Guide · Updated
Your multifunction printer stopped scanning to a folder after Windows 10 or 11?
In short
Windows 10 from version 1709 and Windows 11 no longer install SMB1, the old file-sharing protocol that many multifunction printers from a few years ago use to write to a shared folder. The printer is fine; it just has nobody left to talk to. There are two safe fixes: a firmware that speaks SMB2 or SMB3, if the manufacturer offers one for your model, or sending over FTP, which these printers have always supported. Turning SMB1 back on works, but Microsoft advises against it.
How to recognise it
- It worked with Windows 7, or with a Windows 10 upgraded over the years, and stops on a new or reinstalled PC.
- The connection test from the printer’s panel fails, even though the PC answers a ping.
- The panel says “Connection with PC has failed” (Ricoh and its other badges), or shows send error 2101 or 1101 (Kyocera, UTAX, Triumph-Adler, Olivetti d-Copia).
- On the PC, in Windows Features, “SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support” is not ticked.
Why it happens
SMB is the protocol the printer uses to write into the PC’s shared folder. Its first version, SMB1, has well-known flaws: it is the one WannaCry exploited in 2017. Microsoft deprecated it in 2014; since Windows 10 1709 (autumn 2017) it is no longer installed on clean installs, and Windows 11 does not include SMB1 by default.
Many multifunction printers sold before then speak only SMB1. Ricoh, for instance, published in 2017 the list of models that move to SMB2 and SMB3 with a firmware update; for the others it says only SMB 1.0 is supported. Several Kyocera models of those years need updated firmware too.
How to fix it by hand
1. Look for a firmware with SMB2 or SMB3
Read the model and firmware version on the status page of the printer’s web panel, and ask your dealer or the manufacturer’s support whether an update with SMB2 or SMB3 exists. On many machines a technician installs it. If there is one, it is the cleanest fix: the shared folder stays as it is.
2. Send over FTP instead
The printer can deliver scans over FTP instead of SMB. By hand you need:
- an FTP server on the PC (FileZilla Server, for example) that starts with Windows;
- an FTP user with a password, with the scan folder as its home folder;
- a Windows firewall rule for the server’s port and, if the printer uses passive mode, for its ports;
- in the printer’s address book, an FTP destination with the PC’s IP address, the port, the user and the password.
Mind the address: if the PC gets it from the router’s DHCP, one day it changes and scanning stops again. Reserve the address in the router, or update the destination each time.
3. Last resort: turn SMB1 back on
It works, but it reopens on the PC the door WannaCry used, and Microsoft explicitly recommends not reinstalling it. If you must for a while, the printer needs the server part (“SMB 1.0/CIFS Server” in Windows Features), not the client that many guides tell you to enable. And do not count on it for ever: Microsoft has announced that SMB1 will be removed from Windows, and in 2022 it already removed it from the Windows 11 Home preview builds.
What not to do
- Do not turn off password-protected sharing or give Everyone Full Control: the folder becomes open to anyone on the network, and with a printer that speaks only SMB1 the problem stays.
- Do not lower the security of the whole PC (SMB signing, insecure guest logons) for a printer that does not use it: those are Windows 11 24H2 settings and have nothing to do with SMB1.