Brother Printer works as a printer but not as a scanner

The original question applied to printer model Brother HL-2280DW on Big Sur. But the question (and answer!) apply to other Brother printer models and other MacOS versions.

Is there a way to get the scanner functionality to work? As a printer it works without any extra drivers needed (just click "add printer" and it works with "generic PCL printer"). The drivers say they only support 10.15?

I had the same issue. For me it was the Brother Printer HL-L2380DW on Monterey, but the behavior was the same. I could delete and re-add the printer with no problem. It would print, but it would not scan. Other computers on the same network could scan as expected. So it was clearly a computer issue, not a printer issue. Also, Brother's iPrint&Scan application is installed and current. But it cannot scan either.

One weird detail was that scanning worked at some point in the distant past. Then it stopped working. I don't scan often, so I'm not sure when it stopped. Perhaps when upgrading to Big Sur... but that's not certain. Upgrading from Big Sur to Monterey did not hurt, and it provided an updated driver... but it didn't give me the ability to scan. Another weird detail: Scanning via USB works. This is impractical for me, but it definitely works as a workaround.

@rogerdpack says that deleting and re-adding the printer helped, but that wasn't the case for me. He also mentions "Scanner Driver (ICA)" driver, but without any instructions (or any verb!). He's correct that this is the key. I will elaborate with more precision.

For me the solution was:

• Download the Scanner Driver (ICA) (I used HL-L2380DW drivers, but the same concept applies to other models.)

• Install the Scanner Driver (ICA)

• FYI: notice that the driver gets installed here:

  /Library/Image Capture/Devices/Brother Scanner.app/

• Uninstall the printer

• Reinstall the printer

• FYI: Reinstalling looks exactly like before. But now it includes Print AND Scan. Hooray!

• FYI: Attempt to use the scanner. It fails. Repeat several times, and it fails each time.

• FYI: Attempt to scan using the Mac "Image Capture" utility. It fails.

• Attempt to scan using Brother's iPrint&Scan application. I hate this app. It used to not work, but now it works. Hooray?

• Attempt to use the scanner. It succeeds. Hooray!!

It's not at all clear why I had to run iPrint&Scan. Perhaps this is a red herring, and perhaps that's not truly required. But it really seemed like it was.

My end result is that basic scanning works exactly as intended from the Mac Printers & Scanners menu. But it was a lot of work and a lot of trial and error to get there.