Patent ID: 8482757

Claim:
An image forming apparatus capable of transmitting/receiving data to/from another image forming apparatus on a network, comprising: a holding unit adapted to hold storage position information of document data stored in the other image forming apparatus; an acquisition unit adapted to acquire the document data to be printed from the other image forming apparatus by referring to the storage position information; a print unit adapted to print the document data acquired by said acquisition unit; a determination unit adapted to determine whether or not a print count of the document data having already been printed by said print unit exceeds a predetermined count, and a storage unit adapted to store the document data acquired by said acquisition unit as master data when said determination unit determines that the print count exceeds the predetermined count, wherein, when the document data is not stored in said storage unit as master data, said acquisition unit is adapted to re-acquire the document data from the other image forming apparatus for printing a next time by said print unit, and wherein, when the document data is stored in said storage unit as master data, said print unit is adapted to print the document data stored in said storage unit without re-acquiring the document data from the other image forming apparatus when the document data is printed the next time.