Brother / MFC-J6945 wide office inkjet family

Paper Tray #1 not detected / Paper Tray #2 not detected - The printer cannot confirm that the selected paper tray is installed correctly.

The printer cannot confirm that the selected paper tray is installed correctly.

This guide is scoped to the MFC-J6945 wide office inkjet family family. Exact menu wording, cartridge naming, and service behavior can still vary by model variant and firmware.

Severity

Low

Most likely cause

The tray is not inserted fully into the printer.

Can you keep using it?

Often yes

Consumables involved

Paper tray

Can you keep using it?

Can you keep using it?

Contact customer support if any of these apply

  • !The tray is seated correctly but the message remains.
  • !The printer never detects the tray at all after reseating.
If the printer still starts normally: This is often recoverable with the basic checks below, as long as the printer returns to ready without a deeper service warning.

What to check first

Step-by-step checks

  1. 1

    Safe first step

    Remove the affected tray and reinsert it fully.

    Start with the official recovery step before moving on to parts or deeper servicing.

  2. 2

    Safe first step

    Make sure the tray sits flat and closes cleanly.

  3. 3

    Safe first step

    Retry after the printer detects the tray again.

Background

What this message usually means

Brother shows a paper-tray-not-detected message when the MFC-J6945 family cannot confirm that tray 1 or tray 2 is inserted correctly. It is usually a tray seating or hardware-presence issue rather than a deeper print fault.

Diagnosis

Likely causes

Most common

The tray is not inserted fully into the printer.

Common

The tray is skewed or not seated evenly.

Possible

The printer cannot read the tray state correctly.

Service

When service or replacement is more likely

  • -Treat this as a tray-position check first, not a paper jam.

See also

Related codes in this family

Explore more

More Brother printer families

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Where to go next

Source notes

Brother's MFC-J6945DW troubleshooting list includes tray-detection errors for paper tray 1 and paper tray 2.

Built around Brother's official MFC-J6945DW FAQ and troubleshooting guidance. Exact wording can vary slightly by region and closely related model variants.

Printer error codes can vary a little by firmware, region, and exact model variant. Use this guide as a family-level starting point and stop if the next step would require disassembly or service-mode changes.

Known family variants: MFC-J6945DW, MFC-J6947DW

Last reviewed: 2026-04-12

Reference: Open reference

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