macOS shows the printer as paused and nothing prints

What causes it

• A user clicked Pause in the printer's queue window
• macOS paused the queue automatically after a job failed
• The printer was unreachable when a job was sent
• An authentication prompt for the job was never answered
• A driver error caused repeated failures and the system suspended the queue

How to fix it, in order

Work down the list and stop when the printer recovers. The steps are ordered from most likely and least invasive to last resort.

1. Resume the queue

   Open System Settings › Printers & Scanners, click the printer, then click Printer Queue. If the window shows Resume, click it. Jobs should start moving within a few seconds if nothing else is wrong.

2. Watch whether it pauses again

   Stay on the queue window after resuming. If it pauses itself again within moments, the pause is a symptom rather than the cause, and you should look at connectivity or authentication next. That distinction saves a lot of pointless clicking.

3. Clear the failed job

   Select the document at the top of the queue and click the small cross to delete it, then resume. A single job that the printer rejects will keep re-pausing the queue for as long as it remains at the front.

4. Check for a Hold for Authentication prompt

   If a job shows Hold for Authentication rather than paused, click the refresh or padlock icon next to it and enter the username and password the printer expects. Unanswered credential prompts stall the queue in a way that looks like a pause.

5. Confirm the printer is reachable

   Print a configuration page from the printer's panel and check the IP still matches what the Mac has. Remove and re-add the printer in System Settings › Printers & Scanners if the address has changed, since a queue pointing nowhere will pause itself repeatedly.

6. Set the printer as default and clear old queues

   Delete any duplicate entries for the same printer in Printers & Scanners, keeping one, and set it as the default. Duplicates created by re-adding a printer at different addresses are a common reason jobs land on a paused queue you are not watching.

7. Reset the printing system if it keeps recurring

   Control-click in the printer list in System Settings › Printers & Scanners and choose Reset printing system, then add the printer again. This clears persistent queue state, at the cost of removing all printers and their settings.

Frequently asked questions