Troubleshooting Scanning from Kyocera to Windows 10

by László L. Lieszkovszky

This is a troubleshooting guide meant to be used if you've already tried to set up scanning from your Kyocera to your computer and failed. For basic instructions on how to get started, I would recommend to these sites:

In short:

  1. Create a dedicated user in Windows that Kyocera will use to connect to it, you can run netplwiz for quick access to user management
  2. Hide the user from the login screen by editing your registry, and creating a DWORD (32-bit) with the same key (name) as the dedicated user for Kyocera and with value "0" in the following location:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList (if the path does not exist, create it)
  3. Share the target folder in Windows using Advanced Sharing (just clicking on share will NOT work)
  4. Give permissions to the folder for the dedicated user both in the sharing dialog (Folder Properties → Advanced Sharing → Permissions) as well as on the "Security" tab of the folder properties dialog
  5. Ensure SMB is enabled on your Kyocera (log in as admin, Network Settings page, under "Send Protocols")
  6. Create an address book entry on your Kyocera web control panel:

Address Book → Machine Address Book → Add

Tips:

  • You can set the Host Name to the name of the computer, or if that doesn't work try to give a static IP address to the client and enter that
  • The path should not start with a slash or the computer name!
  • If you're on a domain, the username should be in the format: user@domain, otherwise: computer-name\user

You can also try Kyocera's ancient "Scan to SMB" utility, which will try to do the above automatically. It....sometimes works. Google it, or try to find it on this page.

If you got this far and it's not working, first take a moment and consider whether it would be easier to just set up

(a) configuring SMTP & delivering your scans via email, or

(b) an ftp server on the network & delivering scans there

Both take less than half an hour to set up and will work reliably. If you are intent on getting your Kyocera to work with SMB, then be prepared to spend hours troubleshooting the issue and boldly read on...

My favorite printer brands currently are Kyocera, Okidata, and Epson. All three companies continue to innovate, and they all offer affordable printers with very low cost of maintenance. I used to prefer HP until they got on the let's-rip-off-our-customers-with-overpriced-ink-and-disable-aftermarket-toners gravy train.

Unfortunately there is one issue that I keep running into with Kyocera printers. It has become very difficult to set up scannning to a computer via SMB lately. This is not all Kyocera's fault, these MFC-s still work fine with PC-s running Windows 7, and the problems often stem from "security improvements" and the general disaster that Windows has become. But Kyocera IS partly to blame because they are slow to adapt, and you can still buy Kyoceras with old firmware, and additionally they exacerbate the issue by not providing decent documentation and by "hiding" the software required to effectively troubleshoot the issue from the public. They rely too much on having a network of technicians worldwide - but many users don't want to spend top $ for a technician to fix an old printer or even to install a new one. These things should just work and if they don't, Kyocera should have an up-to-date guide published in a prominent location on the website with effective instructions to solve it as well as all software necessary (including firmware).

Anyways, I'm not an expert and I have no "magic" solution, this is just a post where I gather all useful suggestions I could find on this topic. Naturally, none of these come from either Kyocera or Microsoft itself.

The dirty word: "SMB"

The underlying issue often has to with SMB. Windows used to support SMB v1, but this has been disabled in newer versions of Windows 10. Certain Kyocera printers only support SMB v1, others require a firmware update to support SMB v2/v3, and newer devices support all three. You can read about SMB here. You can read about which printers support which protocol here. In case that link goes down, here's the relevand part:

KYOCERA devices that support SMB version 1, version 2 and version 3

  • ECOSYS M2040dn - ECOSYS M4025idn - ECOSYS M4032idn - ECOSYS M8024cidn - ECOSYS M8030cidn
  • ECOSYS M2135dn
  • ECOSYS M2635dn
  • ECOSYS M2735dw - ECOSYS M2540dn - ECOSYS M2640idw -
  • ECOSYS M5521cdn - ECOSYS M5521cdw - ECOSYS M5526cdn - ECOSYS M5526cdw
  • TASKalfa 3211i - TASKalfa 4011i
  • TASKalfa 5052ci - TASKalfa 4052ci. TASKalfa 6052ci
  • TASKalfa 2552ci - TASKalfa 3252ci
  • TASKalfa 4002i - TASKalfa 5002i - TASKalfa 6002i - TASKalfa 7002i - TASKalfa 8002i
  • TASKalfa 7052ci - TASKalfa 8052ci

These devices require firmware version 6 or higher

  • ECOSYS M6030cdn - ECOSYS M6530cdn - ECOSYS M6035cidn - ECOSYS M6535cidn
  • TASKalfa 3051ci
  • TASKalfa 3501i - TASKalfa 4501i - TASKalfa 5501i - TASKalfa 6501i
  • TASKalfa 3551ci - TASKalfa 4551ci - TASKalfa 5551ci
  • TASKalfa 6551ci - TASKalfa 7551ci
  • TASKalfa 8001i

These devices require firmware version 3 or higher

  • TASKalfa 306ci - TASKalfa 356ci - TASKalfa 406ci

These devices require firmware version 5 or higher

  • ECOSYS M3040dn - ECOSYS M3540dn - ECOSYS M3040idn - ECOSYS M3540idn - ECOSYS M3550idn - ECOSYS M3560idn - ECOSYS M6026cdn - ECOSYS M6526cdn - ECOSYS M6026cidn - ECOSYS M6526cidn - ECOSYS M2030dn - ECOSYS M2530dn - ECOSYS M2035dn - ECOSYS M2535dn
  • TASKalfa 266ci
  • TASKalfa 3010i - TASKalfa 3510i
  • TASKalfa 2551ci

KYOCERA devices that only support SMB version 1

  • TASKalfa 3050ci - TASKalfa 3550ci - TASKalfa 4550ci - TASKalfa 5550ci
  • TASKalfa 1800 - TASKalfa 2200
  • FS-1220MFP - FS-1320MFP - FS-1325MFP - FS-6025MFP - FS-6030MFP - FS-6525MFP - FS-6530MFP - FS-C8020MFP - FS-C8025MFP - FS-C8520MFP - FS-C8525MFP

Firmware Update

You should first check if your printer supports SMB2/3. If a firmware update is required, then don't even bother with any of the other solutions - I've tried them all and some printers simply don't work with Windows 10 without a firmware update. Unfortunately Kyocera does not make firmware updates available to the public.

You can check your firmware version on the Device Information → Configuration page:

Kyocera has release several tools for managing their printers. Personally I haven't figured out which is better or why there are so many tools. You can use Kyocera Net Admin (which is a "web-based" tool) or Kyocera Net Viewer, but there are others like "Kyocera Network Device Manager", "Kyocera Device Manager", etc. I used Kyocera Net Viewer because it's one of the smaller downloads. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find - use google. I found some up-to-date versions here: http://kyoceradocumentsolutions.hu/letoltesek/tartalom/579132, you can also try the "Quick Links" on Kyoceradiscovery.com

You will also need the updated firmware file. This is even harder to find. As I understand it, Kyocera only makes this available to authorized technicians. A shame because the end result is that many printers, which work fine, are thrown away when a firmware update is really all that is needed. Bad for the environment! I personally found some firmware on some russian site.

Once you got this far, google youtube for instructions on how to update your firmware with Kyocera Net Viewer. Or just follow this screen shot:

Default credentials are often: Admin/Admin

Turn on SMBv1

This is not recommended. SMBv1 was deprecated for a reason. But, there comes a point where you're ready to try anything.

You can enable SMBv1 by running optionalfeatures.exe, scroll down to SMB and tick SMB 1.0/CIFS Client (but not SMB 1.0/CIFS Automatic Removal)!

Some quotes:

Start the "Function Discovery Provider Host" and "Function Discovery Resource Publication" services, and then set them toAutomatic (Delayed Start).
When you open Explorer Network, enable network discovery when you are prompted.

(source)

So u just need to enable on win8 the SMB ver 1 with Powershell command : To enable SMBv1 on the SMB client, run the following commands:
sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/mrxsmb20/nsi
sc.exe config mrxsmb10 start= auto

Firewall

Turn off your firewall to see if that is the issue. Turn off both your Windows firewall as well as any proprietary firewall you might have installed (like with antivirus).

Rules to set to allow for windows firewall:

  • File and Printer Sharing (NB-Name-In), UDP 137
  • File and Printer Sharing (NB-Session-In), TCP 139
  • File and Printer Sharing (SMB-In), TCP 445
  • File and Printer sharing (NB- Datagram-In), UDP 138

Getting desperate...

  • Try using the IP address of the machine instead of the hostname
  • Add exceptions in Windows Firewall (incoming, printers and file sharing, SMB)
  • Turn on public sharing for the folder
  • Windows 10 blocks SMB on public networks, check the network profile of the network you're connected to and set it to Private
  • Check "Enable file sharing for devices that use 40- or 56-bit encryption" in "Advanced sharing settings", also enable "Password Protected Sharing"

Set these services to "Automatic":

  • Function Discovery Provider Host
  • Function Discovery Resource Publication
  • SSDP Discovery
  • UPnP Device Host

Further Reading / References: