Nprinting Version: 18.19.6.0 PDF Generation Error solution

[craig_adams]

Hi All,

Disclaimer: this is what helped me resolve my issue of PDF generation halting. your issue might be different. These are the steps that helped me..uninstall and install things at your peril and always make sure that you are keeping back up's of your installations in case you need to roll back.

I just wanted to share some feedback on how i resolved an issue where Nprinting stopped producing PDF's. I couldn't find anything in the forums that really helped me with the issue so thought it best to put my solution here.

The issue:

PDF attachments of Qlik Entity reports running smoothly, then one day, they stop producing. Lots of errors in the Executions tab and emails not reaching end users due to failure.

I have aliased file paths and labelled the temp PDF file as 'Attachment.pdf' to

Error Message:

WARN: error during report generation: Qlik NPrinting PDF Printer timeout: a print job for C:\'File location string'\Email Attachment.pdf started but never ended

Failed generation of report 'X' for user '1'. ERROR: Qlik NPrinting PDF Printer timeout: a print job for C:\'File location string'\Email Attachment.pdf started but never ended

So if you are getting this message, you probably panicked a bit like i did.

The temporary solution i had was to deactivate the PDF attachment within the 'Task' but keep the embedded html report live, this allowed Nprinting to continue to produce the email normally but just excluded the PDF element. This kept users happy for a short time while i found the solution.

I looked at some of the documentation pointing to PDF elements. I knew this was probably my only issue as the HTML reports were still running and this suggested that Qlik Designer was ok.

System requirements including what software is included in the Nprinting install files.

https://help.qlik.com/en-US/nprinting/17.1/Content/DeployingQVNprinting/System-requirements.htm?_ga=...

I looked at the 'Devices and Printers' section in my control panel and i had multiple printers installed. This was down to group policy for the business, all those printers were added to all devices. I was unable to uninstall all the printers bar the 'Qlik NPrinting PDF Printer' and it kept defaulting back to an Adobe PDF writer as the default printer.

I knew that my connection to the PDF generation was the issue at this point so i looked at uninstalling PDF elements and re-installing. This involved uninstalling PDF-XChange 2012 which was part of the uninstall the Designer process.

Don't uninstall this though as it means you will need to uninstall the engine and re-install the engine.. not a big job i know, but will save you some hassle. I had uninstalled designer which meant i had to re-install that and the engine to get PDF-XChange 2012 re-installed.

I've added the links for installing the designer and engine below in-case you have done this

Installing Designer:

https://help.qlik.com/en-US/nprinting/September2018/Content/NPrinting/DeployingQVNprinting/Installin...

Installing the Engine:

https://help.qlik.com/en-US/nprinting/September2018/Content/NPrinting/DeployingQVNprinting/Installin...‌

Solution:

If you have been doing something similar to what i have been typing above, i feel your pain. Onto the solution that i found.

My NPrinting solution is hosted on its own dedicated server like yours will probably be. I use the service log in to manage the Server and Nprinting front end.

1. Log off of the server and close any remote connections you may have open to other box's.
2. open your remote connection box and click on 'Show options'
3. Click on the Local resources tab and navigate to the bottom 'local devices and resources'
4. Deselect 'Printers'
5. Connect to the box again
6. Check your 'Devices and Printers' in the control panel, you should now see that 'Qlik NPrinting PDF Printer' is the default printer (might see others, i see 'microsoft XPS Document Writer')

Now that you have made those steps, open up your browser and navigate to a task that produces a PDF, enable that PDF and limit the output to you or your teams email address only. Check that it wont go to anyone else and run the report..hey presto you should now get a PDF attachment as expected.

This took me ages to figure out, i skipped over lots of the pointless things i did and just got to the heart of it and the solution. i hope it helps. Add a reply if you need additional content or have questions and i will try to help.

[Lech_Miszkiewicz]

Hi Craig,

thanks for sharing this - it is definitely great reminder to check what group policies are changing in our systems. I personaly do it often but i doubth i would check if default printer settings were changed.

thanks again

regards

Lech