Not having any luck with scanners

[allan]

Not having any luck with scanning on my M1 Mac mini and Sequoia 15.6.1 .

My Canon LiDE400 worked as recently as April of this year, and then stopped working. Bought another one and same thing. Then, tried an Epson V39 II and a Plustek Z300, and same thing.

Anyone else experience this? I tried: updating software, changing USB cables, plugging directly into the Mac mini, trying different USB ports, etc.

Here are the screenshots of the error messages:

Canon LiDE 400:

Epson V39 II (won't even let me install the software):

Plustek Z300:

I'm not upset, despite a huge waste of my time. I already started a return process for the scanners. I'm just massively disappointed that I cannot scan the last remaining photos from my shoebox of photos. I will have to resort to sending them out for scanning at one of those scanning services.

And I know it's probably not M1 Mac mini specific, maybe it's a macOS issue, I don't know. Just posting here in case anyone else knows what's going on and can offer a solution.

 

[allan]

Updated to Tahoe tonight and... the Canon seems to be working now? 😂

 

[Unami]

Got an old canon scanner that doesn't work when you first start image capture. You have to quit it and start it again to work. Have you tried that. Personally, I don't install any software from printer or scanner manufacturers, because they are oft buggy, ugly and take up ressources - if it doesn't work ootb on MacOS, it goes back.

 

[weckart]

Got an old canon scanner that doesn't work when you first start image capture. You have to quit it and start it again to work. Have you tried that. Personally, I don't install any software from printer or scanner manufacturers, because they are oft buggy, ugly and take up ressources - if it doesn't work ootb on MacOS, it goes back.

Pretty much any scanner you buy will require a driver and Apple doesn't bake those into macOS. You won't have to use the scanning software they supply, though, if you can live with Image Capture. VueScan seems to be the most feature rich software and supports an impressive list of scanners new and old without needing to install the manufacturer's drivers but it's no longer cheap.

 

[Gert S.]

+1 for Vuescan. Have been using this software for a long time already on Nikon Coolscan as well as Epson ET-series scanners.

 

[doobydoooby]

I gave up with Canon scanners a few years ago; they were always so far behind the curve that whenever the OS updated, it was a constant battle as the scanner would break for six months until they caught up. I know it doesn't really help, but just to say I haven't experienced any glitch due to a recent Sequoia OS update, so there must have been something machine-specific on your installation that got rectified with the Tahoe update; I have an HP machine these days, but it's communicating perfectly well on OS 15.6.1. I specifically wait a few OS updates to check for complaints because I use a Canon camera as a webcam, and Apple is hell bent on not allowing webcams that don't have a warning light, and an HP scanner printer that might just require a software update to play fair.....

 

[RUGERMAN]

I gave up with Canon scanners a few years ago; they were always so far behind the curve that whenever the OS updated, it was a constant battle as the scanner would break for six months until they caught up. I know it doesn't really help, but just to say I haven't experienced any glitch due to a recent Sequoia OS update, so there must have been something machine-specific on your installation that got rectified with the Tahoe update; I have an HP machine these days, but it's communicating perfectly well on OS 15.6.1. I specifically wait a few OS updates to check for complaints because I use a Canon camera as a webcam, and Apple is hell bent on not allowing webcams that don't have a warning light, and an HP scanner printer that might just require a software update to play fair.....

I have an old Brother printer/scanner that I got 6-8 years ago for about $100 that still works perfectly with every OS thru the years. The only problem I have is it won't work with 5g, so when I want to print or scan I have to switch to plain 5 internet.

 

[TumbleDryer]

I never install the drivers that come with scanners. They're more hassle than there worth. Just use Image Capture. Job done.

 

[weckart]

I gave up with Canon scanners a few years ago; they were always so far behind the curve that whenever the OS updated, it was a constant battle as the scanner would break for six months until they caught up. I know it doesn't really help, but just to say I haven't experienced any glitch due to a recent Sequoia OS update, so there must have been something machine-specific on your installation that got rectified with the Tahoe update; I have an HP machine these days, but it's communicating perfectly well on OS 15.6.1. I specifically wait a few OS updates to check for complaints because I use a Canon camera as a webcam, and Apple is hell bent on not allowing webcams that don't have a warning light, and an HP scanner printer that might just require a software update to play fair.....

I use a Canon scanner with Sequoia. A cheap old LiDE one as it happens. Somehow the Mojave ICA driver you can download from Canon's website still works with my M4 Mini and even the Canon scanning software worked up until Sequoia. Never had a problem with it. If you don't need anything fancy, it's a LiDE 700F and still gives me great results for my purposes.

 

[allan]

And... just like that, it stopped working again.

When I plug the scanner in, it makes a motorized sound but then stops. When I launch Image Capture, it doesn't show up at all. Tried switching cables again, different USB port, rebooting, relaunching, etc.

Tried all the other scanners again as well and no luck. I'm about to give up for good.

 

[allan]

Yeah, I give up

 

[monokakata]

Try Vuescan (as others have said). It's always worked for me on Epson scanners, and a friend who has Canon and Epson both has solved connection problems by only using Vuescan.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Have you taken the suggestions offered above and tried "VueScan"?

Until you do that, you won't really know if the scanner's working... or not.

 

[allan]

Okay, I'll give VueScan a shot sometime later this week and report back. I guess I just don't understand why it worked right after updating to Tahoe, and then the very next day stopped working again.

 

[monokakata]

Your experience must have seemed strange, for sure. But that's the thing about Macs and these scanners -- it's all very strange. They work, and then they don't. There must be an explanation but for me and people I know, it's not worth searching for the explanation when there's a solution that makes everything work. Yep, treating symptom rather than cause, but sometimes that's the way to go when there's work to be done.

 

[allan]

Thanks everyone for recommending VueScan. My Canon scanner is working once again. I'm keeping the extra LiDE 400 as a backup. Next time I won't be so stubborn and will listen to the excellent advice here right away. I guess I just didn't want to learn yet another piece of software because the Canon one was just so easy to use.

 

[Fring]

I recently bought a LIDE 300 and got the ‘can’t find scanner’ message as in the first post. After much hair tearing I reverted to Image Capture, which worked with occasional glitches. Then, on a rainy-day hunch, I went into System Settings>Privacy & Security>Local Network, where there is a list of apps allowed to communicate with devices on the local network. All the elements of the canon app were in there, with sliders turned to off. I turned them on, and everything worked!

The mystery is that, in set-up, I’d agreed to all prompts given by Canon, including ‘allow to communicate with devices on local network’. For whatever reason, this hadn’t filtered through to the Mac system settings.

Might this be where the ball is dropped when Apple does a system update? Don’t know, but definitely worth checking that setting.

 

[960design]

SnapScan is my preferred scanner. The portable SnapScan was very cumbersome, I do not recommend unless mobility is an absolute must.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I gave up with Canon scanners a few years ago; they were always so far behind the curve that whenever the OS updated, it was a constant battle as the scanner would break for six months until they caught up. I know it doesn't really help, but just to say I haven't experienced any glitch due to a recent Sequoia OS update, so there must have been something machine-specific on your installation that got rectified with the Tahoe update; I have an HP machine these days, but it's communicating perfectly well on OS 15.6.1. I specifically wait a few OS updates to check for complaints because I use a Canon camera as a webcam, and Apple is hell bent on not allowing webcams that don't have a warning light, and an HP scanner printer that might just require a software update to play fair.....

Was many moons ago now but I know the feeling.

I owned the brilliant Multifunction Canon MP-800 allrounder. It came with holders for direct CD printing and a carrier for scanning slides. One OS (possibly MacOS 10.7) ceased support of the scanning functionality entirely and I thereafter lived on the phone to Apple and Canon support, listening to each one blaming the other.

Ok that was a decade ago and a mishap occurred with that printer also back then, haven't owned a printer/ scanner since then. Sad to hear that Canon software support is still like this. I've always enjoyed their UI, built quality of products in general, image results. But all that means nothing if software loses support.

 

[djc6]

Interesting, I have a Canon LiDE220 I purchased ten years ago on 9/3/2015 connected to my 2018 Mac Mini running macOS 15.6.1 - I've never had an issue with Image Capture or "Canon IJ Scan Utility".

Its powered off of the USB port, which I always thought might cause issues but hasn't.

I bought it at the time because my even older LiDE 90 purchased 12/16/2007 stopped being supported, I remember looking into VueScan at the time. I got roughly eight years out of that scanner. Two scanners in 18 years isn't terrible.

 

[doobydoooby]

Was many moons ago now but I know the feeling.

I owned the brilliant Multifunction Canon MP-800 allrounder. It came with holders for direct CD printing and a carrier for scanning slides. One OS (possibly MacOS 10.7) ceased support of the scanning functionality entirely and I thereafter lived on the phone to Apple and Canon support, listening to each one blaming the other.

Ok that was a decade ago and a mishap occurred with that printer also back then, haven't owned a printer/ scanner since then. Sad to hear that Canon software support is still like this. I've always enjoyed their UI, built quality of products in general, image results. But all that means nothing if software loses support.

funny huh? It feels like a betrayal when the thing you bought no longer works just because the provider has no interest in updating its software in time and would kinda prefer you to maybe just buy the latest trinket instead. One of the years I remember, it took Canon about 5 months to update its software to play with the latest OS, as if they had no warning it was coming!

 

[Ctrlos]

Whilst I know it’s not as good as the real thing, there is a great app by Google (no account needed) called PhotoScan which does a great job of digitising things and eliminating glare.

 

[Huw Price]

Thanks everyone for recommending VueScan. My Canon scanner is working once again. I'm keeping the extra LiDE 400 as a backup. Next time I won't be so stubborn and will listen to the excellent advice here right away. I guess I just didn't want to learn yet another piece of software because the Canon one was just so easy to use.

HI there, it's great that Vuescan worked for you. I have an old "Epson Perfection 4870 Photo". Its worked very well with the various editions of Vuescan for some 12 years. However with the coming of Tahoe 26, it just does not work so Ive reverted to the Tahoe Macs 'Preview' for a rough & ready scan. It isn't as flexible as Vuescan for me & will ask Vuescans very nice team if they have any thoughts. all the best.