How to Clear the Print Queue

A stuck job blocks everything behind it. Cancel it from the queue first; if it will not leave, stop the spooler and delete the job files by hand.

Open the print queue on Windows

Go to Settings, Bluetooth & devices, Printers & scanners, click the printer, then click Open print queue. Every waiting job is listed with its status.

Cancel the jobs

Select a job and choose Cancel. To clear everything at once, use Cancel all in the Windows 11 queue window, or open the Printer menu and choose Cancel All Documents in the classic queue. Give it a few seconds for the list to empty.

Force-clear the spooler if a job is stuck

If a job stays at "Deleting" or will not cancel, press Windows + R, run services.msc, find Print Spooler, right-click it, and choose Stop. Open File Explorer, go to C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS, and delete every file inside (approve the administrator prompt). Back in Services, right-click Print Spooler and choose Start. The same three steps as commands, run from a terminal opened as administrator:

net stop spooler
del /Q /F %SystemRoot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*
net start spooler

Open the print queue on a Mac

Go to System Settings, Printers & Scanners, click the printer, then click Printer Queue. While a job is printing, the printer's icon also appears in the Dock, and clicking it opens the same window.

Delete the jobs

Select the job in the list and click the X next to it. Repeat for each job, or select them all first. If a job is paused, click the resume button in the toolbar after clearing, so new jobs are not held.

If the printer still says it is busy. Turn the printer off, wait ten seconds, and turn it on again. The printer holds its own copy of the job in memory, and a power cycle is the only way to drop it.

If jobs pile up again right away. The culprit is usually a document with a corrupt page or a driver problem. Print a test page from the printer's page in Settings; if that works, the original file is at fault.