Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet in a printing operation;
• a transport unit configured to transport the sheet via a transport path;
• a sheet stacking unit configured to stack the sheet transported by the transport unit;
• a sheet detecting unit disposed in the transport path and configured to detect the presence or absence of the sheet in the transport path;
• a counting unit-configured to count number-of-sheet data of the sheet detected by the sheet detecting unit;
• and
• a control unit configured to control the printing operation performed by the image forming unit and the transport unit in accordance with a first print request from a print instructing unit for a print job and based on a count value obtained by counting the number-of-sheet data by the counting unit,
• wherein the control unit clears the count value in the absence of a next print request from the print instructing unit within a predetermined time after the printing operation associated with the first print job request is completed.