The Print Batches page gives you visibility of all outgoing print batches. A batch is a collection of print jobs that have been gathered together and sent to the output channel for production. Use this page to monitor the status of batches and to investigate and retry any that have failed to send.
You can access Print Batches via Control Panel > Print Batches.
The Administrator and Control Panel roles can view print batches. The Retry Sending action is only available to Administrators.
The page refreshes automatically every ten seconds.
How Print Batches work
When print jobs are ready to send, Docbox groups them into batches and dispatches each batch automatically to its output channel for production (for example, Docmail or a CFH Managed SFTP server). If a batch fails to send, Docbox retries automatically on an escalating schedule — the first attempt is made when the batch is created, with up to six further attempts approximately 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, and 63 hours after creation. This means that transient issues, such as a brief network interruption, may resolve themselves without any action needed on your part.
Most batches send successfully and you will not need to take any action. This page is primarily useful when something has gone wrong — for example, when a batch has used up all of its attempts and needs to be investigated and retried manually.
A batch is marked complete once it has been sent and acknowledged by the output channel. Batches remain on this page until they're removed by Docbox's data retention cleardown.
Filters
| Filter | Description |
|---|---|
| Batch Id | Enter the exact batch ID to show only that batch. |
| Print Job ID | Enter a print job ID to show only batches containing that job. |
| Printer | Select a printer from the dropdown to show only batches for that printer. Defaults to Any Printer. |
| Date Sent | Enter a date to show only batches sent on that date. |
| Status | Filter by completion status: Any Status, Complete, or Not Complete. |
Clear a filter by clicking the × beside it.
Print Batches
The header above the table shows the total number of batches matching your filters, and, in brackets, how many of the batches on the current page have been sent and completed.
Rows highlighted in green represent batches that have changed since the page was first loaded. A badge at the top of the page shows the count of changed batches. Click the badge to acknowledge the updates and clear the highlighting.
Click anywhere on a row to open the batch detail panel. To open the context menu for a batch, click the ⋮ icon in the Action column. Page through the results using the pagination controls at the bottom of the list.
| Column | Description | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batch Id | The unique numeric identifier of the batch. | ||||||
| Name | The batch name, generated automatically from the printer name, date, and time. | ||||||
| Printer | The printer that produced this batch. | ||||||
| Date Updated | The date and time the batch record was last modified. | ||||||
| Date Sent | The date and time the batch was successfully sent. Blank until sent. | ||||||
| Attempts Remaining | The number of automatic retry attempts remaining. The first send attempt is made when the batch is created; up to six retries follow if that attempt fails. Displayed in red when no attempts remain, indicating the batch requires attention. | ||||||
| Complete? | A tick when the batch has been completed; a cross otherwise. | ||||||
Action |
Select an option for further information
|
Print Batch Details
Clicking View Details opens a panel on the right showing the following information.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Batch Id | The unique identifier of the batch. |
| Batch Name | The full generated name of the batch. |
| Printer Name | The printer that generated this batch. |
| Output Type | The output channel type used for this batch — for example, Docmail. |
| Print Job Count | The number of print jobs included in this batch. |
| Date Created | The date and time the batch was created. |
| Date Updated | The date and time the batch was last modified. |
| Remaining Sending Attempts | The number of automatic send attempts remaining. |
| Date Sent | The date and time the batch was successfully sent. Blank until sent. |
| Order Reference | The order reference returned by the output channel once the batch has been submitted. |
| Complete | Whether the batch has been completed and acknowledged. |
| Print Job Ids | The individual print job IDs included in this batch. Use the search box to filter the list. Click any job ID to navigate directly to that job on the Print Jobs screen. |
Event History
Clicking View Event History opens a timeline panel showing every event recorded for the batch, each with a timestamp and an INFO or FAILURE badge. Failure events are highlighted in red with a description of the error.
Tick Show details to expand each event with additional technical information. This is useful when investigating a failure with CFH support.
For Docmail printers, there's a gap between a batch being submitted and Docmail confirming despatch while Docbox checks status in the background. If a job needs to be despatched today, don't leave submission until close to Docmail's daily cutoff.
Retrying a Failed Batch
A batch is eligible for retry when it has not yet been sent, its Attempts Remaining is 0, it is not complete, and it is not currently clearing down.
- Click the ellipsis icon on the batch row and select Retry Sending, or open the Print Batch Details panel and click Retry Sending Print Batch.
- Click Retry in the confirmation dialogue.
- Wait for the next refresh cycle (approximately ten seconds) to see the updated status.
Before retrying, check that the Credentials assigned to the printer are correct. Navigate to Control Panel > Credentials, select the relevant record, and click Save & Test to verify the connection.