Printer stuck? You may need to unblock the print spooler

How to clear a blockage when your printer won’t print

If you send a document for printing in Windows and it fails to print (for whatever reason), then any further documents you try (or retry) to print can get stuck behind the first one.

A piece of software called the “print spooler” handles stuff sent to the printer. The spooler receives the documents you have sent for printing and feeds them through to the printer. Since the spooler feeds stuff to the printer in the same order that it receives it, if something goes wrong with one document, then everything behind it is held up.

So, what we do when the printer won’t perform (and switching it on and off doesn’t help, and neither does checking the paper and ink levels) is to restart the spooler software and try again. If that doesn’t work, then we delete everything that the spooler has got waiting and try again.

Steps to clearing the print spooler

Option 1: “Restart the Print Spooler” (Easiest, Often Works)

1. Right-click the Start button (the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of your screen).
2. Select “Run”: A small box will pop up.
3. Type “services.msc” (without the quotes) and press “OK”: This opens a list of Windows services.
4. Scroll down to “Print Spooler”: The list is in alphabetical order.
5. Right-click on it and select “Restart”: Wait a few moments.
6. Try printing again: See if your printer now works.

Option 2: The “Manual Clear” Method (If Restarting Doesn’t Work)

1. Stop the Print Spooler:
   • Follow steps 1-4 from the previous method (opening “services.msc” and finding “Print Spooler”).
   • Right-click “Print Spooler” and select “Stop”.
2. Open the Spool Folder:
   • Right-click the Start button and select “Run”.
   • Type “%systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS” (without the quotes) and press Enter. Windows might ask you for permission. If it does, click ‘Continue’ or enter your administrator password. This is normal as you’re accessing a system folder.
3. Delete the Files:
   • Select all the files in the “PRINTERS” folder. You can do this by pressing “Ctrl A” on your keyboard.
   • Right-click the selected files and choose “Delete”. If you then get a message asking for administrator permission, click “Continue”.
4. Restart the Print Spooler:
   • Go back to the “Services” window.
   • Right-click “Print Spooler” and select “Start”.
5. Try printing again: Your printer should now be clear of stuck jobs.

That’s it. I’m sure we’d like it better if we could just click a button to tell it to delete the stuck document, but we can’t.

For further help with resolving printer issues, see Fix printer connection and printing problems in Windows

Post icon (featured image),designed by David Leonard with Microsoft Designer

Screenshots from Windows 11

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