Scansnap Manager problem with High Sierra

[infantrytrophy]

I have been using my Fujitsu Scansnap 1500M without problems until recently upgrading my iMac to macOS High Sierra. Scanning multi-page documents now results in multi-page PDF files in which the pages are out of order. This happened about the same time as upgrading to macOS High Sierra (now on version 10.13.1) from Sierra. Anyone else notice this problem?

Since making a similar post in this forum’s Mac accessories thread, additional tests have revealed that the problem is confined to my Macs running macOS High Sierra. There are no problems with PDF files created an another iMac running OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan.

This is reminiscent of the serious problem that existed for a short timewhen Apple re-worked the PDFKit for 10.12 Sierra.

 

[sziehr]

Thanks for this post. I was about to pull the trigger this morning and move to 10.13.1 I have a scan snap that I love and adore. I will now go into a hover until scan snap releases an update to the software to address this issue. Please do shoot them an email and let them know so they can crank that out ASAP. I am ready for APFS in my life but not at the cost of my beloved scan snap.

 

[infantrytrophy]

Thanks for this post. I was about to pull the trigger this morning and move to 10.13.1 I have a scan snap that I love and adore. I will now go into a hover until scan snap releases an update to the software to address this issue. Please do shoot them an email and let them know so they can crank that out ASAP. I am ready for APFS in my life but not at the cost of my beloved scan snap.

Thanks for the reply. I have sent a message through the support section in Fujitsu’s website. It might help if you and other ScanSnap users did the same. It may be that the problem is really with macOS rather than ScanSnap Manager. Either way, it may be more effective for Fujitsu, rather than indidual users, to contact Apple about the issue.

 

[poorcody]

Fujitsu is aware of the problem. See this status page:

http://www.fujitsu.com/global/suppo...ipheral/scanners/scansnap/faq/hsierra004.html

There were compatibility issues with the last Mac OS upgrade as well. Fortunately they do keep the software updated. They are promising updated software by December. They seem to meet or exceed their promises in my experience.

 

[sziehr]

It looks like if you upgrade to the latest scan snap manager it will work ok. I was thinking this was like the bug in sierra where it stopped working completely.

 

[infantrytrophy]

It looks like if you upgrade to the latest scan snap manager it will work ok ...

Not exactly. Drilling through the support pages for the different models of ScanSnap scanners reveals that the compatibility and the workarounds vary. Even given a specific scanner model, compatibility varies depending on whether your Mac has a spinning hard drive or a SSD. The problem is apparently most severe for Macs with SSDs operating under High Sierra.

These problems appear to be the result of Apple's implementation of the new APFS file system. Hopefully Apple and Fujitsu can get together to resolve the issue. In the meantime, those of us affected will need to manually re-order pages in scanned multi-page documents.

A related but more severe issue occurred when Apple implemented its new PDFKit for macOS 10.12. It took several weeks for that problem to be resolved. It is unfortunate that these PDF file corruption problems occur. ScanSnap scanners are typically used for "serious" work such as legal documents and paperless archiving situations.

 

[sziehr]

I use them for going paperless. I swear it has to be the second or third best 500 I have spend on a office over kill in a decade. I have no papers left. I also have them backed up to the cloud. This allows me to be backed up off site and onsite. I have zero fear that one day I will show up at home and all of my family files are gone. I can just download them again poof. There was some news report here in Nashville about a house burning down and they lost every scrap of paper and I was like wait I saw that scan snap I put in the lawyers office. I bet that would solve that issue and it has. I can never go back to having boxes of paper work.

 

[infantrytrophy]

I use them for going paperless. I swear it has to be the second or third best 500 I have spend on a office over kill in a decade. I have no papers left. I also have them backed up to the cloud. This allows me to be backed up off site and onsite. I have zero fear that one day I will show up at home and all of my family files are gone. I can just download them again poof. There was some news report here in Nashville about a house burning down and they lost every scrap of paper and I was like wait I saw that scan snap I put in the lawyers office. I bet that would solve that issue and it has. I can never go back to having boxes of paper work.

Absolutely - the ScanSnap scanner is perfect for this application. I have done the same thing - scanned dozens of boxes of documents: old investment statements to retain for cost basis information, receipts, home sales, bank and tax records, military records, insurance policies and countless other documents. If the digital files are properly maintained and backed up, there is no need to keep paper files.

It's a shame that we have to suffer through a period in which the documents scanned result in corrupted files.

 

[infantrytrophy]

FOLLOWUP: Fujitsu responded to my support request by email with the following message:

Thank you for contacting Fujitsu. An update for ScanSnap Manager compatible with the macOS High Sierra will be released in the beginning of December 2017.

Please click on the following link for more information: http://www.fujitsu.com/global/suppo...ipheral/scanners/scansnap/faq/hsierra004.html​

The link provided was somewhat helpful. The page-order error occurs under The following conditions: High Sierra in Macs with SSDs when the scanned documents are converted to searchable (OCR of the text) documents. I confirmed that the page-order error disappeared when the "convert to searchable PDF" option was de-selected.

Until the update is released by Fujitsu, the work-arounds for SSD-equiped Macs are any or all of the following:
1. De-select the "convert to searchable PDF" option for suitable documents. Simply place enough words in the file name to satisfy any future search you might want to make.
2. Scan only single-page documents until the update is released.
3. For those multi-page documents for which you want to enable searchable text within the document, delay scanning those until the update is released. Or, scan on another Mac with a spinning hard drive or a Mac that still runs under OS X El Capitan or macOS Sierra.

Despite Fujitsu's indication of a software update, I wonder how much of the problem is with macOS and not Fujitsu’s software. The last problem with corrupted PDF files was fixed with a macOS update, not a Fujutsu update.

 

[sziehr]

I think you hit the nail on the head with spinning disk and not 10.13. They APFS is what is getting them. They were using a lower level library that does not work right with APFS I bet. Apple has all new libraries for interacting with APFS. This was going to happen I was just hopping apple would have deprecated the code in 10.12 so that when the change came there was no fuss like this.

 

[dbinbama]

I am apparently the poster child for problems with High Sierra and my ScanScap IX500. I've used (and loved) this scanner for years. Everything was great until I decided to upgrade to HS 10.13.2. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing the ScanSnap manager probably a dozen times (no exaggeration), and every single time--without fail--the manager crashes when it tries to launch, generating a huge error message. I left a message w/Fujitsu tech support before Christmas, asking that they call. I've yet to hear from them. I called and spoke w/someone in their Tech Support after New Year's. She tried to help, but the crashing continued even with her on the phone stepping me through the re-install, and she said this would have to be escalated above her. The iMac I am using this on (maybe I should say 'trying' to use this on!) is an iMac 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 running 1 TB Flash storage.

I'm discouraged; I use this scanner a lot for business, and it rocks. Not happy with 10.13.2. I have other quirky behavior, including dozens of 'disk not ejected properly' windows (I have a USB drive attached) that display regularly ('though I can live with that).

If I had an easy way to uninstall HS and go back to an earlier version, I would.

I really don't know what to do at this point...

 

[Sital]

I am apparently the poster child for problems with High Sierra and my ScanScap IX500. I've used (and loved) this scanner for years. Everything was great until I decided to upgrade to HS 10.13.2. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing the ScanSnap manager probably a dozen times (no exaggeration), and every single time--without fail--the manager crashes when it tries to launch, generating a huge error message. I left a message w/Fujitsu tech support before Christmas, asking that they call. I've yet to hear from them. I called and spoke w/someone in their Tech Support after New Year's. She tried to help, but the crashing continued even with her on the phone stepping me through the re-install, and she said this would have to be escalated above her. The iMac I am using this on (maybe I should say 'trying' to use this on!) is an iMac 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 running 1 TB Flash storage.

I'm discouraged; I use this scanner a lot for business, and it rocks. Not happy with 10.13.2. I have other quirky behavior, including dozens of 'disk not ejected properly' windows (I have a USB drive attached) that display regularly ('though I can live with that).

If I had an easy way to uninstall HS and go back to an earlier version, I would.

I really don't know what to do at this point...

Have you tried reinstalling 10.13.2 as well? I know it's not much consolation, but I'm using the iX500 on 10.13.2 with no issues.

 

[infantrytrophy]

I am apparently the poster child for problems with High Sierra and my ScanScap IX500. I've used (and loved) this scanner for years. Everything was great until I decided to upgrade to HS 10.13.2. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing the ScanSnap manager probably a dozen times (no exaggeration), and every single time--without fail--the manager crashes when it tries to launch, generating a huge error message. I left a message w/Fujitsu tech support before Christmas, asking that they call. I've yet to hear from them. I called and spoke w/someone in their Tech Support after New Year's. She tried to help, but the crashing continued even with her on the phone stepping me through the re-install, and she said this would have to be escalated above her. The iMac I am using this on (maybe I should say 'trying' to use this on!) is an iMac 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 running 1 TB Flash storage.

I'm discouraged; I use this scanner a lot for business, and it rocks. Not happy with 10.13.2. I have other quirky behavior, including dozens of 'disk not ejected properly' windows (I have a USB drive attached) that display regularly ('though I can live with that).

If I had an easy way to uninstall HS and go back to an earlier version, I would.

I really don't know what to do at this point...

dbinbama - I feel your pain. I eventually got my ScanSnap i1500M to work properly (documents scanned to PDF files are good now) by installing ScanSnap Manager Version 6.3 L70. I was instructed by a Fujitsu support rep by email to do this, even though this is not the "correct" version for my (older) scanner. Note that my problem (corrupted PDF files) was different from the problem you describe. Specifically, the instructions sent by the Fujitsu rep are as follows:

Update ScanSnap Manager with the following steps:
Download and install ScanSnap Manager V6.3L50.
Once installation is done, install necessary OCR pack(s).Included OCR Language: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian
Included OCR Language: Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean
Download and install the update for ScanSnap Manager V6.3L61.​

I agree with the suggestion in the post above to reinstall macOS 10.13.2. Another thing to try is to re-boot your Mac into "Safe Mode", then shut down and re-boot normally. I have seen several instances in which a Safe Mode re-boot solves obscure or refractory macOS problems. Apparently booting into Safe Mode clears various caches and re-builds various plist files. FYI, my mac is similar to yours: 4 GHz Intel Core i7, 1TB SSD, macOS 10.13.2.

Re: your other issue with the "disk not ejected properly", you might want to check your USB drive, and especially the USB cable. USB 3.0 cables are notorious for becoming defective. Several interactions with a Western Digital rep were required to finally determine that a faulty USB 3.0 cable caused problems for me. Replacing the cable resolved the issue.

Good luck!

 

[dbinbama]

I want to say thanks to 'sitall' and 'infantrytrophy' for trying to help me. I have FINALLY gotten the problem fixed and I am so thankful!

In case there's anyone else out there running High Sierra and having problems with ScanSnap crashing, I found the culprit, thanks to Kenny in Tech Support at Fujitsu. Kenny had helped someone else with the same OS and problem who happened to have CamTwist/Camtasia on their system. So did I. He asked if I'd be willing to remove the software, and I said sure. I removed it, but the crashing continued. Then, I'm surprised when Kenny (who has been reading through the crash messages I included) tells me he still sees evidence of Camtasia on my system, even though it was gone from my Applications folder. I did more research on Apple's forums, and found others commenting about how difficult it is to get Camtasia completely off their system (one of them said it's worse than removing a virus).

My solution came after entering a terminal command to get rid of a hidden plug-in, as detailed here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6214654?start=15&tstart=0

After trying this, all of the ScanSnap files started installing just fine, and the scanner is working great again.

I am very grateful to Fujitsu's Tech Support; without them suggesting I try the Camtasia/Camtwist removal, I have no idea how much longer it would have taken to fix this problem. If they had not been taking the time to read through the crash messages I sent, I would not have known Camtasia was still on my system, even though I thought I had completely removed it.

So, once again, I'm a happy scanner.

Infantrytrophy, I will work on the issue of getting multiple USB message windows next (put out one fire at a time).

Thanks to everyone for all the help -- hope you have a super (and computer glitch-free) 2018!