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joen36100684
joen36100684
Participant
April 9, 2019
Question

Can not print PDF documents on both sides of the page (duplex)

  • April 9, 2019
  • 5 replies
  • 27910 views

Hello,

My Brother HL-L5100DN(T) stopped printing PDF (only) documents on both sides. The Print screen does not show the Print on both sides option. Office documents print fine on both sides.

I checked with Brother support and in their opinion the problem is in Acrobat reader.

I uninstalled Acrobat and downloaded a current version and installed it, still the same problem.

I can sen screen shots that show the difference in the print options (Word and PDF).

I would greatly appreciate some help with this issue.

Thanks in advance

Joe



      5 replies

      A
      Alex_From_DesMoines
      Participant
      March 12, 2021

      I had the same problem with by Brother HL-2280DW after an Adobe Reader update. It is very likely a device driver issue and not necessarily an Adobe problem. I fixed the problem by going to: Control Panel => Devices and Printers

       

      I right-clicked on the Brother icon and selected "Printer Properties". A separate windown opened and I selected the "Device Settings" tab. Under installable options => Duplex Unit, I changed "Not Installed" to "Installed".

      This restored functionality in Adobe Reader.

      Best of Luck!

        R
        RobfromMedford
        Participant
        June 5, 2021

        Had exactly the same problem.  This solution worked for me.

          ECHO Connection
          ECHO Connection
          Participant
          June 29, 2020

          You are a genius.  Thank you for the work around!

           

          A
          armclaughlin
          Participant
          March 3, 2020

          Hi Joe, I had the same issue.  I did some research and found a solution that worked for me.  This solution is for a Windows computer.

          1. Open printer properites (Notice Double-sided is marked no on the General tab under Features)

          2. Select Device Settings tab

          3. Switch Duplex Unit from Uninstalled (defaulty setting for PDF) to Installed (Notice Double-sided is marked yes now on General tab under Features)

          4. Select OK

           

          I hope this helps!

           

            P
            PseudoSmilez5E1B
            Participant
            January 18, 2021

            I tried your fix but the option to change the duplex unit setting is greyed-out, and does not allow me to change it.

            J
            Jenn22668960waqh
            Participant
            January 15, 2022

            Try updating your printer driver. When I upgraded to Windows 11, it replaced my HP printer driver with a windows generic driver. Once I installed a Windows 11 driver for my printer, double sided printing is back.

            joen36100684
            joen36100684Author
            Participant
            April 9, 2019

            Hello Anand,

            I'm using Window 10, and Adobe reader version 19.010.20098.

            My Brother HL-L5100DN is working fine. There is no problem printing duplex of Office documents, only PDF/

            As I explained the "Print on both sides" option simply is not displayed when I want to print PDF.

            Also, this problem started about 2 weeks age, before the was no problem with PDF files.

            Regards,

            Joe

            V
            Adobe Employee
            Vishal@PDF
            Adobe Employee
            April 10, 2019

            Hi Joe,

            I will send you message to get more details on your printer and workflow so that we can triage the issue.

            Thanks,

            Vishal

            A
            Anonymous
            August 15, 2019

            3. Re: Can not print PDF documents on both sides of the page (duplex)

            I have the exact same problem with acrobat reader and my Brother HL-2280 DW.  It printed both sides up to five days ago.  Then it just stopped.  Two sided printing works with Microsoft office, so the printer is OK.

            Thanks, Carlos

            AnandSri
            Community Manager
            AnandSriCommunity Manager
            Community Manager
            April 9, 2019

            Hello Joen,

            We're sorry for the trouble you had with, what is the current version of Adobe Reader installed? To identify, please refer to Identify the product and its version for Acrobat and Reader DC

            The Duplex(Two-side printing) is a printer property and if the printer supports this feature, Acrobat/Reader will give you the option to choose Duplex printing in the Print dialog box.

            Please check the printer properties once whether the Print on both sides are on or not. Check under Printing Shortcuts

            The Properties window may look like this:

            Check for any pending updates of Adobe Reader once from help menu>check for updates, reboot the machine and check.

            You may also refer and try the suggestions from Print double-sided | Adobe Acrobat, Reader DC

            Make sure you have the latest version of the printer firmware installed.

            Would you mind sharing the screenshot of the print window and the properties/advanced properties window of the brother printer?

            What is the version of the OS installed?

            Let us know how it goes and share your observation.

            Thanks,

            Anand Sri.

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