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Local Print Spooler Service is not Running: 8 Ways to Fix it

Running related services is a reliable fix

6 min. read

Updated onMay 16, 2024

updated onMay 16, 2024

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Key notes

Print Spooler service is your main connector with the printer; if this service doesn’t work, you won’t be able to print your documents.

And the Print Spooler service is not working on Windows for various reasons. For example, users have been getting error messages similar to the one below:

The local Print Spooler service is not running

So, we prepared a couple of workarounds in case you have problems with the Print Spooler in Windows 10.

Why does The local Print Spooler service not running message appear?

YourLocal Print Spooler Service is not runningmessage can appear on a Windows computer when your Print Spooler service isn’t running or encounters an error while running.

The Windows Print Spooler service manages print jobs sent to a printer or print server. Some of the reasons why the Print Spooler service may not be running include the following:

This can be a severe problem, and for many users, the following error messages may be associated with the problem:

What can I do if the Local Print Spooler service is not running?

1. Restart the Print Spooler service

As Print Spooler sometimes stops working or has had an error occur, the first thing we should try to fix is to restart the service.

This command will restart your Print Spooler service and hopefully return to its working state. But, if restarting the service doesn’t work, try some of the following solutions.

2. Start all dependencies

Print Spooler needs some other services to run to function, and if these services are stopped, the Print Spooler service will be stopped too.

3. Update the printer drivers

If your printer drivers are outdated, there’s a great chance you’ll encounter some errors when printing documents.

To remove this possibility from the equation, we will update the printer driver and install the latest version of the software.

Suppose this method doesn’t work or you do not have the necessary computer skills to update/fix the drivers manually. In that case, we strongly suggest doing it automatically using aprofessional driver updater tool.

The tool is straightforward to use. First, select the driver you want to update and let it complete the process. You can also set it up to automatically check and update all your drivers regularly.

4. Uninstall unnecessary printers

If you have more than one printer driver installed on your computer, drivers are very likely to interfere with each other.

So, the best thing you can do is uninstall all unnecessary printers, so the one you’re currently using can work without interruptions.

5. Run the Printer troubleshooter

If none of the solutions from above managed to solve the problem with the Printer Spooler, we will try Windows 10’s troubleshooting tool.

Microsoft introduced this tool with the Creators Update for Windows 10, and you can use it to solve various system-related errors, including Printer issues.

6. Reset the Internet options

7. Disable theAllow service to interact with desktopoption

8. Set the Printer spooler on Automatic Startup

If the service does not start automatically when you boot up your computer, this may explain why the Printer Spooler service is not working on Windows.

Having to enable the service every time you start your computer manually is time-consuming. Instead, you can quickly solve this problem by setting the Printer Spooler service on automatic Startup.

That would be all. We hope these solutions helped you to solve the problem with the Print Spooler service; if you have any questions or comments, reach out to the comment section below.

Local Print Spooler Service is not Running: 8 Ways to Fix it#

Why does The local Print Spooler service not running message appear?#

What can I do if the Local Print Spooler service is not running?#

1. Restart the Print Spooler service#

2. Start all dependencies#

3. Update the printer drivers#

4. Uninstall unnecessary printers#

5. Run the Printer troubleshooter#

6. Reset the Internet options#

7. Disable theAllow service to interact with desktopoption#

8. Set the Printer spooler on Automatic Startup#