Print jobs

Every document Omnilinker sends to a station is a print job: one shipping label, one test print. Devices > Print jobs lists them, so you can see what is waiting and fix what did not print. Jobs that fail stay there until someone retries, moves or cancels them. What you see depends on your permissions (see Permissions): You can move a job only to a station you may print at yourself.

​

Statuses

A job still in the Windows print queue 12 hours after it was sent fails with “Stuck in the Windows print queue”.

​

The Print jobs page

The tabs split the jobs: Search documents finds jobs by their title, for example an order number. All stations shows the jobs of one station. Stations opens Devices > Stations. The page shows up to 100 jobs; when there are more, it says “Showing … of …. Narrow the search to see the rest.” When a printer has stopped with jobs waiting, a banner at the top names it, for example “Zebra at Packing desk 1 stopped: Out of paper”, and how many jobs are waiting for it. With Manage everyone’s print jobs, and when another online station can print them, the banner offers Move N to ….

​

Open a job

Click a job’s title to open its details on the right:

• Why the job needs you and what to do next, for example “Zebra at Packing desk 1 couldn’t print this.” and “Fix the printer and retry, or print it somewhere else.”
• The actions for its status; see below.
• What happened: the job’s history, such as Created, Sent to a station, Picked up by the station, Sent to the printer and Printed, with who did what and when.
• Details: Requested by, Printer, Why there (the rule that chose the station; see Where a job prints), Formats, Attempts and Source.
• Download PDF and Download ZPL, for each format the document has.

​

Retry a failed job

Fix the cause first: load the right labels, switch the printer on, check the driver. Then open the job and click Retry on followed by the printer’s name. The job goes back to the same printer. If that station has been removed in the meantime, the job becomes Unassigned instead.

​

Not sure it printed

Check the printer. Then open the job:

• It printed: the label came out. The job becomes Printed without printing again.
• Print again: nothing came out. The job goes back to its printer.

Omnilinker never reprints these jobs by itself, so you do not get two labels for one parcel.

​

Print a job somewhere else

To move many jobs at once, tick them in the list, choose a station in Move to station… and click Move. The list only offers stations that can print every selected job. Jobs that printed in the meantime are not moved: ”… changed, … could not be changed (they may have printed meanwhile).” With Manage everyone’s print jobs, a station that has jobs waiting because it stopped also shows Send N waiting to … on the Stations page. People at the desk can do the same from the Station app with Print them at …; see When a printer stops.

​

Cancel jobs

Open the job and click Cancel job, or tick several jobs and click Cancel jobs. Confirm, and the jobs will not print. You can cancel a job until the station has taken it (Sending); after that, it prints.

​

Unassigned jobs

A job is Unassigned when Omnilinker found no station for it: for example, a label that arrived for a shipment created without a station, at a location with no default station. Omnilinker never sends such a job to a printer at random. See Where a job prints. Open the job, or click Choose where to print next to it, and print it somewhere else. You can also download it and print it yourself, then cancel the job.

​

When a station is offline, paused or removed

Move jobs yourself when they should not wait; see Print a job somewhere else.

​

Notifications

People hear about print jobs in two ways. While Omnilinker is open, the person who printed a job gets a message when it finishes or needs them, for example ”… printed at Packing desk 1.” or “Couldn’t print … at …”. These also go to the Notification Center, so they are not missed when nobody is looking: The waiting and no-station notifications repeat at most once an hour while the problem lasts. Each one links to the jobs on this page.

​

Batches

When you print many labels at once from the Shipments list, they form one batch. The station prints a batch’s labels together, in the order you selected the shipments, so labels from other people at the same printer do not end up in between. See Print many labels at once.

​

How long jobs are kept

Jobs that are Printed, Sent to printer or Cancelled are deleted, with their documents, 30 days after they finished. Other jobs stay until someone deals with them.