Why doesn't my next print start? AutoPrint troubleshooting

AutoPrint is meant to be hands-off: a print finishes, the bed clears, and the next matching job starts on its own. When that chain stalls and a free printer just sits there, it is almost always one specific thing - and the good news is AutoPrint will tell you which one. This guide walks through every reason, what it looks like, and how to fix it.

First: read the reason in the widget

Before changing any settings, look at what AutoPrint is already telling you. Open the printer's control panel and find the AutoPrint widget. It shows a live status banner and, underneath, a troubleshooting checklist that names the exact reason the next print has not started - is the bed cool, is a clear pending, is there a matching item, and so on. That reason points you straight to the section below.

Quick reference: what the widget is showing you

Jump to the section for whatever you see:

There are really only two families here: the bed side (AutoPrint is waiting for the bed to be cool, cleared, or confirmed clear) and the queue side (the bed is clear but there's no job to run). The sections below cover both.

Waiting for the bed to cool down

What you see: a reason like "Desired bed temperature not reached yet", and the widget's cool-down tooltip "AutoPrint is waiting for the bed to cool down before starting next print".

Why: your AutoPrint "When to clear" trigger is set to "When bed reaches target temperature" (30°C by default). AutoPrint waits for the heated bed to cool to that target before it clears and starts the next print - a cooler bed releases parts more cleanly. The catch is that a bed can never cool below the temperature of the room around it. If your space, or a closed enclosure, is warmer than the target, the bed never reaches it and AutoPrint waits indefinitely.

How to fix it:

• Lower the target temperature in the printer's AutoPrint settings, under "When to clear", to something your bed can actually reach.
• Or switch "When to clear" to "After a time delay" or "Clear immediately" instead of a temperature.
• Help the bed cool: open the enclosure, add a fan, or cool the room. (The temperature trigger needs a printer with a heated bed.)

Full step-by-step: AutoPrint keeps waiting for the bed to cool down.

The AI bed check says the bed isn't clear

What you see: the red banner "AI detected bed not clear" with "AutoPrint is paused until the print is removed from the bed", and the AI card reading "Print detected".

Why: AI bed check looks at the printer's camera after clearing to confirm the bed is empty before the next print starts. It is almost always a timing problem: if your "Clear bed timeout" is too short (for example 0 or 10 seconds), the AI takes its photo before the part has physically been ejected, sees the old print still there, and reports the bed as not clear - so AutoPrint pauses and waits for you to remove the part. If the camera can't get a clear read at all, it tries a couple of times before asking you to step in.

How to fix it:

• Set "Clear bed timeout" to at least 60 seconds - longer than your bed-clearing move actually takes. The settings panel warns you to do this when AI bed check is on.
• Check the camera can see the whole plate with decent lighting, so it can tell a clear bed from a printed one.
• If the bed really is clear, click "Mark as removed" to continue, or turn off AI bed check.

Full step-by-step: AutoPrint says the bed isn't clear (AI bed check).

Manual intervention required

What you see: the orange banner "Manual intervention required" with "Please clear the print bed before AutoPrint can continue".

Why: AutoPrint is waiting for a person to clear the bed. This happens in two situations: you are on a manual clearing method (or an API/webhook method that needs a person), so AutoPrint waits for you to remove the part and mark the bed clear; or the last print failed or was cancelled, which always requires a manual clear as a safety measure - AutoPrint will not auto-clear on top of a failed print. Because someone has to step in, a printer on a manual method can't keep running unattended overnight; it simply waits until the bed is cleared and marked clear.

How to fix it:

• Remove the part, click "Clear bed" in the printer's control panel, and mark the bed clear. AutoPrint resumes from there.
• To run hands-off (including overnight), set up an automatic bed-clearing method instead of the manual one.
• If the last print failed or was cancelled, that always needs a manual clear before AutoPrint continues.

Full step-by-step: AutoPrint says 'manual intervention required'.

Max cycles reached

What you see: the orange banner "Max cycles reached" with "AutoPrint has reached the maximum number of consecutive prints".

Why: you set a "Max AutoPrint cycles" limit for this printer - usually to match a finite stack of swap plates or ejection trays. Once the printer has run that many prints in a row, AutoPrint stops starting (and stops clearing) until you reset the counter. It does not reset on its own.

How to fix it:

• Clear the printer, then reset the cycle count (via the Clear bed dialog / the cycle-count control on the printer).
• Or raise the "Max AutoPrint cycles" number in the AutoPrint settings.
• Leave the limit blank for unlimited cycles if you don't need a plate cap.

Full step-by-step: AutoPrint stopped after a number of prints (max cycles reached).

No matching queue item

This is the most common queue-side reason, so it's worth understanding.

What you see: the banner "AutoPrint paused" with a list of reasons, or "Next item to print: none", or the reason "No match for next item to print in the print queue".

Why: the bed is clear, but AutoPrint has nothing in the queue it can run on this printer. The usual causes are:

• Nothing matches the printer's tags - filament, nozzle, bed type, colour or material. This is the same matching that the whole queue uses.
• A queue group is restricted to specific printers, models or groups, and this printer isn't one of them. The classic trap: you set a group to only run on your P1P, then add a P1S later - items in that group will never reach the P1S until you edit the group. A group's "for printers / models / groups" setting is inherited by every item in it.
• The queue is empty, or every item is held back - paused, awaiting approval, over the owner's quota, or already at its max-concurrent-printers cap.

How to fix it:

• Click the Queue Inspector button in the AutoPrint widget - it opens the inspector for this exact printer and lists precisely which criterion is blocking each item.
• Load the right filament, or fix the item's tags, so something matches. Each mismatch has its own guide (filament, colour, nozzle, bed type and the rest) linked from the queue inspector guide.
• If a queue group is scoped to certain printers or models, edit its "for printers / models / groups" setting to include this printer. See queue groups.
• Check items aren't all paused or awaiting approval.

Full step-by-step: AutoPrint says there's no matching queue item.

No bed-clearing macro

What you see: the reason "Doesn't have a clear Gcode script, and has not acknowledged that this is on purpose" in the AutoPrint troubleshooting list.

Why: you picked an automatic (gcode) clearing method, but its clearing macro is empty, and you haven't told SimplyPrint you meant to run without one. AutoPrint holds the printer back on purpose, so it doesn't start a new print on top of an uncleared bed.

How to fix it:

• Add your bed-clearing gcode in the printer's AutoPrint settings panel.
• Or, if your bed is cleared some other way and you really want to run without a macro, explicitly acknowledge it ("AutoPrint will run without a bed-clearing macro").

Full step-by-step: AutoPrint won't run without a bed-clearing macro.

All AutoPrint licenses are in use

What you see: the banner "AutoPrint licenses in use" with "AutoPrint will start the next job when a license becomes available. N/M licenses are currently in use."

Why: an AutoPrint license lets one printer run AutoPrint at a time. The Pro plan includes one license and lets you add more, up to five total; the Print Farm, School and Enterprise plans include unlimited AutoPrint. If all your licenses are busy, any extra AutoPrint-enabled printers wait their turn. (If you have no AutoPrint add-on at all, there are zero concurrent licenses.)

How to fix it:

• Wait - the printer starts automatically as soon as a license frees up.
• Add another AutoPrint license from the widget's upgrade prompt.
• Or upgrade to a plan with unlimited AutoPrint (Print Farm, School or Enterprise).

Full step-by-step: All AutoPrint licenses are in use.

The printer is being skipped

What you see: reasons like "Printer is not online", "Printer is in maintenance", "Printer is out of order", "AutoPrint is not enabled for this printer", or "AutoPrint is paused for entire account".

Why: AutoPrint only runs on a printer that is ready for work. It skips a printer that is offline, disconnected or not operational, one that is in maintenance or marked out of order, one that doesn't have AutoPrint switched on, or any printer when AutoPrint is paused for your whole account.

How to fix it:

• Bring the printer back online or reconnect it, and make sure it is idle and operational.
• Finish or cancel any maintenance job, and clear the out-of-order flag.
• Switch AutoPrint on for that printer in its control panel.
• Check AutoPrint isn't paused account-wide, then give it a few minutes (AutoPrint retries about every five minutes).

Full step-by-step: AutoPrint is skipping a printer (offline, maintenance, or not enabled).

Stuck on the send cooldown

What you see: the item is the next to print but sits on a cooldown that won't finish ("Printer has already attempted to start a print within the last 5 minutes"), or - if you start by hand - a message that it's "fully assigned to pending print jobs" and retryable in a few minutes (or even "already done").

Why: when SimplyPrint sends a file to a printer, it waits five minutes before trying that file again, so a slow download isn't mistaken for a failure and sent to two printers at once. Normally this clears in a minute or two once the print starts. But if the printer can't actually receive the file - a full SD card, a network or firmware issue, or a stuck SimplyPrint Client - the item keeps cycling through the cooldown and never starts. This one applies to manual queue starts too, not just AutoPrint.

How to fix it:

• Check the printer's SD card / storage, network, firmware, and the SimplyPrint Client (or your host) for a stuck upload.
• Power-cycle the printer for a couple of minutes, which releases the job so SimplyPrint can send it to another printer.

Full step-by-step: the 5-minute send cooldown.

Related articles

• AutoPrint: put your printers on autopilot - the full AutoPrint guide, including the status banners and the cycle
• AutoPrint clearing methods - every way to clear the bed between prints
• Why won't my printer print this queue item? - the queue inspector and every matching reason
• Queue groups - how the "for printers / models / groups" restriction works
• Printer maintenance - printers in maintenance are skipped by AutoPrint

Updated on: 04/07/2026