My Glowforge is stuck on focusing. It has been this way for two days. I’ve cleaned everything, disconnected, restarted laptop… . As soon as I upload the file, it already says “focusing”. Printhead hasn’t moved from starting position. No clue what else to try or what it might be. Help! Please. 
That it says it as soon as you open it means the focus is stuck in your browser, rather than the laser.
Clear your cache or try a completely different browser. That should shake it loose.
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Going to go try that now! Thank you!
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Ugggh, didn’t work. 
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Can you successfully open any other file?
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This isn’t a browser issue. “Focusing” is the first thing a Glowforge does after connecting itself to the internet via your wifi network. At this stage of the machine’s startup process, the focus mechanism in the print head is calibrated by moving the platform the lens is attached to up and down through its full range of motion several times then reporting back to Glowforge’s servers in the cloud.
Nothing else will happen until this calibration finishes. “Focusing” comes before “centering”, “homing”, “scanning” and “ready”: if it’s stuck on focusing, it’s normal that the head isn’t moving anywhere yet.
Getting stuck here means one of three things:
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The wifi signal is spotty. You can try restarting your router and then the Glowforge.
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Something is wrong with the print head itself.
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Something is wrong with the white ribbon cable that lets the machine talk to the print head. Check that this cable is securely clicked in place and not crimped or worn through anywhere along its length.
If checking and troubleshooting these things doesn’t get you anywhere, it’s time to call or email tech support which can pull the logs from your Glowforge to find out when the communication with the print head is going wrong.
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If a fresh browser did not do it I would suspect wifi next.
Your wifi may have worked great for many years before today, but some new thing in your neighborhood could screw up the Glowforge. It is very picky and it can have a fit even when other devices are fine.
Make sure your 2.4 GHz wifi is using channels 1, 6, or 11. You can find a wifi scanner app on your phone to see which channel is clearest. It is almost always best to use channels 1, 6, or 11.
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I’m happy to see you have received some advice from fellow owners on how to address the focus issues occurring. As @dan84 mentioned, reaching out to support can help find a solution faster since they can access the log files for troubleshooting.
We have limited phone support Saturday-Sunday from 10am to 3pm PST at +1-855-338-2122. Phone support is also available Monday through Friday from 8am to 3pm PST. If you’re not able to call during those times, you can reach out by email at support@glowforge.com.
To prepare for troubleshooting, you’ll want to have the serial number from the back of the printer and try to note any dates and times of print attempts that failed. That narrow down the cause and review the print data captured for next steps.
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I had the same thing happening, happy cutting and then one day it did not go beyond centering. Tried another wifi station, other wifi channels, put wifi box on top of the machine, but nothing worked. Internet is fine and stable, no hardware changes in the room. After a week it suddenly came to life again, with the original wifi station. Frustrating as I had promised some goodies to friends. It felt as if Europe had been cut off from the GlowForge computers. Would love to get USB/Ethernet connection.
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Sounds like there were changes in your neighborhood. Unless you’re in the middle of nowhere! We had a person on here who got an AppleTV, and if it’s plugged in the 
won’t connect. Another person discovered (via a WiFi analyzer) that their neighbor had gotten a poorly programmed smart device that was blasting its address so loudly that the couldn’t see passed it 
It’s frustring when you can’t narrow it down, but weirder things have happened.
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You’re suggesting that neighbours above a very high, metal reinforced ceiling moved some equipment just for 1 week, that disturbed the GF connection to my wifi station, at its strongest setting, resting on top of the GlowForge? Now that sounds ultra-unlikely Phones and Laptops connect flawlessly to the same wifi.
I have spent endless hours over the past years with connection problems, and I have just ordered my fourth even stronger WiFi Station to replace the previous, but so far no avail. The wifi receiver in the GF might be flawed, but it really feels like intercontinental connection problems to the GlowForge servers.
" When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
If the WiFi receiver were broken, it would not function at all.
Dear Deirdrebeth, I wrote it might be flawed, not broken. Flawed in the sense that many GF owners have trouble connecting to wifi, FAQs are full of suggestions like changing wifi band, moving wifi closer to the GF, hunting for other network devices that might disturb the connection, rebooting wifi and internet etc. All these things are not necessary with any other wifi receiver. Wifi just works, except, supposedly, with the GF. I am not comfortable with blaming neigbours, it is not their fault. Your statement in bold sounds like it comes from a believers manual 
and I do not agree, it might simply mean that the truth is not yet discovered, or hidden because it is uncomfortable.
Today there were a lot of users from various continents that all had similar connection problems, stuck on focussing, slow connections, not being able to print. It is possible that the neighbours of all those GF owners activated wifi-jammers simultaneously, but it is more likely that the GF server was in trouble, which is uncomfortable indeed.
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