Printer Not Responding — Fix Spooler or Driver Service Failures

Overview #

If your printer suddenly stops responding, gets stuck on “Printing,” or disappears from your list of devices, the issue is rarely the printer itself.
Most “printer not responding” errors come from spooler service failures, corrupt drivers, or stuck print jobs.
This guide walks you through diagnosing and fixing printer connectivity and driver issues — both on Windows and macOS.

What you’ll learn

• How to restart or repair the print spooler service
• How to clear stuck print queues
• How to reinstall drivers and reconnect printers
• How to test printing functionality at the system level

Estimated time: 15–30 minutes
Skill level: Beginner–Intermediate

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Terms and Definitions #

Term	Meaning
Print Spooler	Background service that manages print jobs in Windows
Queue	List of pending print jobs waiting to be sent to the printer
Driver	Software that allows the operating system to communicate with your printer
Network Printer	Printer shared over Wi-Fi or Ethernet rather than directly connected
CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System)	macOS print management framework equivalent to Windows’ spooler

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Steps #

Step 1 — Verify Printer Power and Connection #

• Make sure the printer is turned on and shows no error lights or paper jams.
• For USB printers: unplug and reconnect to a different USB port.
• For network printers: confirm it’s connected to the same Wi-Fi or LAN as your computer.

Windows PowerShell

Get-Printer

This lists all installed printers. If yours doesn’t appear, proceed to reinstall steps later.

macOS Terminal

lpstat -p

If it says “Unable to connect to printer”, continue to the next step.

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Step 2 — Restart the Print Spooler Service #

Windows

Stop-Service -Name Spooler -Force
Start-Service -Name Spooler

Then check status:

Get-Service Spooler

You should see Status: Running.

If restarting doesn’t work, clear the print queue (next step).

macOS

sudo launchctl stop org.cups.cupsd
sudo launchctl start org.cups.cupsd

This restarts the CUPS print management service.

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Step 3 — Clear Stuck Print Jobs #

Windows

Stop-Service Spooler -Force
Remove-Item -Path "$env:SystemRoot\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*" -Recurse -Force
Start-Service Spooler

This wipes corrupted or incomplete jobs from the queue.

macOS

cancel -a

This cancels all active print jobs.
You can also manually reset the queue from System Settings → Printers & Scanners → select your printer → Open Print Queue → X to delete jobs.

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Step 4 — Check Communication and Permissions #

Windows

Test-Printer -Name "YourPrinterName"

If this returns an error, try reinstalling the printer.
Also, make sure your user account has permission to manage printers:

Get-Printer -Name "YourPrinterName" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty PermissionSDDL

macOS
List connected printers:

lpstat -v

You should see something like device for Printer_Name: usb://Canon/...
If the URI is missing, macOS no longer sees the printer — reinstall it.

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Step 5 — Reinstall or Update Printer Drivers #

Windows

Remove-Printer -Name "YourPrinterName"
pnputil /enum-drivers | findstr "Print"

Identify old drivers, then remove them:

pnputil /delete-driver oem12.inf /uninstall /force

Reinstall your printer via:

Add-Printer -ConnectionName "\\YourPrinterNetworkPath"

Or through Settings → Bluetooth & Devices → Printers & Scanners.

macOS

sudo lpadmin -x "YourPrinterName"

Then reinstall using:

sudo lpadmin -p "YourPrinterName" -E -v usb://YourPrinterPath -m everywhere

You can also re-add via System Settings → Printers & Scanners → Add Printer.

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Step 6 — Check Print Spooler Dependencies #

Windows

sc qc spooler

Ensure dependencies like RPCSS (Remote Procedure Call) are running:

Get-Service RPCSS

If they’re stopped, start them:

Start-Service RPCSS

macOS
Restart the core print system:

sudo pkill -HUP cupsd

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Step 7 — Test Print Functionality #

Windows

Start-Process notepad

Type a test line → File → Print → select your printer.
If it works, your spooler and drivers are fixed.

macOS

echo "Printer test successful" | lp

If the printer outputs a page, everything’s working again.

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Step 8 — Optional: Reset the Entire Printing System (macOS Only) #

If nothing else works:

1. Open System Settings → Printers & Scanners.
2. Right-click in the printer list → Reset printing system…
3. Re-add your printer manually afterward.

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Verification #

Check	Command	Expected Result
Service	Get-Service Spooler / launchctl list	Running
Queue	Remove-Item PRINTERS\* / cancel -a	Empty
Driver	pnputil / lpstat	Installed
Test print	Test-Printer / `echo “Printer test successful”	lp`

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Conclusion #

If your printer isn’t responding, don’t assume it’s a hardware failure. In most cases, it’s a stuck spooler, corrupted driver, or blocked queue.
Restarting the print services, clearing queued jobs, and reinstalling drivers restores normal operation in nearly every case.
Keep drivers up to date and restart your printer and computer regularly to prevent future connection issues.