Printing is very slow
Pages take minutes to start or creep out one at a time. Speed things up with the right quality setting, a better connection and spooling options.
Quick fix
Switch print quality from Best or Photo to Normal or Draft, choose plain paper, and turn off quiet or silent mode on the printer. High-quality settings and large photos are the most common reasons a printer crawls.
Didn’t work? Go to the full stepsYou might see
- A long wait before the first page starts
- Pages print slowly with pauses between them
- Large PDFs or photos take many minutes
- Printing over Wi-Fi is much slower than over USB
Usually caused by
- High quality or photo mode selected
- Quiet mode or energy saving on the printer
- Large, image-heavy documents
- Weak Wi-Fi signal
- Windows waiting for the whole job before printing
- Double-sided printing and ink drying time
Step-by-step fix
Work through the steps in order and check each one off. Most people are printing again before the last step.
On the printer
0 of 3 steps tried
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Turn off quiet mode
Many inkjets have a quiet or silent mode that deliberately slows printing. Look for it in the printer's settings menu or the maker's app and turn it off.
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Check the Wi-Fi signal
A weak signal makes large jobs crawl. Check signal strength on the printer's network report, move the printer or router closer, or use USB or Ethernet for big jobs.
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Allow for warm-up
A laser printer in deep sleep needs time to warm up before the first page, and an inkjet may run a cleaning cycle after being idle. That delay is normal; a longer delay before sleep reduces it, at the cost of a little more power.
Windows 11 / 10
0 of 4 steps tried
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Lower the print quality
Open Printing preferences from the printer's page in Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners. Choose Normal or Draft quality and plain paper; photo paper settings slow printing a lot.
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Change the spooling options
On the printer's page, open Printer properties > Advanced. Select Spool print documents so program finishes printing faster and Start printing immediately, then click Apply.
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Use a TCP/IP port
If the printer is on your network and the ticked port in Printer properties > Ports starts with WSD, adding a Standard TCP/IP port with the printer's IP address often makes jobs start faster.
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Update or switch the driver
Install the current driver from the manufacturer's official support site. If your printer offers both PCL and PostScript drivers, try the other one; one may handle your documents much faster.
macOS
0 of 3 steps tried
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Lower quality in the print window
Press Command + P and look for the quality or media settings (where they appear depends on the printer). Choose Normal or Draft and plain paper.
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Print large documents in sections
For huge PDFs, print a page range at a time. In Preview you can also choose File > Export and set Quartz Filter to Reduce File Size, though this lowers image quality.
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Re-add with AirPrint
Remove the printer in System Settings > Printers & Scanners and add it again, choosing AirPrint in the Use menu. An old manufacturer driver can be slower on recent macOS.
Did this fix it?
Good. To confirm everything is healthy, print a test page. It takes a minute and shows any quality problems early.
Try these next
Still stuck? Our printer assistant can walk you through it by live chat, free. . Or the The troubleshooter asks a few questions and narrows it down. If your printer is under warranty, the manufacturer can repair or replace it at no cost. Find their official support site on our brand pages.
Common questions
Why is the first page so slow?
The printer may be waking from sleep, warming up or cleaning its print head, and your computer has to process the job first. Big images take longer.
Does double-sided printing slow things down?
Yes. The printer has to flip each sheet, and inkjets pause to let the ink dry before printing the back.