So, lately I’ve been nagged by macOS to allow local network access to “WorkflowAppCont” and “NETserver”. A quick online search revealed that these are part of the Brother printer/scanner software. Of course, I do have a Brother scanner and I did install their software when I got it. Since the scanner runs over the local network, it makes sense to allow access.

However, I kept getting nagged for access. Every day. Multiple times a day.

macOS nagging me once more for local network access
macOS nagging me once more for local network access

So, I figured completely uninstalling their software as per their instructions, to then reinstall the latest version, might help. I proceeded to uninstalling it.

While following the instructions by Brother, I did indeed find the annoying culprit under /Library/Printers/Brother as seen here:

Brother's annoying apps
Brother’s annoying apps

After completely uninstalling it, I wanted to fetch the latest drivers from their website. As it turns out, I was already on the latest drivers before uninstalling.

I figured I’ll try to add the scanner without their drivers, and indeed, seems macOS can handle this scanner these days through the “AirPrint” protocol.

So, since I don’t actually need the drivers anymore for the scanner to work, I kept it uninstalled and wrote an easy script for you to use in case you’re in the same situation:

#!/bin/sh
# Uninstalls Brother Printer/Scanner
# Based on: https://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend.aspx?c=as_ot&lang=en&prod=mfc1810_us_eu_as&faqid=faq00000314_011
# This script just makes it less tedious
rm -rf /Library/Printers/Brother
rm -rf /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/Brother*.gz
rm -rf /Library/Image\ Capture/Twain\ Data\ Sources/Brother\ Twain*.ds
rm -rf /Library/Image\ Capture/Devices/Brother\ Scanner
rm -rf /Applications/Brother

You can download a copy from my GitHub Gist here for easier execution.

I’m not gonna tell you to curl and pipe this to sh because that’s just bad practice. Read and understand the thing before running it.

I run this blog in my spare time, so if this helped you out, consider donating a cup of coffee.