can't delete printer, print job, or clear spooler folder

[tai]

I have a document stuck waiting to be printed and
blocking up all future prints. It's a 93mb Coreldraw
file and when I try to delete it from the printer toolbar
the status just changes to deleting and never does.
Consequently I can't delete and reinstall the printer or
clear the spooler folder... Any ideas anyone. Thanks in
advance.
Aloha,
Tai

 

[Bruce Sanderson]

In a Command Prompt window, key the command net stop spooler

In Windows Explorer, navigate to %systemroot%\system32\spool (usually
c:\windows\...) and delete the .shd and .spl files you find there, but do
not delete the sub-folders.

In a Command Prompt window, key the command net start spooler

 

[Ed Nazarko]

Sadly, I've found 30 similar messages just in 5 minutes
of searching the last couple weeks of posts - I'm looking
for the same answer... The only solution I've found is
to turn off the printer, turn off the computer, turn on
the computer; the document will reappear in the spooler
window. if you try to delete it now, it will delete
instantly. Then you can turn on the printer, and print
again... until it locks up again.

?????And you find this to be a problem????? Or at least
that was the tone of voice I heard when I paid to talk to
someone at Microsoft support...

Grrrr.

 

[benjohnsonsr]

In a Command Prompt window, key the command net stop spooler

In Windows Explorer, navigate to %systemroot%\system32\spool (usually
c:\windows\...) and delete the .shd and .spl files you find there, but do
not delete the sub-folders.

In a Command Prompt window, key the command net start spooler


--
Bruce Sanderson MVP

It's perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.


"tai" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I have a document stuck waiting to be printed and
> blocking up all future prints. It's a 93mb Coreldraw
> file and when I try to delete it from the printer toolbar
> the status just changes to deleting and never does.
> Consequently I can't delete and reinstall the printer or
> clear the spooler folder... Any ideas anyone. Thanks in
> advance.
> Aloha,
> Tai

Just wanted to say, great piece of advixe. I had forgotten about the NET command.

 

[t1mbo]

Bruce, can i just say what an absolute star you are, i was having a mare with a network printer document that simply wouldnt delete no matter where i tried to delete it from, and despite stopping the print spooler/ restarting it many times- it was having none of it and consequently causing my desktop to run very slowly unless i switched the print spooler off, but i followed your instructions re deleting the .shd file and ' voila' - that moment that we all live for when it finally works!Once again many thanks- hours of grief over!

 

[schermuly]

Sorry don't understand!

Hi there I have the same problem on my pc (xp and epson printer) but i cannot find the command area etc i have managed to find the .shd and .spl files and tried to delete them but it said that they were already being used and wouldn't let me. its such a pain as i have to reboot about 6 times a day... please can you help me find the right areas!

thanks victoria

 

[t1janpr33]

Batchfile Spool cleaner

A while ago I suffered also with the same problem on a few local machines and one time on a printerver.

I've created a batchfile that will stop the spoolerservice, delete all existing SPL and SHP files, then restart the spoolerservice (If you are not authorised to run this batchfile, you will see some errors. This is because you need Administrator rights to run this kind of batchfile. Contact your local Administrator if needed):

@echo off
cls
net stop spooler
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\*.spl
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\*.shd
net start spooler

Do not use this solution unless you are sure that nobody is printing (when you have a printerserver) because ALL pending print-requests will be deleted without warning.

I've also made another batchfile that will delete ALL *.spl and *.shd on the c:\ drive. Use this one only when you are sure that you have no other files with a *.spl and/or *.shd extention:


@echo off
cls
net stop spooler
del c:\*.spl /s /q
del c:\*.shd /s /q
net start spooler

 

[tralfaz]

I've created a batchfile that will stop the spoolerservice, delete all existing SPL and SHP files, then restart the spoolerservice
.........................................................................................

Great post and very useful batch file! thanks t1janpr33!

I needed to use it so often that I made an icon on my desktop for it.
Here's how that is done, in case someone need to know...

Copy t1janpr33's code and make a batch file with it like this..

Select this following code with your mouse:

@echo off
cls
net stop spooler
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\*.spl
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\*.shd
net start spooler

Press CTRL C to copy it to your clipboard

Open notepad
Paste that code into notepad with CTRL V

Click on File-->Save As
Change the type of file from txt to "All Files"
Give it a file name like "Cancel Print jobs.bat"
Save it to a location that you will remember. I saved mine to C:\
(the root directory of the C drive). Don't save it to your desktop because you can't change the icon for it if you do.

Go to your desktop view
Right click on the desktop and chose NEW-->Shortcut
Click on the browse button and locate your file "Cancel Print Jobs.bat" in the root directory of drive C (or wherever you put it).
Click NEXT
I changed the shortcut name to Cancel Print jobs (left off the .bat part)
Now find the new icon on your desktop and right click it
Click on "Properties"
click on "Change Icon"
Select a printer icon

That's it. Thanks again to t1janpr33 for providing the very useful batch file code.

tralfaz

 

[stealth2000]

The batch worked perfectly

I was having problems with my CPU running on 100%, so I kept digging and asking questions and found out it was the printing spool. I tried to delete, but that was happening, until I discovered your wonderful words of advice. My computer is up and going again, thanks to your batch file. Much appreciated.

A while ago I suffered also with the same problem on a few local machines and one time on a printerver.

I've created a batchfile that will stop the spoolerservice, delete all existing SPL and SHP files, then restart the spoolerservice (If you are not authorised to run this batchfile, you will see some errors. This is because you need Administrator rights to run this kind of batchfile. Contact your local Administrator if needed):

@echo off
cls
net stop spooler
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\*.spl
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\*.shd
net start spooler

Do not use this solution unless you are sure that nobody is printing (when you have a printerserver) because ALL pending print-requests will be deleted without warning.

I've also made another batchfile that will delete ALL *.spl and *.shd on the c:\ drive. Use this one only when you are sure that you have no other files with a *.spl and/or *.shd extention:


@echo off
cls
net stop spooler
del c:\*.spl /s /q
del c:\*.shd /s /q
net start spooler

 

[expectalot]

cancel printing problem solved

Thank you, thank you, thank you! My printer would not cancel the original print job and was just hung up. I need it desperately for important print jobs and could not get one of them deleted so it would not print anything new. None of the other solutions anyone offered worked. Finally happened onto this forum, your solution worked. I can't thank you enough!

 

[LIXCKZ]

I've created a batchfile that will stop the spoolerservice, delete all existing SPL and SHP files, then restart the spoolerservice
.........................................................................................

Great post and very useful batch file! thanks t1janpr33!

I needed to use it so often that I made an icon on my desktop for it.
Here's how that is done, in case someone need to know...

Copy t1janpr33's code and make a batch file with it like this..

Select this following code with your mouse:

@echo off
cls
net stop spooler
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\*.spl
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\*.shd
net start spooler

Press CTRL C to copy it to your clipboard

Open notepad
Paste that code into notepad with CTRL V

Click on File-->Save As
Change the type of file from txt to "All Files"
Give it a file name like "Cancel Print jobs.bat"
Save it to a location that you will remember. I saved mine to C:\
(the root directory of the C drive). Don't save it to your desktop because you can't change the icon for it if you do.

Go to your desktop view
Right click on the desktop and chose NEW-->Shortcut
Click on the browse button and locate your file "Cancel Print Jobs.bat" in the root directory of drive C (or wherever you put it).
Click NEXT
I changed the shortcut name to Cancel Print jobs (left off the .bat part)
Now find the new icon on your desktop and right click it
Click on "Properties"
click on "Change Icon"
Select a printer icon

That's it. Thanks again to t1janpr33 for providing the very useful batch file code.

tralfaz

Brilliant SOLUTION....Our IT manager was not able to solve my problem. good thing i found this solution in google...Thanks guys...