A processing mode appropriate to the cause of the error is selected when an error occurs in a printer, thereby avoiding wasting processing time and consumables. The printing apparatus has a normal processing mode control unit for printing based on data sent from a host device; a deletion processing mode control unit for discarding data except for specific commands sent from the host device; an error detection unit for detecting errors; a cause of error determination unit for identifying the cause of the error; a processing mode storage unit for storing the processing modes as well as information pertaining to which processing mode to be executed for a particular cause of error when an error occurs; and a processing mode determination unit for selecting the normal processing mode control unit or deletion processing mode control unit to execute the appropriate processing mode stored in the processing mode storage unit according to the cause of error identified by the cause of error determination unit when the error detection unit detects an error, and to select the normal processing mode control unit to change from the deletion processing mode to the normal processing mode based on a resume command from the host device.