You will need the Check-In permission to change a station's printer settings, and the station PIN to reach them on the station itself.
Brother is the only printer family the phone and tablet app can drive directly. Dymo and Zebra depend on helper software that only runs on a computer, so a mobile station looks for a Brother printer and stops there. To print to a Brother printer from a Windows or Mac station, set that station's Print To to a tablet that owns the Brother.
Supported Printers
Warning: The wide-format QL-1100 series is not supported. Only the 62mm continuous roll (DK-2205) works, which is 2.4 in tall. Die-cut rolls are not supported, and neither are the sample labels that come in the box.
These printers can run from a portable battery, which is handy for a roaming check-in table.
Get the printer onto your network
Before the station can find the printer, the printer needs to be on the network. The easiest way to do that is from a Windows computer: visit http://install.brother and follow Brother's own setup.
Here are also Brother support videos for connecting the printer to your wifi network:
During that process, connect the printer to the same Wi-Fi network the tablet uses. This is by far the most common cause of a printer the station cannot find. A tablet on the guest network and a printer on the staff network cannot see each other, and some churches also split 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz onto separate networks. Brother printers only join 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi.
The printer's own Wi-Fi light should be solid, not blinking. Blinking means it has not joined a network yet.
Bluetooth printers work too, but Wi-Fi is the more reliable choice. On Android a Bluetooth printer must be paired in the device's system settings first.
Set up the printer on the station
On a phone or tablet, printer setup is a guided flow. You will meet it in one of two places:
As step 4 of station setup wizard, when a new station is set up in the Android or iOS app using Log in on this device.
At any time afterwards, from Settings > Printer > Set up printer on the station.
Tip: If you authorized the station by scanning its QR code, you will not have seen the printer step, because that path finishes remotely and skips it by design. Nothing went wrong. Set the printer up from Settings > Printer afterwards. See How do I set up a check-in station?
The flow has five steps:
Find your printer. Scanning starts on its own and runs for about 15 seconds, listing Wi-Fi and paired Bluetooth printers as it finds them. Each row shows the printer's name, model, connection type, and address. Scan again restarts it at any time.
Tap the printer. This goes straight to the check. There is no separate confirm step.
Check the printer. The station opens a connection and reports back a short checklist: whether the model is supported, whether the roll is right, the printer's own status, and the battery level if one is fitted. Next continues; Back returns to the list.
Print a test label. This runs through the real print path, so it proves the connection and the printing mechanics together. Skip test print moves on without it. If it fails, the message names the cause and Use this printer is still offered.
Printer ready. A summary of what is about to be saved: name, model, connection type, and address. Use this printer saves it to this device, re-runs printer detection, and finishes.
Tip: Connect by IP address is always available on the scan screen, not only when the scan comes back empty. If you know the printer's address, typing it is often faster than waiting for a scan. Print the printer's configuration label from the printer itself to find its IP.
Set up later at the bottom finishes station setup without a printer. The station already exists on the server at that point, so skipping the printer does not leave setup half-done.
What can go wrong, and what the screen says
No printers found yet. - confirm the printer and the tablet are on the same Wi-Fi network and the printer's Wi-Fi light is solid, then Scan again, or type the address directly.
The printer is known but does not appear - use Connect by IP address. The station checks the address before accepting it.
No printer answered at that IP address. - either nothing is at that address, or what is there is not a supported model. The typed address is kept on screen, so a typo is quick to fix.
Bluetooth printers missing on Android - an Allow Bluetooth to see paired printers button appears in the list. Tap it and accept the system prompt; scanning restarts automatically. If it is declined, paired printers cannot be listed. Use Wi-Fi instead.
29mm roll loaded — this station needs the 62mm continuous roll (DK-2205) - exactly what it says. The printer reported its own roll width. Swap the roll and re-check.
Couldn't read the loaded roll — make sure it's the 62mm continuous roll (DK-2205) - a warning, not a blocker. Some printers and older app versions do not report the roll. Check it by eye and carry on.
Couldn't reach the printer at this address. - these printers accept one connection at a time. If a second station points at the same printer, or someone prints from a laptop, the check reads as unreachable. Wait and use Try again.
Printer isn't responding in the station's footer - the same one-connection-at-a-time cause. It usually clears by itself, and Re-detect forces a fresh check. Also worth checking whether the tablet moved to a different Wi-Fi network, or the printer's IP changed after a router restart.
Bluetooth permission needed in the footer - grant the app Bluetooth permission on the device.
Printer bridge isn't available in the footer - the app is an older build that cannot talk to the printer. Check Settings > Maintenance for a waiting update and confirm the Update Channel is Production. If nothing is waiting, the device may need a store update.
A named printer condition - cover open, out of labels, or a jam. Fix it at the printer. The check can be re-run with Back and re-tapping the printer.
Tip: Giving the printer a reserved or fixed IP address on your network avoids the most annoying recurring problem, which is its address changing after a router restart.
The printer card in station settings
Go to Settings > Printer on the station, behind the station PIN. The card shows the current printer, its family and state, and any error the printer reported in its own words.
Below that:
Re-detect - forces a fresh look for the printer.
Test print - prints a generic sample drawn by the app. It proves the printer independently of your event's label configuration, so if a test print comes out, any remaining problem is label setup rather than hardware. The test print inside the guided flow is the one exception, because it uses the event's real designed label where one exists, making it a fuller end-to-end check.
Set up printer / Change printer - re-runs the guided flow.
The Brother checklist - shown on mobile only.
Two warnings appear here and nowhere else: Labels running low and Battery low (18%).
The printer choice belongs to the device
A Brother printer is saved per device, not on the station record in your account. That has three consequences worth knowing:
If a printer was already set up on this device, a Current printer row is pinned to the top of the scan list, so re-confirming it is one tap.
The new experience reads a printer that was configured in classic check-in on the same device as a starting point, but never overwrites it, so a station rolled back to classic keeps working exactly as before.
Reset Station wipes it. That row under Settings > Maintenance unauthorizes the device and clears everything local, including this device's printer choice. Refresh Station does not. It only reloads the station and clears a remembered PIN.