Print spooler is an essential service to print important documents and webpages on your Windows machine smoothly. The service organizes your tasks and printing queues and sends them to connected printers to complete the job. But when the printer spooler gets overloaded with tasks and conflicts with other aspects of the operating system, you will continue to receive errors. Here are the best ways to fix the print spooler not running on Windows 11.
We will start with the basics and move to advanced troubleshooting tricks to fix the print spooler service not running on Windows 11.
1. Restart Windows 11
It’s one of the easiest ways to fix small glitches with your Windows machine. You can hit the Windows key and click the power button to reboot your Windows computer.
2. Run Printer Troubleshooter
Windows comes with a built-in printer troubleshooter to fix issues like print spooler service not running. Here’s what you need to do.
Step 1: Press Windows + I keys to open the Settings menu.
Step 2: Select System from the left sidebar and open Troubleshoot menu.
Step 3: Select Other troubleshooters.
Step 4: Run the Printer troubleshooter from the following menu.
Once Windows completes running the troubleshooter, try printing a few pages, and you won’t face the print spooler not running error.
3. Restart Print Spooler Services
Sometimes Windows troubleshooter fails to detect and solve issues on your computer. You can restart print spooler services using the steps below and try again.
Step 1: Press Windows + R keys to open the Run menu.
Step 2: Type services.msc and hit the Enter key.
Step 3: It will open the Services menu on your Windows PC. Scroll to Print Spooler.
Step 4: Right-click on it and select Properties from the context menu.
Step 5: Make sure the Startup type is set to Automatic so that the system runs the Print Spooler service during device startup.
Step 6: Move to the Recovery tab and select Restart the Service in the First failure, Second failure, and Subsequent failures menu.
Click Apply and hit OK. Close the Services menu and restart your PC.
4. Remove Unnecessary Saved Printers from Your Computer
When you have dozens of printers saved on your computer, the Print Spooler service might send print requests to a wrong printer. You must remove unnecessary saved printers from your Windows computer. Follow the steps below.
Step 1: Open the Windows Settings menu by pressing Windows + I keys.
Step 2: Select Bluetooth & devices from the left sidebar and select Printers & scanners.
Step 3: It will reveal a list of saved printers on your PC. Select a printer you no longer use.
Step 4: Select Remove from the following menu.
Repeat the same for all unwanted printers from the list, and try your luck with printing pages again.
5. Remove Old Printer Spooler Files
Print Spooler service collects cache in the background to remember the printers list on the PC. Before we show you how to remove printer spooler files, you must stop the service from running in the background.
Step 1: Open the Services menu in Windows 11 (refer to the steps above).
Step 2: Scroll to Print Spooler and right-click on it.
Step 3: Select Properties and hit Stop. Click Apply, and you are good to go.
Step 4: Press Windows + E keys to open the File Explorer app.
Step 5: Navigate to the following folder.
C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS
Step 6: Select all files and folders and move them to Recycle Bin.
Step 7: Right-click on Recycle Bin and empty it.
6. Update Printer Drivers
You can first download the latest printer drivers from the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) website and use the Windows Device Manager menu to install the newest printer drivers.
Step 1: Right-click on the Windows key to open Device Manager.
Step 2: Expand Print queues.
Step 3: Right-click on your default printer.
Step 4: Select Update driver from the context menu.
Step 5: Click ‘Search automatically for drivers’.
The system will find and install relevant drivers from your PC and complete the installation.
7. Update Windows OS
An outdated Windows build might have ruined the print spooler service on your computer. You must update Windows 11 OS to the latest version.
Step 1: Open Windows 11 Settings menu.
Step 2: Select Windows Update and install the pending OS build on your computer.
If you face any issues with installing the Windows update, read our dedicated troubleshooting guide to fix the problem.
Fix Printing Problems on Windows
Print Spooler service not working on Windows may leave you with a broken workflow. Instead of resetting your PC, you can try the tricks above and fix the print spooler not working in no time.
