Diagnosis
The Brother HL-L2350DW has built-in automatic duplex (two-sided) printing. If it's not working from your Mac, the most common cause is an incorrect driver setting within the print dialog. The printer itself is designed to handle the paper flip automatically, so the issue is almost always a software configuration on the computer side.
How to Fix It
To enable automatic duplex printing from your Mac, follow these steps:
- Open your document and go to File > Print.
- In the print dialog, ensure your HL-L2350DW is selected as the printer.
- Click on the menu that likely says "Copies & Pages" and change it to "Layout" or "Finishing".
- Look for the "Two-Sided" or "Duplex" option. Select "Long-edge binding" (standard) for portrait documents or "Short-edge binding" for landscape.
- Click Print. The printer will now print all pages, automatically pulling each sheet back in to print on the reverse side.
If That Didn't Work
If automatic duplex fails or is grayed out:
- Check that you have the latest Brother printer driver installed from Brother's support website, as macOS updates can break functionality with older drivers.
- Try the Manual 2-sided option, often found in the same print menu. The driver will print all odd-numbered pages first, then prompt you to flip and reinsert the stack to print the even-numbered pages.
- Restart both your Mac and the printer to clear any temporary glitches.
- Ensure you are not using a paper type (like labels, envelopes, or thick card stock) that is incompatible with automatic duplex; the printer will default to single-sided for these.
Heads Up
When using manual duplex, carefully follow the on-screen instructions for reinserting the paper stack to avoid printing on the same side twice or jamming. The printer's duplex unit has a page capacity limit, so for very large jobs, it may pause briefly between batches.