Fix 0X0000086C: No More Print Jobs Error on Windows

1. Clear the Print Spooler — The Real Fix

This error trips up everyone the first time. I know it's infuriating when you just need to print a document and Windows throws up this cryptic number. The good news is it's almost always a full print queue — the spooler can only handle so many pending jobs, and once it hits that limit, it refuses any new ones.

Here's the fix that works 9 times out of 10:

1. Press Win + R, type services.msc, and hit Enter.
2. Find Print Spooler in the list. Right-click it and select Stop. Leave this window open.
3. Now press Win + R again and type %systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS. Hit Enter.
4. Delete every file in that folder. Don't worry — these are just pending print jobs, not system files. If Windows says a file is in use, you didn't stop the spooler properly. Recheck step 2.
5. Go back to the Services window, right-click Print Spooler, and select Start.

Try printing again. 9 times out of 10, the error is gone. This happened to me on a Windows 10 build 1909 machine where a user had queued 47 identical invoices. The spooler folder had 112 MB of junk in it.

2. Check for Corrupt Spooler Files or Driver Conflicts

If clearing the queue didn't do it, the spooler itself might be corrupt or a bad driver is spamming jobs. This is less common but happens after driver updates or printer software installs.

Here's the quick check:

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt (right-click Start, select Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin)).
2. Run net stop spooler.
3. Then run del /Q /F /S "%systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*" — this empties the folder fast.
4. Run net start spooler.

Still failing? Let's look at the Event Viewer. Press Win + X, select Event Viewer, then go to Windows Logs > System. Filter by source PrintSpooler. You'll often see error 808 or 811 next to the 0X0000086C. That points to a corrupt driver. Remove and reinstall the printer — don't just update the driver, remove the whole printer and add it fresh. On a client's Windows 11 machine, an HP LaserJet driver from 2021 was generating phantom jobs that filled the queue in seconds.

3. Increase the Spooler Job Limit (Advanced Fix)

If you're in a high-volume print environment and this error keeps coming back even after clearing the queue, the spooler's default job limit might be too low. This is rare for home users but common in offices where one printer handles multiple departments.

You can increase the limit with a registry tweak:

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and hit Enter.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print.
3. Right-click in the right pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it SpoolFolderMaxCacheSize.
4. Set the value to something like 5000000 (that's 5 MB — adjust up if needed, but don't go crazy or the spooler will eat RAM).
5. Restart the spooler service (stop and start again from services.msc).

I've used this on a print server running Windows Server 2019 where we had 12 label printers feeding from one queue. The default limit was 1 MB — bumped it to 10 MB and the error never came back. But honestly, 95% of the time you don't need this — just clear the queue.

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