Can't print any more "Stopped - Filter failed"

Question

I have a HP DeskJet 940c. It had always worked.

A few days ago it has suddenly stopped working. Even after reboot, its status ("Printer State") always shows "Stopped - Filter failed" and every time I try to print the job remains "pending" forever.

I have rebooted several times.

Is there any known fix/workaround?

Solution 1

I assume that the printer worked before. Check your /var/spool/cups directory, and empty it.

If that does not help, see the instructions for install the necessary plugins for your HP printer here.

Solution 2

Im my case, it was due to missing libraries as shown by cups error log fragment:

D [07/Apr/2014:18:42:50 -0300] [Job 6] /usr/lib/cups/filter/watermarkfilter: error while loading shared libraries: libcupsimage.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
D [07/Apr/2014:18:42:50 -0300] [Job 6] /usr/lib/cups/filter/rastertoprinterbin: error while loading shared libraries: libcupsimage.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Pay attention if your printer driver is 32 or 64 bit, so you should install the right libraries arch.

Solution 3

For me, the problem was solved by restarting the print server:

sudo systemctl restart cups.service

Solution 4

This just happened to me out of the blue - yesterday the printer worked. I tried restarting the cups service, and tried restarting the machine, both didn't work. I'm on Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS.

What worked for me:

I updated the installed software packages, after which the problem was gone.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Solution 5

In my case, one of my kids borrowed the USB cord. Ubuntu didn't seem to know this. After I uninstalled the printer driver, I noticed the cord missing. Replace cord and driver, now works fine

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Comments

[matteo]

Yes it worked before as I said. After emptying /var/spool/cups, and reconnecting the printer, the issue persists. These errors appeared in /var/log/cups/error_log when I connected the printer: W [18/Nov/2013:19:35:59 +0100] AddProfile failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod:No such interface org.freedesktop.ColorManager' on object at path /org/freedesktop/ColorManager/devices/cups_hp W [18/Nov/2013:19:35:59 +0100] AddProfile failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod:No such interface org.freedesktop.ColorManager' on object at path /org/freedesktop/ColorManager/devices/cups_hp

[matteo]

Why should I suddenly need to install a plugin for a printer that was working? Just asking. Did I have the plugin and it got uninstalled or corrupted somehow? Is it some broken update that makes the printer need a plugin that it didn't use to need but doesn't either automatically install it nor issue a warning?

[matteo]

Ok, hp-setup fixed the issue. It created a new printer, I deleted the old one, and the new one works. Ridiculous.

[QkiZ]

For me this solution doesn't work

[user2513149]

When using sudo hp-setup I had an error: "Printer queue setup failed". sudo hp-setup -i helped me.