A printing apparatus establishes a connection with an external apparatus in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol, receives, and temporarily stores in a spool area, print data transmitted from the external apparatus via the connection, and includes a printing unit to perform printing based on print data stored in the spool area. Whether or not to disconnect the connection with the external apparatus, in accordance with a setting preliminarily made by a user operation, is controlled in a case where reception of print data from the external apparatus is stopped halfway through and a predetermined time has elapsed in a state where the reception remains stopped, wherein the connection with the external apparatus is maintained in a case where the predetermined time has elapsed in a state where reception of print data from the external apparatus remains stopped and it has been set not to disconnect the connection with the external apparatus.