Brother 'No Paper': paper loaded but not picked up
No Paper means the machine started a feed and no sheet arrived at the paper sensor within the expected time. Because the printer cannot tell the difference between an empty tray and a full tray whose top sheet is not being gripped, both look identical from its point of view. That is why the message so often appears on a machine with a tray full of paper.
What causes it
- The pickup roller glazed with paper dust and slipping on the top sheet
- Paper loaded above the maximum fill line, or not squared in the tray
- The paper guides not adjusted to the sheet size
- The job set to use a different tray or the manual feed slot
- Damp or curled paper that does not separate cleanly
How to fix it, in order
Work down the list and stop when the printer recovers. The steps are ordered from most likely and least invasive to last resort.
Reload the tray from scratch
Pull the tray right out and take all the paper out. Tap the stack square on a flat surface, fan one edge with your thumb, and put back no more than the marked maximum. Slide the paper guides in until they touch the stack lightly, then push the tray fully home until it seats with a firm stop.
Clean the pickup roller
This fixes more No Paper messages than anything else. With the tray out, look up into the machine and find the grey or black rubber roller above the paper stack position. Wipe it with a lint-free cloth dampened with water only, rotating the roller so the whole face is cleaned, and let it dry for ten minutes before reloading.
Clean the separation pad
In the tray itself, at the front edge, there is a small rubber pad that stops multiple sheets feeding together. Wipe it with the same damp cloth. A glazed separation pad causes both No Paper messages and multi-sheet feeds, and it is often ignored because it is easy to miss.
Check which tray the job asked for
Open the print dialog on your computer and look at the paper source. If the job specifies the manual feed slot or a second tray you do not have loaded, the machine will wait there and report no paper regardless of what is in the main tray. Set the source explicitly and resend.
Try paper from a fresh ream
Take twenty sheets from the middle of a newly opened pack and load only those. Paper stored in a damp room curls and sticks together, and this test separates a paper problem from a machine problem in a couple of minutes without spending anything.
Confirm the paper size setting
On the machine's panel, check Menu, then General Setup, then Tray Setting, and confirm the paper size and type match what is loaded. A mismatch changes the feed timing the machine expects and can produce this message even when a sheet does start to move.
Test the manual feed slot
Feed a single sheet into the manual or bypass slot at the front. If that prints and the tray does not, the fault is specifically the tray pickup assembly, which tells you whether a roller kit is worth ordering rather than guessing.
Stopping it happening again
When it is not worth fixing yourself
If you would rather not work through this alone, a printer specialist can take a look with you on a screen-share and tell you honestly whether the machine is worth saving.
Printers that show this code
Frequently asked questions
The tray is full. Why does it say no paper?
Because no sheet reached the sensor. A slipping roller and an empty tray look identical to the machine.
Does paper weight matter?
Yes. Very light or very heavy stock feeds poorly from the main tray. Use the manual slot for card and keep the tray for standard 80gsm paper.
How often should I clean the rollers?
Once a year for a home machine, more often if you print heavily or use recycled paper, which sheds far more dust.
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