Control of drive unit according to detection of amount of toner in toner refill cartridge

A method of operating an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:

• providing a driving force generated in a drive unit of the image forming apparatus to a toner refill cartridge when the toner refill cartridge is mounted from outside of the image forming apparatus;
• supplying a toner from the toner refill cartridge to a developing device of the image forming apparatus;
• acquiring a detected value corresponding to an amount of toner in the toner refill cartridge;
• controlling an operation of the drive unit based on the detected value;
• controlling the drive unit to stop operation and close a shutter of the toner refill cartridge;
• and
• detecting removal of the toner refill cartridge when the toner refill cartridge is removed from the image forming apparatus.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that upon execution cause an image forming apparatus to:

• control provision of a driving force generated in a drive unit of the image forming apparatus to a toner refill cartridge when the toner refill cartridge is mounted on the image forming apparatus;
• control a supply of a toner to a developing device of the image forming apparatus from the toner refill cartridge;
• acquire a detected value corresponding to an amount of toner in the toner refill cartridge;
• control an operation of the drive unit based on the detected value;
• control the drive unit to stop operation and close a shutter of the toner refill cartridge;
• and
• detect removal of the toner refill cartridge when the toner refill cartridge is removed from the image forming apparatus.