner cartridge in place.
2. Press and hold the Go button (sometimes labeled Start or with a play-arrow icon) for about 4 seconds, until all four LEDs light up.
3. Release the button.
4. Press Go seven times quickly.
5. Close the front cover.

The toner counter should be reset. If it didn't work, the cartridge is probably already past the chip's reset window — you'll need a new one.

MFC-Series (MFC-L2700DW, MFC-L2710DW, MFC-L2750DW, etc.)

These multifunction Brothers use the touchscreen, which actually makes it easier:

1. Open the front cover (don't remove the cartridge).
2. On the touchscreen, press X or Cancel to clear any error.
3. Press and hold the Home button (the house icon) for about 5 seconds.
4. A hidden menu appears. Select Reset Menu > Toner, and choose the option matching your cartridge (standard or high-yield).
5. Close the cover.

DCP-Series (DCP-L2540DW, DCP-L2550DW, etc.)

Very similar to MFC. Open the cover, press Clear/Back, then hold OK until the reset menu appears. Pick the matching toner type from the list.

What If Your Printer Doesn't Have a Reset Option in the Menu?

Older Brothers and some color models don't have a software reset. Two workarounds:

• Tape over the chip window. Brother cartridges have a small clear plastic "window" on one side that the printer uses to optically check toner level. Cover it with a small piece of opaque tape (electrical tape works). The printer will then assume the cartridge is full. This isn't a chip reset — it's bypassing the optical sensor — but it works.
• Swap to a compatible cartridge. Our compatible Brother toner cartridges come with a fresh chip that the printer reads as full. They're a fraction of the OEM price and don't require any reset trickery. Browse the Brother toner collection by model.

If You Have a Brother MFC-L8350CDW or Other Color Laser

Color lasers are trickier. Each color cartridge (CMYK) has its own chip and reset routine, and the menus are buried deeper. Brother's official support page has model-specific instructions — don't trust a YouTube video for a color laser, the menus shift between firmware versions. If your color Brother is also throwing certificate errors, that's a separate problem and we have a full guide on the invalid certificate error.

When You Should Actually Replace the Toner

Reset the cartridge once or twice, sure. But when you start seeing any of these, it's actually time for a new one:

• Pages coming out lighter on one side or with vertical white streaks.
• Faded text that doesn't get darker after a few pages.
• Toner spilling inside the printer when you take the cartridge out.
• The drum unit warning is also lit. (Drum and toner are separate components on Brother — our Brother drum unit collection has those too.)

The Bottom Line

Brother's "Replace Toner" warning is usually premature by a wide margin. The reset takes 30 seconds, and you can squeeze months more printing out of a cartridge that's actually mostly full. When the prints start looking faded for real, swap to a new compatible — you'll save a lot versus buying OEM, and you won't have to play the reset game.