How to view details of current and completed print jobs on Mac

If you have a printer connected to your Mac, you can see the print jobs you currently have in the queue. And if you use a shared printer, this can be handy to confirm that you’ve sent your job to the printer and are still waiting your turn.

At the same time, you might want to see completed jobs. Again, with a shared printer, you may find that items you thought you printed are nowhere to be found. You can check to see if your item did, in fact, print successfully. You can then hunt down the coworker or family member who accidentally grabbed your printed items.

Here, we’ll show you how to view details of print jobs on your Mac, including currently printing jobs and completed jobs.

iMac and printer kept on a table
Image: Evelyn Geissler for Unsplash

View the print queue

When you send a job to your printer on Mac, the Printer icon displays in Dock. This is an obvious indicator that you’re printing something.

Printer icon badges

Printer Icon with Red Badge in Dock
  • Red badge: The printer is currently printing, and the number on the badge shows the number of jobs in the queue.
  • Green badge with pause button: The printer is paused.
  • Yellow badge: The printer has a problem. This can mean a paper jam, empty ink, or no toner. Once you fix the issue, click to resume printing.

View the job

To see what is currently printing, click that Printer icon in your Dock. Alternatively, you can open System Preferences > Printers & Scanners and click the Open Print Queue button for your printer. A small window will open, showing you the current print job.

Printers and Scanners with the Print Queue on Mac

From there, you can use the pause button to the right to pause your print job, or the pause button in the toolbar to pause everyone’s print jobs for shared printers. Hit the same button to resume printing.

Pause and Resume a Print Job on Mac

See completed print jobs

1) Go to System Preferences > Printers & Scanners.

2) Select your printer on the left.

3) Click Window > Show Completed Jobs from the menu bar.

Show Completed Print Jobs Mac

4) A pop-up window will display showing completed jobs with the status, item name, user who printed it, the date and time it was sent to the printer, and the date and time the job was completed.

Completed Print Jobs on Mac

To view completed print jobs by everyone for a shared printer, click Jobs > Show Everyone’s Jobs from the menu bar. To see only yours again, click Jobs > Show My Jobs.

Show Print Jobs on Mac

Have you ever planned to print something, got distracted, and then wondered if you actually hit the Print button? Without getting up from your desk to check the printer, you can view the print queue and completed jobs right from your Mac.

Do you print as much as you used to? Or are you doing more digitally now? Let us know!

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