Keep Your Windows PC Awake for Printing

Here's a confusing one: emails print fine all day, but the moment you walk away from the computer, nothing prints. Come back, wiggle the mouse, and the backlog spits out.

It looks like AutoPrintEmail needs Outlook or your browser open. It doesn't. What's actually happening is Windows putting the whole computer to sleep when you stop using it, and a sleeping computer can't print. Opening Outlook just means you're at the keyboard, so the PC is awake.

AutoPrintEmail watches your mailbox in the cloud, so no email program needs to be open, ever. The computer just has to be on. Here's how to keep it that way.

Table of Contents

• Tell Windows Not to Sleep
• Using a Laptop? Check the Lid
• Keep It Plugged In
• Still Stopping?
• Summary

Tell Windows Not to Sleep

1. Open Settings (press Windows key + I)
2. Go to System → Power & battery
3. Expand Screen and sleep (on Windows 10: Power & sleep)
4. Set "When plugged in, put my device to sleep after" to Never

The screen can still turn off. That's fine, and saves power. Sleep is the only setting that stops printing.

Using a Laptop? Check the Lid

Closing the lid normally forces a laptop to sleep even with sleep set to Never:

1. In the Start menu, search for "lid" and open "Change what closing the lid does"
2. Set "When I close the lid" (Plugged in) to Do nothing

Now the laptop keeps printing with the lid shut.

Keep It Plugged In

On battery, Windows sleeps aggressively no matter what, and that's the right call. A print station should stay on power. The settings above only need changing in the Plugged in column.

Still Stopping?

Some PCs (mostly newer laptops) use "Modern Standby" and can doze even with the settings above. If prints still pause when idle:

1. Search the Start menu for Command Prompt, right-click it, and select Run as administrator
2. Run: powercfg /requests

If AutoPrintEmail is listed under SYSTEM, it is holding the computer awake correctly and something else is overriding it. Send us the output at support@autoprint.email and we'll take a look.

Summary

Setting	Value
Sleep when plugged in	Never
When I close the lid (plugged in)	Do nothing
Power source	Keep it plugged in
Screen off timer	Anything you like

One-time setup, and printing keeps running nights, weekends, and lunch breaks.