Item stuck in printer queue - problem solved - thank you

I am trying to print a document using my new brother laser printer from a windows 10 laptop.  A document with a property of zero bytes is stuck in the queue.  I can neither print nor delete it.  This is blocking further documents from printing.  I tried rebooting both the printer and the laptop.  Printer and computer are linked through wireless connection.  I was able to delete two other documents from the queue so I know the two devices are communicating.  How do I clear the stuck document?


it looks like the only way to do it is to issue commands from a command prompt window. Try the following:

Press Windows key + X

from the list of choices, pick either Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows Powershell (Admin)

This will open a new window into which you will type some commands, as below

type in => net stop spooler
press enter
type in => del /Q /F /S C:\System32\Spool\Printers\*.*
press enter
type in => net start spooler
press enter

That should do it.

NOTE: This will delete all print jobs in the queue. Not sure if there's an easy way to just delete a single job. The files in the folder C:\System32\Spool\Printers all correspond to a print job. By deleting those files, the jobs will be deleted.


drummerboy said:

it looks like the only way to do it is to issue commands from a command prompt window. Try the following:

Press Windows key + X

from the list of choices, pick either Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows Powershell (Admin)

This will open a new window into which you will type some commands, as below

type in => net stop spooler
press enter
type in => del /Q /F /S %systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers\*.*
press enter
type in => net start spooler
press enter

That should do it

 I’m impressed!


metaphysician said:

 I’m impressed!

You know, Windows 1.0 was released in 1985. Deleting stuck jobs from the printer queue has been a problem since day one. It is utterly embarrassing that they haven't fixed it yet.


THANK YOU that worked.  Trying to print again.  Fingers and toes crossed.



In order to add a comment – you must Join this community – Click here to do so.