How to Clear a Stuck Print Queue and Cancel a Print Job That Won't Delete (Windows 11 and Mac)

To clear a stuck print queue on Windows 11, stop the Print Spooler service, delete the files in C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS, and start the spooler again; on a Mac, delete the jobs from the printer's queue window or reset the printing system. A job stuck at "Deleting" or "Printing" cannot be removed any other way because the spooler holds the file open. The steps below take under five minutes and work for any printer brand.

Quick fixes first

1. Open the queue: Windows Settings › Bluetooth & devices › Printers & scanners › your printer › Open print queue; Mac System Settings › Printers & Scanners › your printer › Printer Queue.
2. Select every job and cancel it. On Windows use Printer menu › Cancel All Documents; on Mac press the X next to each job.
3. Wait 30 seconds. If a job remains at Deleting, turn the printer off and on; that sometimes releases it.
4. Still stuck? Do the full spooler reset below (Windows) or Reset printing system (Mac).
5. Send one fresh test page before queuing anything else.

Why a print job gets stuck in the queue

Printing is a hand-off chain: the app renders the document into a spool file, the spooler stores it on disk, the print processor converts it for the driver, and the port monitor streams it to the printer. If any link fails part-way, the spooler keeps the file open and marks the job Printing or Error, and every later job waits behind it. Typical triggers:

• The printer went offline or to sleep while the job was being sent, so the port monitor is waiting for an answer that never comes.
• A damaged spool file from a specific PDF, a huge photo, or a web page with embedded fonts.
• A driver crash. Jobs vanish instantly or sit at Spooling forever, and the spooler may restart on its own. See Print Spooler keeps stopping.
• Two copies of the same printer (one WSD, one TCP/IP) and the job went to the one that cannot reach the device.
• On Mac, a paused queue. The queue window shows a Resume button; nothing prints until you click it.

Windows 11 and 10: cancel from the queue

Windows 11 has a modern queue window that opens from Settings and shows each job with a menu. Click the three dots on a job and choose Cancel. If you prefer the classic window, press Win+R, type control printers, right-click the printer and choose See what's printing. There, Printer › Cancel All Documents clears everything in one go. A job that says "Deleting" for more than a minute is locked; go to the next section.

Windows: clear the spool folder (the fix that always works)

1. Press Win+R, type services.msc and press Enter.
2. Scroll to Print Spooler, right-click it and choose Stop.
3. Press Win+R again and open C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS. Click Continue if Windows asks for permission.
4. Select everything in the folder (Ctrl+A) and delete it. These are only the stuck jobs; deleting them is safe. Do not delete the PRINTERS folder itself.
5. Back in Services, right-click Print Spooler › Start. Check that Startup type is Automatic.

If you do this often, save the following as clearqueue.bat, right-click it and Run as administrator:

net stop spooler

del /Q /F /S "%systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*"

net start spooler

The same three commands typed into an administrator Command Prompt or PowerShell (right-click Start › Terminal (Admin)) do the job without the file.

Windows: cancel a print job that won't delete from the printer side

Sometimes Windows clears its queue but the printer still holds the job and keeps printing pages of gibberish, or shows "Receiving data". Cancel on the printer itself: press the Cancel or Stop button (the X) on the panel, or on a touchscreen tap the job status and Cancel. Powering the printer off for 30 seconds clears its memory. For network printers you can also open the printer's web page (type its IP address into a browser) and cancel jobs from the Job Log or Active Jobs page; HP, Brother and Epson all offer this.

Mac: delete stuck jobs and reset the printing system

1. Open System Settings › Printers & Scanners, click the printer and click Printer Queue. Delete each job with the X, and click Resume if the queue is paused.
2. If a job will not delete, quit the queue window, then in Terminal type cancel -a and press Return; this tells the CUPS print system to drop every job.
3. For a queue that is truly wedged, go back to Printers & Scanners, Control-click (or right-click) anywhere in the printer list and choose Reset printing system. Confirm with your password.
4. Re-add the printer with the Add Printer, Scanner or Fax button. On macOS Sequoia and Tahoe, check System Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network and allow the app you print from if the printer does not reappear.

Windows 11: when the queue itself won't open

If clicking Open print queue does nothing, or you see "Print Spooler service is not running", the service has crashed. Start it from services.msc, then open Event Viewer (Win+R, eventvwr.msc) › Windows Logs › System and look for a PrintService or Application Error entry naming a driver DLL; that driver is the one to reinstall. Windows 11's built-in Get Help printer troubleshooter (Settings › System › Troubleshoot › Other troubleshooters › Printer) restarts the spooler and clears the queue automatically, which is a reasonable first step if you would rather not use Services.

Stop the queue jamming again

Set the printer to use a Standard TCP/IP port with a reserved IP address and install a current driver; that combination removes most recurring queue problems. If you are on Windows 11 24H2 or later and the printer was added automatically, it is using the Microsoft IPP Class Driver, which is stable; only switch to the vendor driver if you need features it lacks. For driver problems, see driver is unavailable.

Brand notes

HP: HP Print and Scan Doctor has a "Clear print queue" action that stops the spooler and deletes spool files for you. The HP app also shows the printer's own job list under Printer Status. Canon: the Canon IJ Status Monitor pops up on Windows when a job is stuck; its Cancel button reaches the printer directly. Epson: the Epson Status Monitor 3 icon in the taskbar lists queued jobs and can cancel them. Brother: on laser models press Cancel (or Go for two seconds on screenless HL models) to drop the job from the printer's memory.

If nothing worked

If jobs keep sticking after a spooler reset and a fresh driver, the spooler's registry keys or print processor are damaged, which is fixable but fiddly, or the printer's own controller is hanging on data, which on an older machine may mean a failing main board. Neither is worth a paid workshop repair on a consumer printer. You can get help from a printer specialist who will connect remotely, rebuild the print subsystem and confirm whether the printer itself is at fault.