Print Job stuck in the Windows PC

Fix Print Job is stuck in the Windows Print Queue

How many times has it happened to you that you want to cancel a print job, but when you right-click on the print job to end the stuck print job, it does nothing? Stuck print jobs are those annoying ones that won’t print and won’t cancel either. These print jobs can get frustrating sometimes, as they don’t allow other print jobs to operate. However, like most other Windows errors, this stuck print job problem has a solution. Contact our customer support at Printersupportfaq.com, US or hp.123.com/setup to avail instant technical help and guidance.in this blog, we’ve tried to document each one of them below, along with the appropriate measures to take to get things working again. Useful Methods to Fix Print Job stuck in the Windows pc.

Has a print job got stuck and you can’t clear the queue? Follow these steps to cancel the print job and start again.

Cancelling a Print Job

If you want to resolve the print queue stuck issue with your Windows computer, immediately cancel a print job. Most brands have their own interfaces or a physical button on the printer which allows you to cancel prints. Cancelling a print job from Windows is easy because it works on all printers and more importantly, it doesn’t require much efforts. Let us see the steps involved in it:

Step 1: In the Start Menu, search for Print Management. Click it to open the Print Management window.

Step 2: Click on All Printers. This will show a list of all the printers that you’ve drivers installed for.

Step 3: Right-click on your printer, then select Open Printer Queue.

Step 4: In the printer queue, select the print job or jobs you want to cancel.

Step 5: Right-click the highlighted print job and select Cancel

If the issue still persists, wait for another minute and try cancelling it again. If this also doesn’t work, it means the print job is stuck and it’s time to take more measures.

Stopping the print Spooler from the Service Window

Print Spooler is a native Windows service, so it can be managed from the Services window.

Step 1: Log into Windows as an administrator.

Step 2: Press Win + R on your keyboard to bring up the Run window. (You can also search for Run from the Start Menu.)

Step 3: Type “services.msc” (without the quotes) and press Enter. This will bring up the Services window.

Step 4: In the Services window, scroll down to the service labelled Print Spooler.

Step 5: Right-click the Print Spooler service and select Stop.

When the above steps are completed, the Print Spooler service will stop and it shows the status from Running to blank. Then, try to delete the stuck print jobs using the following method:

Step 1: In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Windows\System32\spool. This is the Print Spooler folder. You can also enter this line below in the Explorer address bar.

%windir%\System32\spool1\

Step 2: Open the Printers folder. The print jobs are all temporarily stored in this folder.

Step 3: Select all of the files and then delete them.

Step 4: Now, start the Print Spooler back up.

Step 5: Head back to the Services window.

Step 6: Find the Print Spooler from the list of services, Right-click, and select Start.

With the print job removed and the Print Spooler back up, you can now start printing again.

Stopping the print Spooler with Command Prompt

This method is just same as above where you will have to stop the spooler, delete the print jobs and then start it back up.

Step 1: From the Start Menu, search for Command Prompt.

Step 2: Right-click it and then select Run as administrator.

Step 3: In Command Prompt, type the following line and then press enter to stop the spooler service:

net stop spooler

After entering this code, you’ll get a response saying, “The Print Spooler service is stopping.” and another one saying, “The Print Spooler service was stopped successfully.” shortly after the first one.

Step 4: Delete the print job files from the print spooler directory. Enter the code below and press enter:

Del /F /S /Q “%windir%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*”

You should get a response from Command Prompt saying that some files were removed. You can also skip this step and remove the files manually from Windows Explorer.

Step 5: In Command Prompt, enter the code below and press enter:

net start spooler

Now your print Spooler will be freshen up and you can go on ahead and queue prints again.

Stop & Clear the Print Spooler by writing a Batch File

If you are stuck with a print job, you can write a batch file to clear the Print Spooler with a click. 

The net use command with parameters is used to connect and configure connections to shared resources, including printers. This command is used with the “stop” parameter to stop the Print Spooler. The del command deletes files or directories. The parameters /F, /S and, /Q allow this command to force delete read-only files, delete the files from all subdirectories, and do so without asking for your confirmation, respectively.

Lastly, you use the net use command once again to start up the Print Spooler. Let us look at the steps involved:

Step 1: Next, head to File > Save As to save the file.

Step 2: Change the Save as type to All Files (*.*).

Step 3: Name your file and add .bat at the end so that it’s recognized as a batch file by Windows. Click Save to save the file.

Now, you can just run this file with a double-click to clear things up whenever your prints are stuck. Please note that since you need admin privileges to manage services such as the Print Spooler, you have to run this batch as an administrator for it to function correctly.

You can now get rid of the stuck print jobs and queue them again. Getting good prints, however, is another beast that you’ll have to tackle. Hence, the above methods are useful in troubleshooting Print queue issue in some ways. Contact HP officials at 123.hp.com/setup in case, your problem remains the same and you need to contact for professional guidance to fully understand the problem.

——————————————————————————————————————————————-