You gave a printing command to your printer via your computer system, and it got stuck. Now the printer is showing an error like Spooling Printer Error or Restart the Printer Spooler. Has it ever happened to you or your colleague, and now you are wondering what that means?
To clear your understanding of what printer spooling means, it is software that acts as a mediator between your system and the printer. The spooler basically takes all the commands and sends them to the printer one by one. In this way, you won’t have to wait for your printer to complete one print and then give another command; a printer spooler does that for you.
This article will help you understand what can be the cause of your printer showing the spooling error and what actions can be taken to fix it.
What Does Spooling Mean on a Printer and Why is it Important?
A print spooler is software built into the Windows/iOS system of a device. It holds the multiple commands given to a printer at the same time. It stores all the print jobs until the printer’s job gets done.
Suppose you gave your printer a command to print 50 pages at once; the printer won’t copy as they have very low memory and can’t take more than 1 page’s command at once. These errors can also occur when the printer receives commands from multiple systems, especially in an office.
Reasons Why Printer Spooler Error Occurs?
Though there can be printer drivers or software issues for a not working print spooler, we can’t exactly say if the spooler is causing the problem or if the system malware is causing trouble. So, we are going to assume every possible scenario and fix the issue in every achievable way.
How to Restart Print Spooler in 10 Ways?
Showing your printer status spooling may have multiple reasons like your Brother printer is offline. We are going to discuss every possible solution one by one so you can check and see which one is suitable for you.
1. Using Task Manager
One of the most basic methods to stop software from running in the background is the task manager.
- Go to the Windows Search bar, type Task Manager or you can right-click on the Taskbar and Open Task Manager.
- Go to Services.
- Now, scroll down and select Spooler.
- Right-click on Spooler.
- Click on the Stop option.
Once you have stopped the spooler from the printer, make sure before you restart the print spooler again you must delete all the print jobs from C:\Windows\system32\spool\PRINTERS, to avoid any overlapping of prints.
2. Using Administrative Tool
The second method to fix the print spooler error is to use the administrative tool:
- Go to the Windows Search bar, and type Administrative tools.
- Click on the Windows Administrative Tools.
- On the Administrative Tools window, click on Services.
- Now, on the Services window, scroll down and find Print Spooler.
- Right-click on the Print Spooler.
- Click on Stop.
Again, before restarting the print spooler, make sure you delete all the print jobs from C:\Windows\system32\spool\PRINTERS. After this, you can come to the same window and click Start on the print spooler.
3. Using Command Prompt
Another technique you can use to delete the print spool from your Windows is using the command prompt.
- On the Windows search bar, type cmd.exe.
- On the right-hand window from the Command Prompt, click on Run as Administrator.
- Now, a security pop-up will appear; click on Yes.
- On the Command Prompt page, type net stop spooler.
- Press Enter.
With this technique, the spooler services will be stopped.
4. Using Print Management
Using the Print Management technique is easy; all you need to do is:
- On the Windows search bar, type Print Management.
- Click on Print Management and open it.
- Double-click on All Printers.
- Right-click on the printer you want to delete.
- Select Delete.
This way, you can erase the printer which you are having spooling printer problems with.
5. Clear the Printer Queue
If there’s any chance that the spooler got overburdened with multiple print commands, you can clear the printer queue manually and start the process again.
- On the Windows search bar, type Control Panel.
- Click on the Control Panel option.
- On the Control Panel window, click on View Devices and printers under Hardware and Sound.
- Now, on the View Devices and Printers window, go to your printer, and right-click on it.
- Click on See what’s printing.
Now, from here, you can manually select each item and delete it from the queue. The items will have to be deleted individually from all the connected computer systems.
6. Restart the System
Restarting the computer system is the standard thing to do. If there is any technical/software or hardware glitch, restarting your system can clear the glitches to some extent.
7. Update the Printer Driver/Software
Having an old printer driver or software can also be a reason why the printer keeps on showing the printer spooling error. You can update the printer driver or check if you have an old model printer that is not compatible with the new Windows OS. In such cases, you can use the Windows compatibility mode.
A compatibility mode is a tool that works by altering certain settings for older programs to manage with the new operating system.
8. Update the Windows
Windows update can also be helpful in printer spooler errors. Here’s how:
- On the Windows search bar, type Settings.
- Click on the Settings option.
- On the Settings window, click on Update & Security.
- See if there’s any new update on your Windows, then Download and Install it.
When Windows is not up-to-date or any update is pending, spooling or any other related errors can occur.
9. Cycle Printer Power
You can try powering off your printer, then unplug it from the socket, and again plug in and turn the power on after a few seconds. This might help the printer speed up and function efficiently.
10. Delete the Printer from System Registry
If any of the above options don’t work for you, one last thing you can do is manually erase the printer from your computer system’s registry. Though this process can be risky as deleting files from the registry can cause operating system issues or Windows can get corrupted:
- On Windows, click the Windows + R together.
- Type Regedit.
- Click OK.
- On the Registry Editor, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControl\SetControl\Print\Printers key.
- Right-click on your printer.
- Click on Delete.
After deleting your printer from the system’s registry, make sure to reboot or restart your computer system for better functioning. If you use any Android device for the printer, read along.
How to Fix the Android Spooler?
If you have connected your printer to your Android device and the spooler has stopped working or showing any error, you can use the given method to fix it.
- Go to Settings on your Android device.
- Tap on Show System Apps.
- Tap on App Management.
- Tap on the Printer.
- Tap on Storage Usage.
- Tap on Clear Data.
- Tap on Clear Cache.
This will clear the spooler history and clear all the junk from the spooler, and you can give a new command from your Android device to your printer.
Conclusion
These were the techniques you can use when you’re having spooling printer issues. While some methods can be used as troubleshooting for printers not connecting to the Windows issue as well.
Hopefully, any of the techniques will work for you, and your printer will start working like a new one.
FAQs
Ans: Spool means Simultaneous Peripheral Operations Online, whose job is to store computer documents or task lists and convey it to the printer.
Ans: Right-click on the Taskbar > Task Manager > Spooler Subsystem App. Here you can check the processing, performance, history, etc., of your printer’s spooler.
Ans: When a print job is assigned to a printer, it takes a few seconds for the spool to give commands to a printer.
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