How to Fix a Printer Not Printing in Windows 11

•
Ankit Kumar
Windows 11PeripheralsPrinterDriversFix

The Problem

A printer that shows as ready but produces nothing is almost always a print spooler problem: the queue has a stuck job at the front, and everything behind it waits forever. The next most common cause is the driver — Windows Update installs a generic class driver that handles basic printing but fails on specific models or duplex and colour options.

Blank pages are a different fault entirely: those are hardware — dried ink, a protective strip left on a cartridge, or a clogged printhead.

Printer showing as offline rather than silently failing? Start with fix a printer showing offline. Scanning broken on an all-in-one too? See fix a scanner not working.

Symptoms

  • Jobs pile up in the queue with status Error, Deleting, or Printing forever.
  • The printer says ready, but nothing arrives.
  • Pages come out blank or half-printed.
  • Printing worked before a Windows update and stopped afterwards.
  • "Printer driver is unavailable" in Devices and Printers.

Step 1: Check the Printer Before the PC

  1. Confirm there is paper, no jam, and every cover is closed.
  2. Read the printer's own display — most fail silently on the PC while showing a clear message on the panel.
  3. Print a self-test page from the printer's own menu, without the PC involved. If that fails, the problem is the printer, not Windows.
  4. Power-cycle it properly: turn it off, unplug the power for 60 seconds, plug it in and turn it on. This clears the printer's internal queue, which Windows cannot reach.
  5. Check the USB cable is in a rear port on the PC, not a hub — or that the printer is on the same Wi-Fi network as the PC.

Step 2: Clear the Print Queue Properly

Cancelling from the queue window often fails because the spooler itself is stuck.

  1. Right-click Start → Terminal (Admin).
  2. Stop the spooler: 
    net stop spooler
  3. Delete the queued jobs: 
    del /Q /F /S "%systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*"
  4. Start it again: 
    net start spooler
  5. Try printing a test page.

Step 3: Make Sure the Spooler Service Stays Running

  1. Press Windows + R, type services.msc, press Enter.
  2. Find Print Spooler.
  3. Right-click → Properties, set Startup type to Automatic, click Start if stopped.
  4. On the Recovery tab, set First failure, Second failure, and Subsequent failures all to Restart the Service.
  5. Click OK.
  6. A spooler that keeps stopping on its own is usually being crashed by a bad driver — Step 5.

Step 4: Confirm the Right Printer Is Selected

Windows silently redirects jobs more often than people expect.

  1. Open Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners.
  2. Turn off Let Windows manage my default printer.
  3. Click your printer → Set as default.
  4. Delete any duplicate entries such as HP LaserJet (Copy 1) — those are stale and jobs sent to them go nowhere.
  5. Check nothing is queued to Microsoft Print to PDF or Fax by mistake.
  6. In the printer's queue window, open the Printer menu and untick Pause Printing and Use Printer Offline.

Step 5: Reinstall the Driver Cleanly

A partially installed or generic driver is the second big cause.

  1. Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners → click the printer → Remove.
  2. Press Windows + R, type printmanagement.msc, press Enter.
  3. Go to All Drivers, right-click the entry for your printer → Delete driver package.
  4. If it refuses, stop the spooler first (net stop spooler), delete, then start it again.
  5. Download the full driver package for your exact model from HP, Canon, Epson, Brother, or Xerox directly — not a driver-updater tool.
  6. Reboot, then install the package and let it detect the printer.
  7. General method: how to update outdated drivers.

Step 6: Run the Printer Troubleshooter

  1. Settings → System → Troubleshoot → Other troubleshooters.
  2. Run Printer and apply what it offers.
  3. Also try the hardware troubleshooter — Windows + R: 
    msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic
  4. Vendor tools such as HP Print and Scan Doctor are genuinely useful for that brand.

Step 7: Fix a Network Printer That Stops Responding

  1. Give the printer a fixed IP address through a DHCP reservation in the router, so it does not move and break the port.
  2. In Terminal, confirm the PC can reach it: 
    ping 192.168.1.50
    using the address shown on the printer's panel.
  3. If ping works but printing does not, re-add it by address: Printers & scanners → Add device → Add manually → Add a printer using an IP address or hostname → TCP/IP Device.
  4. Set the network profile to Private: Settings → Network & internet → your connection → Network profile type. Discovery is blocked on Public.
  5. In services.msc, start Function Discovery Provider Host, Function Discovery Resource Publication, and SSDP Discovery.
  6. Related: share files between Windows PCs on the same network and secure your home Wi-Fi router.

Step 8: Check the Firewall and Security Software

  1. Windows Security → Firewall & network protection → Allow an app through firewall → Change settings, and confirm the printer software is ticked for Private.
  2. Pause a third-party security suite briefly and retest. If that fixes it, add an exclusion rather than leaving it off.
  3. Detailed procedure: fix Windows Firewall blocking apps.

Step 9: Fix Blank or Faded Pages

If pages come out but are empty, this is hardware.

  1. Check the cartridges are seated and that the protective tape or strip has been removed from new ones.
  2. Run the printer's own cleaning or nozzle check cycle from its menu — twice if needed, then leave it an hour and repeat.
  3. On a laser printer, remove the toner cartridge, rock it gently side to side, and refit it.
  4. Print from a different application to rule out one program's settings — and check the document is not set to print in white or with Draft quality.
  5. Third-party cartridges frequently fail chip checks after a firmware update; test with a genuine one if you have it.

Step 10: Roll Back a Bad Windows Update

  1. If printing broke immediately after an update: Settings → Windows Update → Update history → Uninstall updates, and remove the most recent quality update.
  2. Reboot and test.
  3. Full procedure: fix Windows 11 after a bad update.
  4. Repair system files while you are here — Terminal (Admin): 
    sfc /scannow

    DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
    Details: how to run SFC and DISM.

What Not to Do

  • Don't keep resending the job. Every retry adds another stuck entry to the queue; clear it first.
  • Don't install a driver-updater utility to find a printer driver — the vendor's own site has it, and that category of tool is a common adware carrier: avoid malware in fake downloads.
  • Don't disable the Print Spooler service permanently. Nothing prints without it.
  • Don't run a cleaning cycle ten times in a row. It wastes a large amount of ink; space them out.

Still Not Working?

Print the printer's self-test from its own panel, then try printing from a phone over the same network. If the self-test works and the phone prints but the PC does not, the fault is squarely in Windows — remove every printer entry and driver package as in Step 5 and start clean.

If the printer fails its own self-test, the issue is hardware and no amount of driver work will help.

Related: fix USB device not recognized and fix a scanner not working.

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