Welcome to Printer Not Working! There’s perhaps nothing more frustrating than printing something out and then having it, then just waiting around in the printer queue. If that printer queue not deleting is an ongoing problem, it’ll slap your productivity right into a rut. No need to worry! We’ve got the top 5 solutions you can use when you have print jobs queued up and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to get your printer up and running again.
1. The Classic Restart: Printer and Computer
Sometimes the best answer is the simplest. A reboot can be a solution to a huge amount of random issues that could be the cause of your print problem.
How to do it: Step one, switch your printer off by unplugging it from the electricity. Step two, restart your computer. Next, close them down and then restart, and then try printing a test document. This will normally clear up any processes awaiting that were building up in the print queue rather than deleting. Then, if you still get the document stuck in the print queue message, move to the next step.
2. Manually Cancelling from the Print Queue
Sometimes the hung print job has to be prodded a little bit harder. Attempt to manually cancel the offending document from the print queue.
How to do it
Search for “Printers & scanners” in your search window and tap it open. Tap on your printer and tap on “Open print queue.” The documents that are stuck in print queue should be here. Right-click on the document stuck in print queue and tap on “Cancel.” You might have to do it with a few stuck jobs. If the cancel is pending or the printer queue is not removed, proceed to the next step of troubleshooting.
3. Restart the Print Spooler Service
The Print Spooler is a computer program service that processes all print jobs sent to the printer. If this service is malfunctioning, it will keep print jobs in queue. It should be able to resolve the issue by restarting it.
Here’s how to do it
Press Windows key + R, type services.msc, and hit Enter. In the Services window, scroll to where you find “Print Spooler.” Right-click on it and select “Restart.” If the service is not yet running, select “Start.” Observe if the printer queue not deleting issue still persists after restart. This should be capable of eradicating hanging documents stuck in print jobs stuck in queue issues.
4. Manually Delete Spooler Files
And if none of the rest is a success, then second on this list would be to delete the spooler files manually. These are the temporary spooler files that the Print Spooler writes to, and at times a badly formed file can result in print jobs stuck in queue.
How to do it
First, you will need to stop the Print Spooler service (carry out steps in step 3, but choose “Stop” instead of “Restart”). After stopping it, go to File Explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS. Remove everything from this folder. After the removal of files, go back to the Services window, right-click “Print Spooler,” and choose “Start.” This action tends to clear the old queue from the system and may solve the printer queue not deleting problem.
5. Update or Reinstall Printer Drivers
Defective or degraded printer drivers are also often to blame for printing errors, including print jobs stuck in queue. For proper communication between computer and printer, drivers must be reinstalled or updated.
Also Read :- How to Solve Dell Printer Paper Jam Errors in Minutes
How to do it
Open your computer’s search box and type “Device Manager” and double-click to open. In the category of “Printers” or “Print queues,” click it and expand it. Right-click the printer and choose “Update driver.” You can automatically search for updated driver software to install. Or if the above fails, you can unplug the device (right-click and delete device) and then go to your printer manufacturer’s website and download and install the latest driver.
Conclusion
It’s maddening to work with a hung printer queue that refuses to clear. But by troubleshooting with these top 5 solutions in a methodical sequence, you should be able to get your printer working most of the time.
Have you ever worked with print jobs stuck in queue? How did you resolve it? Let us know in the comments below!