PRINT DIALOG: "you must be an administrator to delete this job"

Make sure you are still an admin since I have seen some posts on these forums where an admin account has been turned into a Standard user account after an OS update. Check the "Users & Groups" System Settings to confirm your user is still shown as an "admin".

Have you rebooted the computer? Sometimes a computer just needs to be rebooted once in a while to clear things out.

You can also try re-adding the printer...you can even leave the current printer setup & add a new setup making sure to give it a different name so that you can distinguish them when you go to print.

WOW! THANK YOU HoyaMama! I struggled for days and couldn't figure a way to get it fixed. In a minute a read your post, in seconds I fixed the issue. Thank you again!

• System Settings
• Printers & Scanners
• Select naughty printer
• Select "Share this printer on the network"

Hope this helps someone else!

This worked. Sharing the printer on the network allows the deletion of print jobs in the queue. Thanks, HoyaMama!

WHAT WORKED FOR ME: OS Ventura 13.6.1 on a 2017 iMac. Double-check users and groups to see if you are still listed as "Admin" — If you are, restart. All my print jobs started printing.

This was making me crazy for two days. Hope it helps someone!!!

This is WEIRD. But I solved it. Temporarily at least. It always comes back.

Go to Privacy and Security

Choose Files and Folders.

UNCHECK ACCESS TO DESKTOP (enter your password)

And suddenly you can delete printer jobs without the bogus "administrator" error message...

Here's what worked for me:

• System Settings
• Printers & Scanners
• Select naughty printer
• Select "Share this printer on the network"

Hope this helps someone else!

Vickamatorious, I solved a (HP) printer disappearing from the network by giving it a static IP in the router and setting that same IP on the printer. No issues since, also when it's sleeping.

'The printer is in deep sleep. That's an issue of its own'

I am having the same problem, thankfully HoyaMama's advice worked so I was able to delete the multiple failed print jobs but I still can't get my printer to connect. When this happened previously it was because my wifi is dual and switches between 2.4 and 5 ghz depending on what has the least traffic... but my printer (Epson Ecotank) can only pick up the 2.4 ghz. I usually reset the router and then the printer connects and works again. Just a thought that you may have the same issue.

Have you tried running Terminal and typing "cancel -a" (without quotes) and hitting return.

This will clear the print queue.

I can't help as to why this is happening other than offer the obvious things like check the print driver is up to date, check that the print driver software has access to the files it needs in the "Privacy" settings. For completeness I'd also check in System Settings > Users that you really are the only user and are an admin.

Thanks. Weirdly this works.

I feel this must be a bug, because I started that print job to begin with when being away from printer. If I started it and if I'm an admin obviously macOS has no business preventing me from aborting it.

'still listed as "Admin" '? You don't say your circumstances for assuming your user could have been made not admin. How would that have happened? Obviously, there's no harm in checking, but maybe you had specific circumstances, like a shared machine administrated by someone else?

So what you're actually sharing is that in your case restarting your machine did help. That's a helpful suggestion, of course. Though the fact that HoyaMama's suggestion to share the printer on the network, which has worked out for several people would indicate the error message might not be correct.

User level:

Level 1

Firstly, thank you.

Secondly, in general, this new permissions stuff in MacOS is unintuitive. Why do I want to share this printer from my computer? It's already on the network. Makes zero sense.

Another example, if you don't allow an app access to your computer's microphone, then your audio interface doesn't work. I want to give a third-party app access to my audio interface, not my computer's microphone - why would I want that?

And finally, searching for unintuitive permissions errors like this is a huge a waste of time. Truly mind-numbing sorry.

This occurred for the first time ever today, and I've been using MacOS for 35 years.

I am NOT logged into an admin account on my Mac (for security purposes), but, before tonight, I've been able to delete my own print jobs from the print queue without being logged into an admin account.

Running 13.6.3. HoyaMama's printer-sharing trick didn't work for me: printer sharing was already enabled.

Anyone else have any luck with this? Thanks.

I don't want to share my printer on the network. I AM an administrator. No update was applied. No printer has changed. But now, suddenly, I cannot delete jobs. Obviously a bug. Apple continues their longstanding policy of never, ever, admitting a mistake. :-(