Topic

This article will discuss the Print Spool folder, what it is, and how to make sure your printer receives document information quickly and without error. It will also cover some basic printing troubles.

Discussion

Each time you execute a command to print a document or file, your printer-driver software first converts your document information into a language the printer can understand, and this translated information creates the map or instructions the printer needs to place the ink (or toner) in the right places on the paper.

In order to do this conversion, and to make an accurate map, your driver software tends to make a rather lengthy set of instructions, called a "Spool File". This temporary file is written to your printer's Printer Spool Folder, or often called a "Temporary Files Folder", within your printer's folder inside the Extensions folder of your Startup Volume's System Folder.

If you have an Epson printer, an example path looks like this:

[Startup Volume] : System Folder : Extensions : Epson Folder : Spool Folder

If you have an Apple printer, it might look like this:

[Startup Volume] : System Folder : Print Monitor Documents :

There are far too many possiblities of Spool Folder location to list here, consult your printer manual to determine where your temporary spool files are stored.

Why do I Sometimes Get an "Insufficient Space on Disk" Error When I try to Print?

As mentioned earlier, the instructions needed to print a document tend to be complicated, and thus need a lot of disk-space to store that temporary information. The larger and more complicated the original file is, the larger and more complex the Spool File becomes, and the more likely you are to run out of available free space on your Macintosh hard drive(s) to host it.

A typical 150K Acrobat Reader PDF three-page document needs as much as 25MB of additional temporary space just to spool to disk. So, just extend the math, and you can see that a 1MB PDF might easily take more than 160MB, and the more detailed the file is, the larger the Spool File must become.

If your Startup Volume doesn't have enough free space to create these files, you'll get the "Insufficient Space on Disk" message.

What Can I Do About It?

• Some printers will allow you to redirect the temporary spool folder to another volume (disk or drive) that may have more space. If you have another volume with more space, this is the first thing to try.
• If your printer software won't let you change the location of the Spool Folder, and relocate it to another volume with more space, you can try placing an alias of the actual Spool Folder in place of the original, in an attempt to "fool" the printer into believing it is where it expects it to be.
  • Locate your empty Spool Folder, note the exact name
  • Copy it to another volume with more free space
  • Delete the original Spool Folder
  • Make an alias of the copied Spool Folder, and place it where the orignal folder was
  • Make sure the name of the alias is exactly the same as the original
  • Try your print job again (note: not all printer software will allow this method to work)
• If you can't relocate the Spool Folder to another volume with more free space, clear enough space on your Startup Volume by deleting unused files, deleting browser cache files, moving needed files to archive disks or other volumes, etc.
• If you can't clear enough space, you can try quitting all unneeded applications, and turning Virtual Memory off or retargeting VM (it shares the same disk as the Spool Folder by default). This will free up an amount of space at least equal to your physical RAM (memory).
• If you're still stuck, you can try printing just one or two pages at a time, which will make one spool file for each print-command you execute, and these individual files may be small enough to print.
• If all that doesn't work, you need a second and/or larger hard drive.

I've Got Plenty of Free Space, But Sometimes My Print Job Quits In The Middle, or the Macintosh Crashes When I Try to Print

This is usually the result of a poorly maintained Macintosh. The Directory structure may be damaged, the Desktop DB and DF files may be corrupt, and the file structure may be badly fragmented and in need of optimisation. Use a set of quality disk maintenance utilities to inspect your drive and repair an damage.

You may also have Extension conflicts, or corrupted Preferences files. Execute a trouble-shooting routine to resolve any such issues.

I've Crashed Several Times While Printing, and Now I Crash a Lot More, and My Disk Seems Unreasonably Full

You should still run some Maintenance and Trouble-Shooting routines, but you should also locate your Printer Spool Folder, and make sure no old, unfinished print jobs are hanging around. If you've crashed in the middle of a job, you'll probably find a few in there.

I Just Ran Disk a Disk Repair Utility and Rebuilt My Desktop, and When I Restarted, My Printer Started Printing Documents From Last Month!

You have serious Directory damage. Utilities like DiskWarrior™ have the ability to recover lost files, and sometimes spool files lost in a print-related crash can return from the grave, still asking the printer to finish the job. Even though your Directory appears to have been repaired, you're playing with fire. You need to execute an Advanced Disk and Directory Repair routine immediately.

Conclusion

Like all operations performed on your Macintosh, the printer depends on a stable, well-dressed and well-maintained Mac to get the job done. Feel free to explore the rest of this site to learn how to make and keep a Happy Mac.

I have attempted to address a few of the common problems found when printing from a Macintosh. If you have a different problem you would like addressed, please feel free to submit a question, make a suggestion, or even make a contribution for an article.

Article last revised on: 10 August 1999
Author: Frederico
Editor: WebClub '99

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