The Print spooler service on Windows 11 organizes your tasks and printing queues and sends them to the connected printer to complete the print job. It’s an essential service that must be running state to print important documents and web pages on your computer. But if due to some reason, the printer spooler gets overloaded with tasks or conflicts with other aspects of the operating system you may encounter problems printing documents or the printer not working on Windows 11. Users report Print Spooler Service won’t stay running, Getting error “The local print spooler is not running. Please restart the spooler or restart the machine.” while try to print documents or run print properties. You may also encounter this error when setting up a new printer, after installing an update.
If due to any reason print spooler service stops working, you’ll encounter the print spooler service is not running error in Windows.
Fix Printer Spooler Errors in Windows 11
So What Causes the Print Spooler to Stop Running? The reasons for the error can vary, it’s because the print spooler is overloaded with tasks, and stuck running. Third-party programs are interfering with the print spooler or being affected by a glitch or bug caused by outdated printer drivers driver, or the version of Windows 11 result Print Spooler service not running.
- Running the printer troubleshooter is one of the effective methods help fix the problem print spooler not running on Windows 11.
- Removing Old Printer Spooler Files is another effective way to remove the conflicts, leading to the Printer Spooler problem.
- A corrupted printer driver installed on your computer is one of the common reasons behind this problem and uninstalling all printers and printer drivers from your PC and start from scratch may help fix the issue.
- Also, you need to Try removing all the jobs and then try to print your project again probably be helpful.
Let’s first Restart Windows 11, it’s one of the easiest ways to fix small glitches on your computer. Hit the Windows key, click on the power button then select the reboot option, this will refresh the OS, restart all running programs and services and clear temporary glitches that may cause different problems on Windows 11.
Restart Print Spooler Services
If due to any reason, the startup settings of Print Spooler are messed up you may experience the printer not working on Windows 11. Let’s check it and change the print spooler startup type automatic to resolve the issue and carry on with printing.
The Print spooler service must be started and run on your computer for smooth printing function.
- Press Windows key + R, type services.msc, and click ok
- It will open the Services menu, Scroll to locate Print Spooler, right-click on it select restart
- If the service not started Right-click on the print spooler service and select Properties from the context menu.
- Make sure the Startup type is set to Automatic so that the system runs the Print Spooler service during device startup.
Now Move to the Recovery tab and select Restart the Service in the First Failure, Second Failure, and Subsequent Failures menus.
Click Apply and hit OK to save changes, Also ensure that HTTP Services and the Remote Procedure call (RPC) service is set to Automatic.- Once done, Close the Services menu and restart your PC. Now try to set up printer or print documents on your computer.
Now Move to the Recovery tab and select Restart the Service in the First Failure, Second Failure, and Subsequent Failures menus.
Click Apply and hit OK to save changes, Also ensure that HTTP Services and the Remote Procedure call (RPC) service is set to Automatic.Run Printer Troubleshooter
Run the built-in printer troubleshooter to fix common printer problems including print spooler service not running, or keeps stopping on Windows 11.
- Press the Windows key + I to open the settings menu
- Go to the system then Troubleshoot and click on Other troubleshooters,
- Locate the printer option and click Run next to it to start the diagnosis process.
- Select the printer name and follow on-screen instructions to automatically detect and fix the problems.
- Once Windows completes running the troubleshooter, try printing a few pages, and check if you won’t face the print spooler not running error.
Remove Old Printer Spooler Files
Sometimes too many pending or corrupted print jobs also trigger the print spooler service not running error. And you need to delete the print spooler cache files manually and restart the service to fix such issues related to it.
Print Spooler service collects cache in the background to remember the printers list on the PC.
To clear the print spooler cache file, you must first stop the service from running in the background.
- Click Windows Search and enter: cmd > Open the Command Prompt as an administrator
- Type the command net stop spooler and hit Enter key to stop the print spooler service
- Now press Windows key + R type %systemroot%\system32\spool and click ok
- Locate and open the printer folder, and delete all files and folders inside there,
- Again in the Command Prompt, type in net start spooler and hit Enter key.
Let’s reboot Windows 11 and check if the print spooler keeps stop problem is resolved on your computer.
Update Printer Drivers
Sometimes outdated printer driver is the reason why Print Spooler Service won’t stay running on Windows 11. If the above solutions fail to fix the problem, we recommend download the latest printer driver from the manufacturer’s site and install it.
You can visit printer manufacturer’s website to download the latest driver for your printer model.
- Right-click on the Windows 11 start menu and select Device Manager.
- Expand Print queues, Right-click on your default printer and Select Update driver from the context menu,
- Click ‘Search automatically for drivers’, and follow on-screen instructions,
The system will find and install relevant drivers from your PC and complete the installation.
The system will find and install relevant drivers from your PC and complete the installation.Remove unused Printers from Your Computer
If Multiple printers are connected or configured on your PC can cause conflicts, leading to the Printer Spooler problem. Let’s remove unnecessary saved printers from your Windows computer and check if this helps.
- Open the Windows Settings by pressing the Windows + I keys.
- Select Bluetooth & devices from the left sidebar and select Printers & Scanners.
- It will reveal a list of saved printers on your PC. Select a printer you no longer use.
- Select Remove from the following menu.
Repeat the same for all unwanted printers from the list, and try your luck with printing pages again.
Update Windows 11
In addition, an outdated Windows build or a recent Windows 11 update bug might have ruined the print spooler service on your computer. Microsoft regularly releases Windows updates with the latest bug fixes, let’s check and install the latest Windows updates that may have a bug fix for this problem.
- Press Windows key + I to open Windows 11 settings,
- Go to windows update and hit the check for updates button,
- If new updates are available, allow them to download and install from the Microsoft server,
- Once done you need to reboot your computer to apply the changes.
Also, a few users report, Remove their printer and add it back again with the latest printer driver help them fix the problem.
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