How to Clear Printer Queue on Windows 10 or 7?

Ain’t it frustrating when all your documents are lined up and not printing? If you are in this scenario, you don’t need to panic. This issue can be resolved if you force clear print queue. In case you are not enlightened by this, we will teach you how to clear printer queue on Windows 10 or 7.

To clear print queue on Windows 10, you are going to discover a number of methods. These are as follows:

Below we will understand what causes your print job and how to clear printer queue on your Windows computer by executing several methods.

Why Does a Printing Job Get Stuck?

When you print your documents, sometimes the printing operation gets stuck in between in the print queue. This happens when these files are not being transferred to the printer directly. Rather they first arrive in the spooler (that manages all your printing jobs). This causes your print jobs and your documents remain in the queue.

However, the spooler is a pretty helpful tool as it allows you to delete or change the order of remaining print jobs.

If your documents are lined up and not printing then you can first clear the documents and restart the printer.

In case, your printer queue won’t clear the document, in this particular blog, we are providing numerous methods that will help you to overcome this problem. Let’s know how to clear printer queue on Windows 7 or 10.

How Do I Clear My Printer Queue?

Most users have been asking how to clear printer queue on Windows 7 or 10, then don’t worry. The blog covers several methods you can perform on your Windows PC.

The main method to clear the print queue is to reach Print spooler and disable spooler service for a while. Next to this, you can erase or cancel the documents available in the print queue. Once done, switch back to the Print spooler and start the service.

This will solve your problem. Now, there are different ways to reach a Print spooler and fix the issue. The quick way to cancel documents is to access the Taskbar. Besides that, you can manually clear the print queue via service, run command lines, create a .bat file, or launch GUI. You can also cancel documents from the Windows Settings and Device & Printers.

We will now go through the step by step guidance in the following methods. These methods can be implemented on Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7.

Method 1: Go to Windows Taskbar

If you are thinking about how to clear documents in printer queue on Windows, the first thing you can do is to access your printer from the Taskbar and cancel the documents. Below are the following steps you can follow:

• In the “Taskbar”, right-click on your printer icon.
• From here, choose the task that you want to stop.
• Then, right-click on the selected tasks.
• Select the “Cancel” option from the menu.

This is the most preferred method where you just have to cancel your documents from the print queue directly from Windows Taskbar.

Method 2: Disable Print Spooler and Manually Clear Print Queue

As stated earlier, the reason your print job gets stuck when the files transfer to Print Spooler service instead of the printer.

Hence, in this method, you are required to disable Print Spooler and manually clear print queue. Later you can restart the Printer Spooler service to print documents.

Method 2.1: Stop Print Spooler via Service

To know how to clear printer queue on Windows 10 or 7, you need to stop the Print Spooler from the Services. Here is the step by step guidance:

• Turn off your printer.
• Now, click on the Windows Cortana icon.
• Search for “Services” in order to open it.
• Scroll down to “Print Spooler”.
• Double-click on “Print Spooler” in order to open it.
• Click on the “Stop option in the “Print Spooler Properties (Local Computer)” window.

Doing so, you will have disabled or stopped the Print Spooler service. After this, you can delete the queue of documents that failed to print.

Method 2.2: Erase Print Queue

To clear print queue on Windows 10 or 7, you can go through the Printers folder and delete the documents. Follow these steps to understand clearly:

• Click on the “File Explorer” button located on the “Windows Taskbar”.
• Now, go to “Drive C”.
• Click on “Windows”.
• Open the “System32” folder.
• Click on “Spool”.
• Open the “Printers” folder. This folder has all the documents that are unprinted or in the queue to print.
• Now, use the “Ctrl” key. Then, start selecting the files.
• Press “X” and “Delete” keys in order to remove the documents from the “File Explorer”.

Note: Do not delete the Printers folder directly. Make sure you just delete the content contained in the Printers folder.

Method 2.3: Restart Print Spooler

Now, you have deleted the files so you can restart the Printer Spooler service that you disabled earlier. For that, you just need to access the Print Spooler Properties (Local Computer) dialog box. Then, you can click on the Start button. This will turn on your printer and you can start printing in line.

Method 3: Clear Print Queue using CMD

Another method to clear print queue on Windows 10 is to execute the command. This is the best and effective one can perform. All you have to do is stop the Print Spooler service, delete the print queue, and restart the Print Spooler service.

All these steps can be performed just by running commands. To know the procedure, you can follow these steps:

Method 3.1: Stop Print Spooler via Command Prompt

If the print queue won’t clear, you can first execute the first command to stop the Print Spooler. Here are the steps for that:

• Press the “Windows” + “X” key combination to open the menu.
• Click on the “Command Prompt”. Make sure you run it as an administrator.
• In the “Administrator: Command Prompt” window, enter this command specified below:
  • net stop spooler

• Hit the “Enter” key. This will turn off the “Printer Spooler” service.

Method 3.2: Erase Print Queue via Command Line

The next command line would be run to force clear print queue. To know the procedure, follow these steps:

• In the “Command Prompt” window, enter the following command:
  • del %systemroot%\System32\spool\printers\* /Q
• Then, press the “Return” key. This will start erasing the stuck queue of prints.

Method 3.3: Restart Print Spooler using CMD

Since we have deleted the documents in the queue, you can now restart the service again. For that, you can run the command line provided below:

• In the “Command Prompt” window, enter the following command:
  • Net Start Spooler
• Press the “Return” key. This will restart your “Printer Spooler” service.

This is how you can stop the service, delete documents, and restart the service just by running commands. Thereafter, you can turn on your printer and start printing your documents. In case, you still find any issue then you can move to another method.

Method 4: Create a Batch File

By creating a batch file, you can fix certain issues related to printing jobs. For instance, you can resolve the error when your print job is stuck in between.

In this method, we will create a .bat file to perform a number of actions such as stop Print Spooler and restart it again after deleting the documents. If you are thinking how do I clear printer queue using the .bat file, here are the steps for you.

• In the “Cortana” search bar, type “Notepad” to open it’.
• Once the “Notepad” is opened, copy and paste the following details:
  • @echo off
  • echo Stopping print spooler.
  • echo.
  • net stop spooler
  • echo Erasing Temporary Junk Printer Documents
  • echo.
  • del /Q /F /S “%systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers\*.*
  • echo Starting print spooler.
  • echo.
  • net start spooler
• Click on the “File” option located on the top left.
• Choose to “Save as”. This will open the “Save as” window.
• Click on the “Save as type” drop-down and pick “All Files”.
• From the “File Name” field, remove “*.txt” and add “Printer Queue.bat.”

Note for you: You can add other titles as well. All you have to make sure that the name ends with .bat.

• Now, click on the “Save” button. This will store your batch file on your computer.
• Open the folder where you have saved your batch file.
• Click on the “Printer Queue batch” to perform it.

This process will stop the Print Spooler, erase the unprinted documents, and restart the Print Spooler. Once you are done following these steps, you can turn on the printer and start printing your documents.

Method 5: Windows: Clear Print Queue with GUI

Another way to access the Printer Spooler is to open the Windows GUI (Graphical User Interface). Then you can delete the print queue. If printer queue won’t clear, below are the steps you can follow:

• Press the “Windows” + “R” key in order to open the “Run” dialog box.
• Type “services.msc” in the text field.
• Hit the “Enter” key.
• Search for the “Print Spooler” from the list and open it with Double-click.
• Hit the “Stop” button.

After following these steps, you can keep this window opened and then you can force clear print queue following the steps mentioned below:

• Launch the “Run” box using the “Windows + R” key.
• Now, copy-paste the following command:
  • %systemroot%\System32\spool\printers\
• Click the “OK” button.
• Select all the files and right-click to choose “Delete”.
• Now, switch to the “Service Manager” window.
• Click “Start”.

This is how you can delete the unprinted documents from the print queue and start the service again to print new documents.

Method 6: Cancel Print Jobs from Devices and Printers

In this method, you are required to access your printer from Devices and Printers and check your documents to cancel. To understand better, you can follow these steps instructed below:

• In the applet, click on the “Devices and Printers” in the “Control Panel”.
• Now, click right on your printer.
• Click on “See what’s printing” from the menu.
• Here, you will see the list of documents that are being queued. You can click right on them and choose the “Cancel” option.

This is how you can stop the print job by canceling your documents from the printer. After this, you can try using the printer again and check if you can print smoothly.

Method 7: Cancel Open Queue via Settings

By using the Windows Settings, you can also cancel the documents that get stuck in the print queue. To do so, you can go through these steps:

• Use the “Windows” + “I” keys in order to launch the “Settings” app.
• Click on “Devices”.
• From the left sidebar, click on “Printers & Scanners”.
• On the right pane, click on your printer.
• Then, hit the “Open queue” option.
• Click right on any of the print jobs.
• Then, choose the “Cancel” option.

Once  you cancel the print job from the Open queue, you can restart the printer and try sending prints.

Method 8: Check IP Address of Printer

If the print queue won’t clear and you are concerned that how to clear document from printer queue, the first thing you can do is to check the printer IP address

To check the IP address of your printer, you can go to the port settings in Windows. If the IP address is incorrect, you can save the correct one. Below are the steps one can follow:

• Click right on your printer’s icon.
• Click on the “Printer Properties”.
• Switch to the “Ports” tab.
• Click on the “Configure Port”.
• Now, check the IP address in the “Printer Name or IP Address” field. This IP address should match with your printer.

If the address is correct, you can click the OK button and close the Properties screen. In case, it is not then you need to make it the same so that your printer can work efficiently.

That’s all you can do to clear your unprinted documents. In case you can’t access your computer physically then you can clear print queue remotely. However, for this, you need to use PowerShell.

Alternatively, you can launch Computer Management on the PC and connect this to a remote PC. This way, you can stop the print spooler and delete the files stuck in the print queue (spooler). Later, you can restart the service using Computer Management.

In brief

The stuck print job is a common problem that one can encounter while using a printer. Whether you use Konica Minolta, Zebra zt410, or HP printer, clear print queue in a few seconds just by visiting spooler files.

As mentioned earlier, you can use different ways to stop the Print Spooler service and cancel unprinted documents. In this guide on how to clear printer queues, we have talked about all the possible ways that will help you to fix the stuck print jobs.

Apart from clearing the print queue, we have also prepared more guides where you can learn how to clear cache and cookies on Safari and how to clear temp files on Windows 10?