An Error Occurred While Printing

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johnmsch
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An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by johnmsch »

Recently upgraded from Windows 7 Ultimate x64 to Windows 10 Pro x64. Whenever I try to print, I get the error "An Error Occurred While Printing". I've done a lot of searches on this and found lots of threads on this topic, but nothing is working.

I get the same error in Safe Mode.

Created a new profile, same error.

Print preview works fine.

Uninstalled Thunderbird, deleted the install folder, did clean install.

Updated the firmware and driver for my HP OfficeJet Pro 8615.

Printing works fine for all other apps (except Firefox 45.0.2 which gives the same error).

Tried deleting all the "print." entries in Prefs.js.

Any ideas on what else to try?
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tanstaafl
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by tanstaafl »

See if you can print to another printer queue, even if its for "Microsoft Print to PDF" (which will print the message by creating a PDF file of it on your hard disk). I'm not suggesting it as a workaround, just to help troubleshoot by seeing if the problem is printer queue specific.
John Liebson
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by John Liebson »

I just printed this thread to a Brother laser printer; when I did, I got the same error message as the OP, which quickly disappeared, as well as a printed copy of this thread. complete with "An Error Occurred While Printing" underlined warning at the top of the first page. I then sent the thread to an Epson all-in-one printer, with the same result as with the Brother printer. Looks as though this is an error in FX 40.0.2, at least with Windows 10 Home 64-bit as well as with 10 Pro x64.

I then printed a message from Tb on the Brother printer; this gave me an error message, something about "loading," which disappeared too quickly for me to read completely, and which did not print.
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tanstaafl
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by tanstaafl »

"error in FX 40.0.2"

I think you meant to type 45.0.2 since your user agent shows that you are using Firefox/45.0

I'm able to print to a Brother HL-L2320D laser printer using Thunderbird 45.0 or Firefox 45.0.2 under Windows 10 Home 64-bit so I'd assume both of you are running into a configuration specific problem. If resetting the printer settings and updating the printer driver doesn't help, check that the the printer spooler service is fully started. If you can print with other applications that would seem to rule out using the Microsoft printer troubleshooter program (which isn't very good anyways)
John Liebson
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by John Liebson »

tanstaafl wrote:"error in FX 40.0.2"

I'm able to print to a Brother HL-L2320D laser printer using Thunderbird 45.0 or Firefox 45.0.2 under Windows 10 Home 64-bit so I'd assume both of you are running into a configuration specific problem. If resetting the printer settings and updating the printer driver doesn't help, check that the the printer spooler service is fully started. If you can print with other applications that would seem to rule out using the Microsoft printer troubleshooter program (which isn't very good anyways)
1. Both printer drivers are up-to-date; in fact, the Epson driver is specifically for Windows 10, and was installed a few days ago. Brother still has not released a Windows 10 driver, which I believe they had indicated would be done by last December, so the driver I am using is the latest one. Printer is a HL-5370DW.

2. Cannot get to KB, so don't have the instructions for resetting the printer settings; will try again later.

3. No problem printing with Word Perfect, for example.

4. Print Spooler set to start automatically.

5. Weird: I restarted in Safe Mode, printed a different thread, no problem. Restarted, printed the same thread, no problem. I then printed this thread, problem arose; finally, I tried printing only the first page of this thread, problem was there. At this point, I'm not all all sure what to do, in terms of isolating the problem and fixing, as I am tired of wasting paper.

6. I think that there is another problem, as it does not appear as though the printer is being reset to my default printer if I use the Epson to print, a problem that was not there recently. I will have to recheck this to be sure.

7 Continuing, I just printed a two-page forum thread from FileZilla, with no problem.

8. How ironic: I printed another thread from this same forum on mozillaZine with no problem: So far it is only the thread reporting the problem that has shown the problem when printed.
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tanstaafl
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by tanstaafl »

You can use http://www.cachedpages.com/ to view google's cache of the knowledge base.
John Liebson
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by John Liebson »

tanstaafl wrote:You can use http://www.cachedpages.com/ to view google's cache of the knowledge base.
All I get is an error message that the KB won't load.

A Google search took me to the Mozilla help page, where I found the instructions to reset the printer entry in about:config, which I did, and which made no difference, the strange error message still popping up and still printing.
johnmsch
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by johnmsch »

After all the tinkering I've been doing, I no longer get the error, but nothing prints. When testing the print-to-PDF scenario, it even prompts me to pick the folder and PDF name, but then nothing happens. No PDF is created.

One other thing to mention, when I select File -> Print, the first window that pops up is the one saying its loading content for printing. In the past, that window would only be there for about a second or two, especially for what would be just a one page document. However, it stays there for a good 15-20 seconds before going to the next window where you select a printer.

:-(
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tanstaafl
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by tanstaafl »

I can find some other proposed solutions such as https://windowsforum.com/threads/an-unk ... ost-180453 but they only apply if you have this problem with all applications. You appear to be having problems due to the standard Mozilla toolkit used by both Firefox and Thunderbird.

You could try creating a new profile (using the profile manager) with just one account, and see if it has the same problem. If it doesn't give up trying to figure out what caused your problem and migrate the remaining data from the old profile to the new profile. Don't transfer the prefs.js file. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... hunderbird and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... _-_Firefox
johnmsch
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Location: Marietta, GA

Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by johnmsch »

tanstaafl wrote:I can find some other proposed solutions such as https://windowsforum.com/threads/an-unk ... ost-180453 but they only apply if you have this problem with all applications. You appear to be having problems due to the standard Mozilla toolkit used by both Firefox and Thunderbird.
That's correct. Printing works fine from other applications and browsers. (Testing this in Opera, Chrome and Internet Exploder was really painful. Reminded me how much I've loved Firefox and Thunderbird for so many years)
tanstaafl wrote:You could try creating a new profile (using the profile manager) with just one account, and see if it has the same problem. If it doesn't give up trying to figure out what caused your problem and migrate the remaining data from the old profile to the new profile. Don't transfer the prefs.js file. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... hunderbird and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... _-_Firefox
As I mentioned in the opening post on this thread, I had tried that. Just created another new profile, downloaded some emails and tried printing again. The only difference is that the first stage of printing, where it says loading content, went by so quick I almost didn't see it. However, still nothing prints.
didia
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by didia »

johnmsch wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:I can find some other proposed solutions such as <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://windowsforum.com/threads/an-unk ... ads/an-unk ... ost-180453</a><!-- m --> but they only apply if you have this problem with all applications. You appear to be having problems due to the standard Mozilla toolkit used by both Firefox and Thunderbird.
That's correct. Printing works fine from other applications and browsers. (Testing this in Opera, Chrome and Internet Exploder was really painful. Reminded me how much I've loved Firefox and Thunderbird for so many years)
tanstaafl wrote:You could try creating a new profile (using the profile manager) with just one account, and see if it has the same problem. If it doesn't give up trying to figure out what caused your problem and migrate the remaining data from the old profile to the new profile. Don't transfer the prefs.js file. See <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... ansferring_ ... hunderbird</a><!-- m --> and <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... ansferring_ ... _-_Firefox</a><!-- m -->
As I mentioned in the opening post on this thread, I had tried that. Just created another new profile, downloaded some emails and tried printing again. The only difference is that the first stage of printing, where it says loading content, went by so quick I almost didn't see it. However, still nothing prints.
Did you ever find a fix for this problem? I tried everything suggested in this forum, everything I found online, and still cannot print from Firefox. So frustrating!!
johnmsch
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Joined: April 20th, 2004, 10:30 am
Location: Marietta, GA

Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by johnmsch »

I actually went back to Windows 7. I absolutely despise Windows 10.
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LIMPET235
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Re: An Error Occurred While Printing

Post by LIMPET235 »

@ OldMole...
I split your post off to here, as it was in the Thunderbird forum.
> http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3036331

Locking this oldie.
[Ancient Amateur Astronomer.]
Win-10-H/64 bit/500G SSD/16 Gig Ram/450Watt PSU/350WattUPS/Firefox-115.0.2/T-bird-115.3.2./SnagIt-v10.0.1/MWP-7.12.125.

(Always choose the "Custom" Install.)
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