Brother HL-3170CDW Firmware Update Information

I have a couple Brother HL-3170CDW color laser printers. They're pretty old, circa 2015. One is working fine, and the other is dead with a laser-related issue and is being slowly scavenged for parts.

In any case, these machines have firmware that needs to be periodically updated. There are two chucks of firmware for this printer: Main Firmware Version and Sub1 Firmware Version.

As of this writing, on 10-March-2024, the firmware versions are as follows:

MAIN FIRMWARE is at 1.32
SUB1 FIRMWARE is at 1.07

A printer's version information can be seen by looking at http://{printer_ip}/general/information.html

Updating the Firmware

Unfortunately, the HL-3170CDW printer does not offer a built-in UI to deal with firmware updates. Instead, the Brother Firmware Update Tool must be used to keep the printer's firmware up to date. The tool can be found at The Brother HL3170cdw web page. It can be found under Windows and Macintosh downloads.

Note that the update tool is only available for MS-Windows and Macintosh. It does not run on Linux or on smartphone platforms. Also note that the firmware must be updated through a directly connected USB cable.

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