How to Manage Print Jobs in the Windows 11 Print Queue

Open the print queue

Pick whichever route suits you. All three open the same queue window for one printer. Each printer has its own queue.

Open the queue from Settings

Use this route when no job is printing and the taskbar 🖥️ icon is not there.

1. Open Settings by pressing Win+I.

   

2. Select Bluetooth 🔷 & devices in the left pane.

   

3. Select Printers & scanners. You see a list of installed printers.

   

4. Select the printer name, for example Example Printer. The printer’s page opens.
5. Select Open print queue. A window opens with the printer’s name in the title bar. If it is empty, no jobs are waiting.

   

Open the queue from the notification area

While a document is printing, Windows shows a small printer icon near the clock. This is the quickest route during a problem.

1. Look for the printer icon in the notification area. If you don't see it, select the up arrow (Show hidden icons) first.

   

2. Double-click the printer icon. The print queue opens.

The icon disappears when the queue is empty. If you can't find it, use the Settings route above.

Open the queue from Control Panel

This route is useful if you manage several printers and want to see them in one place.

1. Press Windows key + R, type control printers, and press Enter. The Devices and Printers window opens.
2. Right-click your printer under Printers.
3. Select See what's printing. The queue opens.

If the right-click menu in Windows 11 looks shortened, select Show more options to see the full list.

Read the print queue window

Each job is one row. Knowing the columns helps you pick the right job to act on, especially on a shared printer.

• Document Name is the file name or the title the app sent.
• Status shows what is happening to the job. Common values are Spooling (Windows is still preparing it), Printing, Paused, Error and Deleting.
• Owner is the account that sent the job. This matters on shared computers and network printers.
• Pages and Size show how large the job is.
• Submitted shows when the job was sent.

A job in an Error or Paused state at the top of the list blocks the jobs behind it in some cases. That is the most common reason a queue looks stuck.

The queue window has three menus: Printer, Document and View. Most actions below use the first two. If the list looks out of date, open the View menu and select Refresh.

Pause, resume, restart or cancel a single print job

Use these actions when one document is wrong, stuck or not needed. They leave the other jobs alone.

Pause a job

Pausing holds a job in the queue without deleting it. Use it when you need to let a more urgent document print first.

1. Open the print queue.
2. Right-click the job and select Pause. The Status column changes to Paused.

The jobs behind it continue to print.

Resume a paused job

1. Right-click the paused job.
2. Select Resume. The status changes and the job prints when its turn comes.

Restart a job

Restart sends the whole document to the printer again from page one. Use it after a paper jam or a garbled page.

1. Right-click the job.
2. Select Restart. The job goes back to the beginning.

If the job is no longer in the queue, restart is not possible. You have to print the document again from the app, unless you turned on Keep printed documents (covered further down).

Cancel a job

You can't undo it, so you have to print the document again if you need it.

1. Right-click the job.
2. Select Cancel. A prompt asks whether you are sure.
3. Select Yes. The job disappears, or shows Deleting for a moment before it goes.

You can also select the job and open the Document menu to reach Pause, Resume, Restart and Cancel.

If a page is already printing when you cancel, the printer may keep going. Printers store part of a job in their own memory, so Windows can't clear it from there. Cancel the job on the printer's own screen or buttons too, or turn the printer off and on.

Pause or cancel every job at once

These actions apply to the whole queue for one printer. Use them when something is wrong with the printer itself, such as a paper jam or an empty toner cartridge, and you don't want jobs piling up.

Pause the whole printer

1. Open the print queue.
2. Open the Printer menu and select Pause Printing. A check mark appears beside the option, and the window title shows Paused.

New jobs still join the queue, but nothing prints. To start again, open the Printer menu and select Pause Printing a second time to remove the check mark.

If you forget this setting, you see jobs queue up that never print. Check it first when everything is stuck.

Cancel all documents

This deletes every job in the queue, including other people's jobs if you have permission. It can't be undone.

1. Open the Printer menu.
2. Select Cancel All Documents. A prompt asks for confirmation.
3. Select Yes. The list empties.

Check that the printer is not set to work offline

If jobs stay in the queue and the title bar says Offline, Windows thinks the printer is unavailable.

1. Open the Printer menu.
2. If Use Printer Offline has a check mark, select it to remove the check mark.

If the option is not checked and the printer still shows Offline, check that the printer is on and connected to the same network or USB port as before. Waiting jobs usually print once Windows reaches the printer again.

Change the order of jobs with priority

You can't drag jobs into a new order in the print queue. Priority is the supported way to make one job print ahead of others that are waiting.

1. Open the print queue.
2. Right-click the job you want to move up and select Properties. The document's properties window opens on the General tab.
3. Drag the Priority slider toward Highest.
4. Select OK. The job moves ahead of lower-priority jobs.

Priority only works for jobs waiting to print—it won't stop or interrupt a job that's already printing.

Print a job at a set time

You can hold a large job until later, for example after hours on a shared printer. The job stays in the queue until the time you set. The computer and the printer both have to be on when that time arrives.

1. Right-click the job in the print queue and select Properties.
2. On the General tab, find Schedule.
3. Select Only from.
4. Set the start and end times.
5. Select OK. The job waits until the time window opens.

To undo this, open the same properties window and select No time restriction.

Clear a job that won't cancel

When a job stays at Deleting or Error and nothing removes it, the Print Spooler is usually stuck. Restarting it often clears the job. Both methods below need administrator rights.

Restart the Print Spooler from Services

This step requires administrator privileges. It is the gentler fix, and it works for most stuck jobs.

1. Press Windows key + R, type services.msc, and press Enter. Select Yes if User Account Control asks for permission.
2. Scroll to Print Spooler in the list.

   

3. Right-click Print Spooler and select Restart. The status briefly changes, then shows Running.
4. Open the print queue again and check whether the stuck job is gone.

Stop the spooler and delete the stuck files

This step requires administrator privileges. It permanently deletes every waiting job for every printer on this computer, so use it only when the restart didn't work.

1. Right-click the Start button and select Terminal (Admin). Select Yes if User Account Control asks for permission.
2. Type the following command and press Enter to stop the spooler:
   

   💻Code

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   net stop spooler

3. Open File Explorer and go to C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS. Select Continue if Windows asks for permission to open the folder.
4. Delete the files inside the folder. Leave the PRINTERS folder itself in place. These files are the saved copies of your waiting jobs.
5. Go back to the terminal, type the following command, and press Enter to start the spooler again:
   

   💻Code

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   net start spooler

6. Open the print queue. It should be empty.

If net stop spooler reports that it can't stop the service, you did not open the terminal as administrator. Close it and repeat step 1.

Keep printed documents so you can reprint them

By default, a job leaves the queue as soon as it finishes printing. You can tell Windows to keep finished jobs in the queue so you can restart them later. This step requires administrator privileges on most computers.

1. Open the print queue.
2. Open the Printer menu and select Properties. The printer's properties window opens.
3. Select the Advanced tab.
4. Select Keep printed documents.
5. Select OK. Finished jobs now stay in the queue.

To reprint a kept job, right-click it and select Restart. Kept jobs use disk space, so clear them out from time to time with Cancel. To reverse this change, clear the Keep printed documents check box.

On the same Advanced tab, you also see options for when printing starts, such as Start printing after last page is spooled and Start printing immediately. The first is slower to start but is less likely to produce a half-printed page if the app is slow to finish sending the document.

Why options are greyed out or missing

Some menu items in the print queue may be greyed out or missing. These are the usual reasons.

• The job belongs to another account. A standard user can manage their own jobs. Pausing, cancelling or restarting someone else's job needs administrator rights or the Manage documents permission on the printer. Sign in with an administrator account or ask your IT contact to grant it.
• The printer is shared from another computer. The queue you see may be a local copy. The computer that hosts the printer has the real queue, and you may have to manage jobs there.
• The job has already left Windows. A job that is fully sent and printing from the printer's own memory can't be controlled from the queue. Use the printer's screen or buttons.
• The printer's Properties are locked. Settings such as Keep printed documents need administrator rights. Reopen the queue from an administrator account if the options are disabled.

Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro handle the print queue the same way. The difference comes from permissions and from whether a work or school account manages the PC, not from the edition.

If this didn't work

If jobs keep sticking after a spooler restart, update the printer driver or remove and re-add the printer. In Settings, go to Bluetooth & devices then Printers & scanners, select the printer, and use Run the troubleshooter on its page for a quick check. If the same job fails every time, the problem is probably the document itself, so try printing it from a different app or saving it as a PDF first.

If your printer doesn't show in the list at all, the next task is adding it again from Printers & scanners. Once it is back, set it as your default printer so new jobs go to the right queue.