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Printers (Admin)

The Admin → Printers page is where you define where VMX sends its printing — receipts and item tags — and where you check on print jobs when something isn't coming out of the printer. The page has three tabs:

  • Print Queues — destinations for receipt printing
  • Tag Printers — label printers used for item tags and barcodes
  • Bridges — the VMX Printer Bridge services connected from your computers

For installing and troubleshooting the Windows bridge service itself, see VMX Printer Bridge.

Who can view or edit printers

Access to the Admin → Printers page is controlled by the Printers admin permissions in the Admin Permissions table on the Permissions page:

  • 👁️ Printers — lets a user open the Printers page and view queues, jobs, and bridges.
  • ✏️ Printers — additionally lets the user add, edit, and delete print queues and tag printers, clear queues, and set Windows share names from the Bridges tab.

Without the view permission, the page is not accessible. Without the edit permission, the tables are read-only. See Admin Permissions to grant these.

What is a print queue?

A print queue in VMX is a named destination for receipt print jobs (opening the cash drawer travels through the same queue). When a register prints a receipt, the job is added to a queue on the VMX server; the VMX Printer Bridge service running on one of your computers picks the job up and sends it to the physical printer. Each print queue therefore has:

  • a Default Dest. (destination URL) describing how to reach the physical printer, and
  • a bridge service that polls the queue for new jobs (shown in the Services column).

Each print queue is normally served by exactly one bridge installation (one bridge can also serve additional queues via Redirect Via — see below). If a queue's bridge stops running, jobs pile up in the queue until it comes back — nothing is lost, but nothing prints.

Add or edit a print queue

You need the ✏️ Printers admin permission to add or edit print queues.

  1. Go to Admin → Printers, Print Queues tab.
  2. Click + Print Queue to add a new queue, or click an existing row's edit option to change it.
  3. Set a Name (for example, "Front Counter Receipt") and the Store the printer belongs to.
  4. Set the Default Dest. — the printer's connection address. Use the Setup Wizard... button next to the field rather than typing the address by hand (see the next section).
  5. Leave Redirect Via set to None unless this queue should print through another queue's bridge (see "Redirect Via" below).
  6. Save.

After creating the queue, download and install its bridge service using the Service link in the Download column — see VMX Printer Bridge for installation steps.

Destination URL Setup Wizard

When editing a print queue or tag printer, click the Setup Wizard... button next to the destination field to open the Destination URL Setup Wizard. Choose how the printer is connected:

  • Windows Shared Printer (marked Most Common) — the printer is shared through the Windows print spooler on the computer running the Printer Bridge. Enter the Share Name — this is the Windows printer share name, not the printer name.
  • Network Printer (TCP/IP) — a direct network connection to the printer's IP address. Standard for Zebra, TSC, and most thermal label printers. Enter the IP Address and Port (usually 9100 for thermal printers).
  • Windows Printer (by Name) — sends print data directly to a Windows printer by its exact name, with no share setup needed. This option appears only when a recent version of the Printer Bridge is installed. If the bridges have reported the computer's printers, a Detected Printer dropdown lets you pick one; otherwise type the exact printer name as it appears in Windows Devices and Printers.
  • Advanced / Manual — enter a custom destination URL for special cases. Only use this if VMX support has given you a specific value.

The wizard shows a Result preview of the destination URL it will build. Click Apply to fill it into the destination field, then save the queue.

Reading the Print Queues table

Each row on the Print Queues tab shows the health of one queue at a glance:

  • Name, Store — the queue and its location.
  • Default Dest. — where jobs are sent (Windows share, IP address, etc.).
  • Last Job — how long ago this queue last printed something.
  • Last Poll — how long ago the queue's bridge last checked in. A healthy bridge checks in continuously, so this should read under about half a minute. Warnings here mean the bridge is not checking in (see "Warnings" below).
  • All Jobs — lifetime job count.
  • Queued — jobs currently waiting to print. Normally 0. A ⚠️ appears when jobs have been waiting more than about 30 seconds. Click the number to open the job list for this queue.
  • Download — the Service link downloads the pre-configured Printer Bridge installer for this queue. See VMX Printer Bridge.
  • Last Error — the message and timestamp of the most recent failed job on this queue, if any.
  • Redirect Via — another queue this one routes its jobs through, or -.
  • Services — how many bridge services are connected to this queue. This should be exactly 1; any other number shows a ⚠️ (0 means no bridge is running; 2+ means two computers are competing for the same jobs, which causes missed or duplicate prints).

Warnings shown on the Print Queues tab of Admin → Printers:

  • "Bridge has never connected — may not be installed or not running." (in the Last Poll column) — the Printer Bridge service for this queue has never checked in. Download the installer from the Service link and install it on the computer connected to the printer. See VMX Printer Bridge.
  • "Bridge offline — open services.msc → VMX Printer Bridge → Start." (in the Last Poll column) — the bridge was connected before but has stopped polling. On the computer that runs the bridge, open Windows Services (services.msc), find VMX Printer Bridge, and click Start. See the Printer Bridge troubleshooting section.
  • "Windows made a copy" (in the Services column) — Windows abandoned the original printer and created a working duplicate (a printer with a name like "... (Copy 1)"). Jobs sent to the original destination go nowhere. Click the Use it button next to the warning to point the queue at the working duplicate; VMX confirms exactly what it will change before applying. If the bridge on that computer is too old to be reconfigured remotely, VMX instead shows the manual steps to perform on that PC.
  • "Subnet mismatch" (in the Services column, for TCP/IP destinations) — the printer's IP address is on a different network segment than the computer running the bridge, so the bridge may not be able to reach the printer. Check that the printer's IP address is correct and on the same network.
  • "No share!" (in the Services column, for Windows share destinations) — the bridge computer does not have a Windows printer shared under the share name this queue points at. Re-share the printer under that name, or fix the Default Dest. with the Setup Wizard.

Redirect Via — print through another queue's bridge

The Redirect Via setting on a print queue (and the matching Redirect Via setting on a tag printer) routes that queue's jobs through another print queue's bridge. Use it when a printer has no computer of its own next to it: the jobs are picked up by the bridge of the queue you select, which then delivers them to this queue's Default Dest. (typically a network printer address).

A queue with Redirect Via set does not poll on its own — its Last Poll and Services columns show —, and the health of the target queue's bridge is what matters.

Delete or restore a print queue

Deleting a print queue (requires the ✏️ Printers admin permission) removes it from the Print Queues tab. If a print queue was deleted by mistake, contact help@vmxllc.com — VMX can restore it.

Tag Printers tab — set up a label printer

The Tag Printers tab on Admin → Printers defines the label printers used to print item tags and barcode labels. To add one (requires the ✏️ Printers admin permission):

  1. Go to Admin → Printers, Tag Printers tab, and click + Tag Printer.
  2. Enter a Name and choose the Store.
  3. Pick the Printer Model from the list if yours appears. Choosing a model supplies the correct driver and resolution automatically — leave Driver set to (Use Model Default).
  4. If your model is not listed, choose (None - Manual Config) and set both:
    • Driver — the printer's command language brand: Zebra, Zebra (Enhanced), Eltron, Toshiba TEC, TSC, Godex, Datamax, SATO (Text), SATO (Image), or Epson ColorWorks (ESC/Label).
    • Resolution (dpmm) — dots per mm. Common values: 8 dpmm (203 dpi) or 12 dpmm (305 dpi). Check the printer's specifications.
  5. Set the destination (Default Dest.) using the Setup Wizard... button — for most label printers this is Network Printer (TCP/IP) with the printer's IP address and port 9100.
  6. Optionally set Redirect Via to route jobs through one of your receipt print queues (used for network printing via the computer at the register), and Darkness — the print darkness/heat setting (0–30, higher = darker). Leave Darkness blank to use the printer's default.
  7. Save.

If you save without a model and leave the manual fields empty, VMX shows "Driver is required when no printer model is selected." or "Resolution (dpmm) is required when no printer model is selected." — fill in both fields or pick a model.

The tab also includes a driver download link for the TSC TTP-247 label printer (Windows).

Bridges tab — monitor connected bridge services

The Bridges tab on Admin → Printers lists every VMX Printer Bridge service that has connected, one row per installed service:

  • Print Queue — which print queue this bridge serves.
  • Version — the bridge software version, with action buttons (see below).
  • Last Connect — when the bridge last checked in. Highlighted when stale: a healthy bridge checks in continuously, so anything over a few minutes means the service has stopped. The row includes the fix: Open services.msc → VMX Printer Bridge → Start.
  • IP — the bridge computer's WAN (public) and LAN (local network) addresses.
  • Host/OS — the computer's name, Windows version, and last reboot time.
  • OS Printers — every printer installed on that Windows computer, with its share name, port, and current status as reported by Windows.
  • OS Spooler — jobs currently sitting in that computer's Windows print spooler (see below), plus a Spooler Errors badge if Windows has logged recent print system errors on that machine.

Bridges that no longer match a print queue and have not connected in over 30 days drop off this list automatically.

Refresh a bridge's printer list

On the Bridges tab, the Refresh button in the Version column asks that bridge to re-report the printers installed on its Windows computer. Use it after adding, renaming, or sharing a printer in Windows so the OS Printers column (and the Setup Wizard's Detected Printer list) is current. The page reloads once the request is queued; the new printer list appears after the bridge's next check-in.

Flush Queue — clear a stuck Windows print spooler

If jobs reach the computer but pile up unprinted in the Windows print queue, use the Flush Queue button in the Version column of the Bridges tab. It stops the Windows print spooler on that computer, clears all of its queued jobs, and restarts the spooler. VMX asks for confirmation first:

"This will stop the Windows print spooler, clear all queued jobs, and restart it. Continue?"

After confirming, VMX shows "Flush job queued — will execute on next bridge poll." — the flush runs within about 30 seconds, and the printer is offline for a few seconds while the spooler restarts. The button appears only on bridges recent enough to support it.

Note: the Windows spooler queue (the OS Spooler column) and the VMX print queue (the Queued column on the Print Queues tab) are two different queues. Flush Queue clears the Windows one; Clear Queue on the job list page clears the VMX one.

Set a Windows share name from the Bridges tab

In the OS Printers column of the Bridges tab, each reported printer has a small share button (visible with the ✏️ Printers admin permission). Click it to enable sharing on that Windows printer under a name you choose — useful when a queue's destination is a Windows Shared Printer but the printer isn't shared yet. VMX confirms with "Share job queued — will apply on next bridge poll (up to 30 seconds)."

View queued and failed print jobs

To see what a print queue is currently trying to print:

  1. Go to Admin → Printers, Print Queues tab.
  2. Click the number in the Queued column for the printer you're interested in.

This opens the Printer Jobs page for that queue. It lists every job still waiting to print, plus any job that failed within the last 12 hours. Columns:

  • ID — the job number.
  • Register / Employee — where and by whom the job was created.
  • Name — what the job is (for example, a receipt number or tag batch).
  • Type / Format — the kind of job and its data format.
  • Success? — blank while the job is waiting; after the bridge attempts it, 1 means the bridge reported the print succeeded and 0 means it failed.
  • Message — the result message the bridge reported, including the error text for failed jobs.
  • Timestamp — when the bridge reported the result.
  • Destination — the destination URL the job was sent to.
  • Date — when the job was created.

From this page, View All Jobs opens the full job history for the queue (see below).

Clear Queue — delete waiting print jobs

If a queue has a backlog of jobs you no longer want printed (for example, receipts that piled up while a printer was offline and would all print at once when it reconnects):

  1. Go to Admin → Printers, Print Queues tab, and click the Queued count for that printer to open its Printer Jobs page.
  2. Click the red Clear Queue button (it shows the number of waiting jobs, e.g. Clear Queue (12)).
  3. Confirm the prompt: "Clear all queued jobs for this printer? This cannot be undone."

All jobs still in QUEUED status are deleted and will never print. Jobs that already printed are not affected. The button requires the ✏️ Printers admin permission and only appears when there is at least one queued job.

Full print job history for a printer

The View All Jobs button on a queue's Printer Jobs page opens the queue's full history — the most recent 1,000 jobs, printed or not. Columns: Name, Type, Format, Received, Processed, Status, Success?, Timestamp.

  • Status is QUEUED while a job waits, and SUCCEEDED once the bridge has picked it up for printing.
  • Success? and its hover text show the print result the bridge reported back — a job can be delivered (SUCCEEDED) but still report a failure here if the physical printer rejected it. The Timestamp is when that result came back.

Each row has three buttons: Reprint, View, and Raw (see the sections below), and each has a checkbox for bulk reprinting with the Reprint Checked button at the top of the page.

Reprint a receipt or print job

Any past job can be sent to the printer again from its queue's job history:

  1. Go to Admin → Printers, Print Queues tab, and click the Queued count for the printer to open its Printer Jobs page, then click View All Jobs.
  2. Find the job (rows are newest-first) and click Reprint, then confirm "Reprint this print job?"
  3. VMX shows "Job queued!" — the job re-enters the queue and prints on the bridge's next check-in, normally within seconds.

To reprint several jobs at once, tick the checkbox on each row and click Reprint Checked at the top of the page. If nothing is selected, VMX shows "You must select at least 1 print job to reprint."

View what a print job contained

From a queue's full job history (the View All Jobs page), two buttons show a job's content without printing it:

  • View — opens the receipt's on-screen (HTML) rendering in a new browser tab.
  • Raw — opens the Print Viewer, a diagnostic view of the exact data that was sent to the printer. It shows the job's info (Job ID, Name, Format, Received, Success) and a visual preview: receipts are rendered as an image of the printout, and label jobs show each label with its barcodes and a command log. This is mainly useful when working with VMX support to diagnose output that prints wrong (cut-off text, misplaced barcodes, blank labels).

If you open the Print Viewer for a job ID that doesn't exist, it shows "Job not found."