Help Needed: Scanning to Windows Server with Brother MFC-L5850DW

I've encountered a similar situation, particularly with Windows 11 setups. It's strange, but sometimes using the DNS works perfectly fine while the direct IP doesn’t – have you tried both to see if you get different results?

The problem might actually lie on the server side rather than with the printer. Brother usually won't help with server configurations, and it may be worth checking if the server is set up correctly for FTP scanning.

Here’s a thought: instead of using the server name, try entering the server's IP address directly. Also, ensure the shared folder is properly configured and the permissions are set correctly. If your server operates over a VPN, sometimes using the IP instead of the hostname can resolve connectivity issues.

Thanks for all your advice! Interestingly, the initial reason I was trying to set up scanning to the server was that the scan to email feature stopped functioning inexplicably. After creating a new app password for the Gmail account and fiddling with various TLS/SSL and port settings, I finally got it working again!

It sounds like the Brother printer might only support SMB1, which is definitely not recommended for modern business use due to security concerns. You might want to check if there's a way to enable a newer version of SMB on your server if that's the case.

We had reliability issues with various devices, so we switched to scan to email, and it worked better for us. SMB compatibility can be hit or miss depending on configurations, so this route might be more stable for your needs.