Scan to email · Microsoft 365 · every printer brand
Scan to email stopped working? Your scanner isn't broken.
Here's the short version: your printer is fine. Microsoft and Google switched off the old way devices sign in to email, and most office printers and scanners only speak the old way. That's why it scanned on Friday and refused on Monday with nothing changed at your end. The fix is real, it's usually quick, and it almost never means buying a new machine.
Why scan to email died on you.
No jargon. Here's what actually happened, and why no printer brand escaped it.
For twenty years, printers sent scans the simple way: a username and password typed into the printer's menu once, then fired at the mail server with every scan. That method is called basic authentication, and nearly every office copier and multifunction printer was built around it. Trouble is, it's also the method attackers love. A stored password with no second check can be guessed by a robot from anywhere on earth, and business email break-ins ran through it constantly.
So Microsoft killed it, and Google did the same. Modern sign-in wants proof beyond a saved password, and a printer from 2016 simply doesn't know how to give it. The mail server says no, the printer shows a vague error, and the office concludes the scanner is broken. It isn't. The world it was built for is gone.
- Nothing on your printer changed. The rules at the email end changed. That's why it broke overnight with no warning.
- It's security, not sabotage. Old-style sign-in was the single biggest door into business email. Closing it was the right call.
- It's not coming back. No hidden setting restores the old behaviour permanently, and you shouldn't want one.
- Every brand copped it. Canon, Ricoh, Brother, HP, Epson, Kyocera. This is not a fault in your machine.
What changed right before it stopped?
Three triggers cover almost every case. Work out which one is yours and you're halfway to the fix.
A Microsoft 365 or security change
The most common one by far. Your tenant's security tightened, whether Microsoft did it automatically, your IT provider hardened things, or a security baseline finally got enforced, and the printer's old-style login stopped being accepted. If scanning died for everyone at once, this is almost certainly it.
A password change
The printer stores a password from the day it was set up. Someone changes that account's password and the stored copy goes stale. Re-enter the new one and test. But if your tenant no longer accepts old-style sign-in at all, a fresh password won't save it.
An internet or ISP change
New provider, new router, new connection. Many ISPs block port 25, the old direct road printers used to push mail out. The scans queue up and die quietly. If scanning broke the week the new internet went in, start here.
Four ways forward, ranked honestly.
All four work. Which one fits depends on how new your machine is and how much you actually love scan to email.
- 1. Do it properly through Microsoft 365. Microsoft supports two general shapes. The printer can sign in as a real mailbox using modern, authenticated sending, which works from anywhere but needs a machine recent enough to handle it, often after a firmware update. Or a connector-based relay can accept mail from devices on your own network, which suits a fleet of printers but only works from inside the office and needs to be set up with care. I'm deliberately not printing menu paths or server names here, because Microsoft moves them and stale instructions cause half the mess we get called into. The current Microsoft documentation has the exact steps.
- 2. Use your printer maker's cloud scan app. Most current machines can scan straight to OneDrive, SharePoint or email through the vendor's own cloud service, skipping the old mail plumbing entirely. Often the cleanest fix of the lot. The catch: it needs a reasonably recent machine and a vendor account, and the free tiers vary.
- 3. Scan to a folder instead. The pragmatic workaround, and honestly, often the better system. Scans land in a shared folder on your network or in your cloud storage. No attachment size limits, no inbox clutter, one place where every scan lives. On most machines it's about a ten-minute setup, and plenty of offices never go back.
- 4. Use a third-party SMTP relay. Purpose-built services exist that accept mail from devices and pass it on properly, whoever hosts your email. Vendor-neutral, and they keep genuinely old machines scanning. The trade-off is one more account and a small ongoing cost, and you need to pick a reputable one, because your scans travel through it.
Don't lower your email security for a printer.
You'll find forum posts suggesting you switch old-style sign-in back on, turn off security defaults or carve out exceptions until the scanner behaves. Every one of those re-opens the exact door Microsoft closed, for your whole business, to save one device. A printer is not worth an inbox breach, and cleaning up a compromised email account costs more than every fix on this page combined.
If anyone's proposed fix amounts to "we'll just weaken the security settings", get a second opinion. The supported routes above exist precisely so you never have to make that trade.
Ten minutes, or time to let the printer go?
If your machine is only a few years old, this is usually a small job: update the firmware, pick one of the supported methods, test, walk away. Scan to folder is quicker still. Most of these calls are done inside an hour.
If the machine is a decade old, can't do modern sign-in even after updates, and the maker stopped publishing firmware years ago, be honest about it. A relay or scan to folder can keep it scanning for now, but you're propping up hardware the vendor has walked away from. Don't rush out and buy a new printer over this, the cheap fixes should be ruled out first, but do put a retirement date on the whiteboard.
Good to know
Why did scan to email suddenly stop working?
Because Microsoft and Google retired the old way devices sign in to email, called basic authentication, where the printer just sends a stored username and password. Most office printers and scanners only know that old way, so when the switch was flicked at the email end, the printer got rejected. Nothing on the printer failed.
Can I turn the old settings back on?
No, and you shouldn't want to. Basic authentication was retired because it was the easiest way for attackers to break into business email. There is no supported setting that brings it back for good, and weakening your organisation's email security to keep a printer happy trades a real breach risk for a minor convenience.
Will re-entering the password on the printer fix it?
Only if a password change was the actual cause. If someone recently changed the email password, update it on the printer and test. If your organisation's email no longer accepts old-style sign-in at all, a fresh password changes nothing, because the method is being rejected, not the credentials.
What's the fastest way to get scanning again today?
Scan to folder. Most machines can drop scans into a shared folder after about ten minutes of setup, and plenty of businesses keep it permanently because it beats email anyway: no attachment size limits, no inbox clutter, everything lands in one place.
Is my printer too old to fix?
Maybe. If the maker still publishes firmware updates, install them first; plenty of machines gained modern sign-in or cloud scanning that way. If the machine can't be updated and the vendor has moved on, a third-party relay or scan to folder can keep it useful for years. Replacement is the last resort, not the first.
Do I need an IT person for this, or can I do it myself?
Scan to folder and the vendor cloud scan apps are realistic DIY jobs if you're comfortable in the printer's menus. The Microsoft 365 relay options touch your email security settings, and a wrong move there affects the whole business, so if you're not sure, hand that one over. It's a small job for someone who does it every week.