Xerox Printer Queue Stuck? Here's the Fix

When one print job gets stuck, it sits at the front of the queue and everything you send after it has to wait. The file might be damaged. Windows might have lost track of the printer. Or the Xerox itself might be holding the job because it needs something from you, like a different paper size or a passcode. The steps below start with the quick, harmless checks and move toward the bigger fixes, so you don't do more than you have to.

How to Fix a Xerox Print Job Stuck in the Queue

Step 1: Check the Xerox screen first

Read whatever the printer is showing before you touch the computer. A job that looks stuck is sometimes just waiting.

A Xerox will hold a job when the paper it asks for isn't in any tray, or when a tray is set to a different size or type than what's loaded. Press Home, tap Jobs, and tap the held job. The screen lists what it's missing. Load the paper or correct the tray setting and the job normally starts by itself. If it doesn't, tap Resume. (Some Xerox models have a Job Status button instead of a Jobs icon, but the idea is the same.)

Secure Print jobs are held on purpose. They stay at the printer until you enter your passcode at the control panel, so they won't print until you release them.

One more clue. If the queue on your computer is empty but nothing came out, the job probably reached the Xerox and is waiting in the printer's own list. Open Jobs there, and if the first job is frozen, select it, tap Delete, and confirm. Then watch whether the rest begin to print.

Step 2: Cancel the jobs in the Windows print queue

On Windows 11, open Settings, choose Bluetooth & devices, then Printers & scanners. Select your Xerox and click Open print queue. On Windows 10, the path is Settings, Devices, Printers & scanners, then Open queue.

Right-click each job and choose Cancel, then give it a few seconds. Next, open the Printer menu at the top of the queue window and make sure Pause Printing and Use Printer Offline aren't checked. Either one can leave jobs sitting there even when the printer is fine.

Once the queue is clear, send something tiny, like a short Notepad file, before you try the big document again. If a job hangs on Deleting or won't go away at all, move on to Step 3.

Step 3: Restart the Print Spooler

The Print Spooler is the Windows service that keeps your documents in line and passes them to the printer. When it stops responding, the queue freezes even though nothing is wrong with the Xerox.

Press the Windows key and R together, type services.msc, and press Enter. Find Print Spooler in the list, right-click it, and choose Restart. Then open the queue again and see whether the stuck job is gone or moving.

You may need administrator rights for this. On a work computer, that could mean asking your IT team. If your office prints through a shared print server, the stuck job might be sitting on the server instead of your PC, and someone with access to it will have to clear it there.

Step 4: Clear the spool folder by hand

If the job still won't cancel, or it comes back the moment the spooler restarts, the damaged file is probably still sitting in the spool folder. Take it out yourself.

1. In Services, right-click Print Spooler and choose Stop.
2. Open File Explorer and go to C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS.
3. Delete everything inside the folder, but leave the PRINTERS folder itself in place. If Windows asks for administrator permission to open it, approve it.
4. Back in Services, right-click Print Spooler and choose Start.

That folder holds temporary copies of documents waiting to print, so clearing it removes queued jobs and nothing else. It clears them for every printer on that computer, though, not just the Xerox, so anything you still need has to be sent again. Your drivers and printer settings stay where they are.

Step 5: Power the Xerox off and on, then restart the computer

Shut the printer down from its own control panel instead of pulling the plug. On a VersaLink, press the Power/Wake button, touch Power Off, and wait until the screen goes fully dark. Then leave it off for at least a minute before turning it back on. Some WorkCentre models ask for two minutes.

After the Xerox is back up, restart your computer (Start, Power, Restart) and try one test page.

Step 6: Check the printer's port and IP address

Try this one if jobs keep sticking, or if Windows calls the printer offline while the Xerox looks perfectly healthy. Windows may be sending your jobs to the wrong place.

Most network printers get their address from the router, and that address can change. The port on your computer still points at the old one, so the jobs go nowhere and the printer shows as offline even though it's connected to the network. Xerox's recommended fix is to build the port around the printer's host name rather than its IP address. You'll find the host name on the printer's Configuration Report, under Network Setup.

To look at the port:

1. Open Printers & scanners, select your Xerox, and choose Printer properties.
2. Open the Ports tab and look at the port that's checked.
3. Xerox's own stuck-queue guides point to a Standard TCP/IP port. If Configure Port is grayed out, the printer is probably on a WSD port instead. In that case, choose Add Port, pick Standard TCP/IP Port, and enter the printer's host name or IP address.
4. Select the new port, apply the change, and print a test page.

On some Xerox models, that port is meant to use the LPR protocol. The support article for your exact model has the settings.

Once printing works again, consider giving the Xerox a fixed IP address, either set on the printer itself or reserved in your router, so it stops changing.

Step 7: Remove the Xerox and add it again

If nothing above holds, the printer's queue or driver may be damaged. Remove the Xerox from Printers & scanners, restart the computer, and add the printer again. Uninstalling and reinstalling the driver is the last step in Xerox's own stuck-queue guides.

One thing that's changed in 2026: Microsoft updated the rules on July 1, so Windows 11 now prefers its built-in IPP driver when it sets up a printer. Xerox's Print and Scan Experience app adds the Xerox-specific options on top of that driver. You can still install the full Xerox driver for your model if you'd rather use it. If a freshly added Xerox keeps jamming on one driver, trying the other is a fair test.

Using a Mac?

Open System Settings, choose Printers & Scanners, select the Xerox, and click Open Print Queue. If the queue says the printer is paused, click Resume. If it isn't paused, select the stuck job and delete it.

Still jammed? Remove the Xerox from the list and add it again, which builds a fresh queue. Save Reset Printing System for last. It clears every printer, all finished-job history, and all saved printer presets on the Mac. To use it, Control-click the printer in Printers & Scanners, choose Reset Printing System, and add your printers back afterward.