Did some nice scanning last fall with faithful companion S1300 (page count >11k). Updated to 26.1, weeks later did disappointing scanning (colors off, text faded, even high resolution scan not clear). Now on 26.2, it does one page and quits, doesn’t save the scan anywhere findable.
ScanSnap now belongs to Ricoh it seems and S1300 is no longer supported. They have a “Home” software that works with S1300i, which might work with this. Alas the text recognition in “Home” (a feature I have depended on) now seems to require “Cloud”, in other words everything you scan is analysed by Ricoh and sent back apparently. This is not what I want. The local text recognition of ScanSnap Manager worked great for years.
Tried resetting Manager to defaults and choosing the scan settings I want but same results. One page, no scan saved on Mac that is findable.
Thought about looking for the original install zip on another Mac and removing/reinstalling on my everyday Mac on Tahoe.
Anyone else have experience with this and has found a solution for continued use of scanner locally on 26?
Have not used VueScan, or maybe long ago, sounds vaguely familiar. Site looks like it will support several scanners I have but is vague on the details, so I sent questions thru their contact form.
Also looked at the Brother DS-740D duplex mobile scanner briefly in case the s1300 becomes unusable, but so far have not found out if its software requires internet surveillance and can do local OCR.
For my short term need I used Image Capture and my Brother MFC-J1010DW to scan a few documents. Tedious compared to Scan Snap but ok short term. I ticked OCR in Image Capture and have searched for several words in the scanned documents with no results, alas.
VueScan supports more scanners than any other such product I know about.
If you are unsure, download and install a copy. Without a license, it will run in “trial mode”. The trial mode supports almost all features of the Professional edition, but will put a watermark on your scans. If you like it, you can buy a license key, which will turn off the watermarks.
Looking at their purchase page, it appears that current licensing options are:
Standard or professional edition. Standard doesn’t support film/slide scanners. It appears that the “basic” edition (which is much more limited) is no longer sold.
Licensed either as annual subscription or a one-time fee. Licenses with the one-time fee are perpetual, but you only get updates for one year.
Users with a one-time license fee can buy update licenses to add additional years, while retaining the perpetual license.
(There were perpetual-update licenses in the past, but those are no longer sold.)
Thanks @Shamino , earlier today I saw the basic available, when using an EU vpn location, but I don’t think it will meet my needs. Eventually I’d consider scanning slides so for now the Standard lookes about right though a bit costlier than hoped.
Still, I did the trial version without much user manual study and it produced good scans with S1300 and with the Brother. So I’ll probably go for the Standard version. Sad the ScanSnap software died with 26.2, I wonder what happened there. I might be able to reproduce the settings I had in that in the VueScan product.
Alas the text recognition in “Home” (a feature I have depended on) now seems to require “Cloud”, in other words everything you scan is analysed by Ricoh and sent back apparently.
I have an old Fuji Scansnap IX500 and have been using it with Scansnap Home for a number of years. I am pretty sure OCR does not require Cloud mode. I am using local mode and have OCR.
Incidentally I recently had reason to contact support about a (different) feature and found their support very good.
I had to download and install the latest version of ScanSnap Home to get my S1300 to work with 26.1. But that was a pretty quick fix, and it’s still going strong on 26.2. I never used Fujitsu’s (now Ricoh, apparently) OCR software, preferring a two-step workflow with ScanSnap and OCRKit.
Thanks @fischej Maybe I will give it a whirl then. I just got the feel from the vague site details that it was invasive software.
I looked at the main page of the OCRKit site and it lists MacOS compatibility up to version 13. Is it still working on your 26.2? Might be a good option if so. Years ago I used… PDF Pen Pro IIRC to OCR PDFs I received or scanned etc.
With the VueScan trial software, I did indicate OCR but after a few scans and waiting a bit searched for some of the text and LaunchBar didn’t find it. The ScanSnap Manager software’s OCR was usually available within seconds of scanning.
Yeah, they’re not the quickest to keep their site up to date. I had been using a version I bought back in 2012, and it finally fell out of support. Before I bought the latest version (last September) I asked them about that support statement on their site, and received a terse “Yes, the latest version of our Apps of course also work with the latest macOS.” Not winning any awards for customer relations, but the software works great for my needs. They do have a 14 day free trial (watermarked).
Thanks @jazzimus , do you find your Mac needs to be connected to internet for the ScanSnap OCR to occur? Or is Home in any way snooping on what you scan?
Hi David, I prompted Gemini Pro for the answer because I rarely use OCR post scanning. Here is its answer:
does scansnap OCR have to be on line to function
It depends on which scanning method you are using. ScanSnap has two different ways of handling OCR (Optical Character Recognition), and they have different internet requirements.
1. If you use “ScanSnap Home” (Scan to Computer)
No, you do not need to be online. When you scan directly to your computer (Windows or Mac) using the ScanSnap Home software, the OCR processing happens locally on your machine’s processor.
Requirement: You must have the OCR language packs installed. (Note: You do need an internet connection initially to download and install these OCR packs during the software setup, but once installed, they work offline).
How to verify: If you unplug your ethernet cable or turn off Wi-Fi, you should still be able to scan a document and see “Text recognition” occurring in the status window.
2. If you use “ScanSnap Cloud” (Scan PC-less to Dropbox, Evernote, etc.)
Yes, you must be online. If you are using the feature where you press the purple button to send documents directly to a cloud service (like Google Drive, Dropbox, or QuickBooks) without opening your computer, the OCR is performed on Ricoh/Fujitsu’s servers.
Why: The scanner itself does not have the processing power to do OCR; it uploads the raw image to the ScanSnap Cloud server, which processes the text and then sends the finished PDF to your cloud destination.
Result: If your internet is down, the scanner will usually flash orange/blue or simply not scan because it cannot reach the server to offload the image processing.
Summary Table
Feature
Internet Required?
Where OCR Happens
Scan to Folder / PC
No
Locally on your computer (CPU)
Scan to Mobile
Usually No
On your mobile device (varies by OS/App version)
ScanSnap Cloud
Yes
On the ScanSnap Cloud Servers
Troubleshooting Tip: If you are scanning to your computer and OCR isn’t working while offline, check that you have fully downloaded the “OCR Pack” in your ScanSnap Home settings (under Settings > Preferences > Language).
Gave installing the Home product a whirl and it wouldn’t connect to the s1300 at all, despite repeated attempts. It also removed the previous ScanSnap software.
I removed the Home software and made a stab at finding maybe the last version of ScanSnap Manager on Internet Archive but so far haven’t found it. Ricoh/Fujitsu seem fairly determined to bury the s1300 and its software. Maybe some day I’ll find an installation disc in the basement. Or, another workaround is to use another Macbook that still has ScanSnap Manager on it under older OS and see if it works better.
Good thing I purchased VueScan. It works with s1300 and a newish Brother multifunction device but the interface and workflow will take some getting used to. Sigh, time marches on…
(Edited to add: Yes, the old MBP on Sierra with ScanSnap Manager did the trick. Produced a fine scan. So somehow Manager and Tahoe were not working nicely. Scanner is fine as it marches towards 12k lifetime scans. Rollers could stand replacing but I did that once and it was a real, ah, project. The s1300 has been a very good purchase, we have a few, its software nicely balanced in simplicity and power for us, and has been very very reliable.)
ScanSnap Home app can be used in two different modes “Local” and “Cloud”.
What is described by AI as ScanSnap “Cloud” is ScanSnap Home app used in Cloud mode. There is a switch in the menubar to change between Cloud and Local mode.
