Troubleshooting Printing Problems

The following is the list of possible steps to perform when you notice printing problems in the system:

• Check and monitor the spool work process from the Process Overview transaction as well as from the OS Spool (Print daemon or Print manager). Also, check that the message server is working properly.
• Particularly, check that you can print normally from the OS.
• Find which printer is causing the problems. Use transaction SP01 SYSTEM Services Output Controller. Check the output request attributes, the log files and the size of the print job.
• For remote printers check the network connection.
• If a print job has been printed out but contains unreadable characters, check whether the device type is the most appropriate, whether the printer is working in emulation mode, and what the access method is for the device.
• When nothing is output at the printer and the output controller is in wait status, check the system developer traces and the system log and look for timeout messages. Check that all application servers running spool work processes are reachable.
• If the job has status Complete or Problem and nothing is output at the physical printer, it might be related to wrong output device definition, a problem in the host spooler, the physical printer, or the SAP LPD transfer program. Check the access method.
• If printing is very slow, possible causes might be lost indexes in the SPOOL tables, too many SPOOL table entries, slow WAN connnections or incorrectly defined access methods. Often, you will need to review the printing strategy about distribution of output devices in several application servers according to that expected volume and size of print jobs. Refer to the SAP online documentation and the SAP service marketplace about some interesting planning strategies for the SPOOL system.
• Additionaly, check the SPOOL profile parameters.