A client has a USB printer at her workplace, and for years she has been able to send documents to that printer's queue while working from home. When she arrives at the workplace and connects to the printer, the queued documents normally print. After replacing her computer about four months ago, the setup initially worked, but now the print queue is cleared whenever the computer restarts. As a result, she can no longer queue documents remotely for later printing. We have tried creating new printer queues, using different drivers, and manually clearing the Windows print-spool folder, but nothing has helped. What could be causing the queue to disappear, and is there a way to preserve it across restarts?
4 Answers
This is an unusual workflow for a USB printer because the print job is stored on the computer, not in the printer itself. Any restart, spooler cleanup, user-profile change, or management policy can remove it. I’d test the queue after a normal restart, check the PrintService event logs, and verify that no cleanup or security software is deleting files under the spool directory.
Windows shutdown behavior might be worth testing. Enabling Fast Startup or using sleep instead of a full shutdown could potentially preserve the spooler state, although it’s not a reliable long-term fix. Pausing the queue before leaving the computer may also show whether Windows is removing active jobs during restart.
Look for management software or a reset process that restores the computer to a clean image whenever it reboots. Group Policy, endpoint-management tools, or workstation restore software could be deleting the spool files during startup.
Check whether the printer is set to “Use Printer Offline.” That setting can sometimes make the queue behave unexpectedly, especially when the USB printer is disconnected.
That’s worth testing. We’re planning to replace the computer again, so we’ll check whether pausing the queue or avoiding a full shutdown makes any difference.