Cannot Delete Stuck Print Jobs in Windows

This has happened to all of us. Everything prints fine on your computer or your print server, then all of the sudden, seemingly for no reason; a print job clogs up the entire queue, then the calls start rolling in.

Normally, all you need to do is take a look at the print queue, select the stuck job and choose “Delete”, but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it.

The old trick is to do the following:

1. Open the Services.msc console by clicking Start > Run and entering Services.msc in the prompt, then click OK
2. In the Services console, locate Print Spooler
3. Right Click on the Print Spooler service and choose Stop
4. Open the Print Queue for the stuck printer
5. Delete the stuck print job
6. Back in the Services Console, Start the Print Spooler service

Though, this may not always clear the job. In some cases, you may need to manually delete the jobs.

1. Following the instructions above, Stop Print Spooler service
2. Navigate to c:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS
3. Inside of the PRINTERS folder, select all items, then Delete
4. If you get an error when deleting some items, you may need to open Task Manager, then locate the service that is still using the file, and end the service.
5. Once finished, Start the Print Spooler service.

Tags: MicrosoftPrinters