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    When Printing Freezes Google Chrome

    Posted on 2 mins

    Sysadmin

    Table of Contents

    Overview

    This article goes over the process of resolving an issue with Google Chrome. This is something that seems to happen with any version of Google Chrome. Doesn’t matter if it’s the latest version. This is where Google Chrome will take an unbelievable amount of time to load the Preview of the document you’re attempting to print.

    In some cases, this will occur for all users and in others it wont. But, the result is rather noticable. You will notice that the users printers in “Printers & Scanners” work just fine. Printing will also work just fine in Microsoft Word and Excel.

    I have not yet narrowed down which update did this.

    I have had discussions amounst peers and read articles. So far the only reason that comes to mind is when Google Chrome updated once; or every time, it didn’t remove the previous Preferences file for the application. So, you have to do the following.

    1. Reset Google Chrome.
    2. Close Google Chrome.
    3. Delete the default Preferences file in your user’s AppData Local directory.
    4. Open up Google Chrome and see if the issue reoccurs.

    Below will be the process for doing the above with the exception to “Closing Google Chrome”.

    Solution

    Reset Google Chrome

    Google Chrome should be open to complete this.

    1. Click the Menu button > Settings.
    2. Click Advanced > Reset and Clean up.
    3. Click Restore settings to their original defaults.
    4. At Reset settings?, click Reset settings.
    1. Close Google Chrome.

    Once this is complete, move to the next section.

    Delete the AppData Local Chrome Preferences File

    1. Go to one or the other following paths in File Explorer, Command Prompt, or PowerShell.
    %localappdata%

    You will want to change the username to the username on your computer with this one.

    C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
    1. Delete the Preferences file.
    2. Open up Google Chrome and attempt to print again. If Preview loads with no issue. The issue is resolved.