The main thing that’s stopped me from upgrading to Catalina on my iMac is the lack of 64-bit driver support for my sturdy old ScanSnap 500M.
Official support for the scanner ended long ago, but I haven’t given up hope. Every few years I’ve been scouring the Fujitsu website for new software, and occasionally I’ve been able to download software for more recent ScanSnaps and install it successfully.
For the last year or so I’ve been running version 6—but last night an alert popped up on my iMac screen (running Mojave) saying something like “ScanSnap V7 is now available. It includes support for some older scanners.”
That last cryptic remark sparked my interest. I clicked the Update link and was taken here. No mention of the S500M.
I didn’t let that stop me. I clicked the link for the oldest scanner on the list, which I think was the S1500M. Download and installation went perfectly, and the scanner still works—the software looks exactly the same as it did before.
Then, the real test: I installed the same software on my MacBook Pro with Catalina installed. Success! My ScanSnap now works in Catalina (if you check in the System information app, all of the ScanSnap software is now 64-bit).
In both installations I had to fib and tell the installer that my machine was newer than it actually is—but that’s always been the case when I install relatively recent Fujitsu drivers.
An update to run the old ScanSnap software (but a 64-bit) was pushed out recently and I got the notice only last night. I declined to install right away, but I’m seeing other people saying it’s the old interface, but updated.
Odd choice on Fujitsu’s part, that for me anyway invites further skepticism about their reliability in future OS updates.
Thanks! I got them. I think. I’ll have to try setting it up later today.
I really want to find whoever is responsible for these filenames and the website design, wrap them in a blanket, give them a nice warm beverage, assure them that they are in a safe space, and then ask: "Who hurt you? Who made you like this?!"
Because their website and filename/versioning is absurd.
(ScanSnap is also the software that had scan-quality levels something like: “Good, Better, Best, Even Better” which always made me want to pull out my hair out and say You cannot have a level above ‘best’!!!)
Anyway, when I download from Fujitsu’s website, I always make sure to put the download in a folder with the name of whatever it is suppose to be, and then I put a text file in there with the date I downloaded it and the URL that it came from.
Direct Links for ScanSnap iX500 Owners
At least for the time being, these direct links work for downloading the named programs for the ScanSnap iX500 which is the model I have. I don’t know if they actually differentiations for other models or not. or if their website just makes you jump through different hoops for them.
Is it necessary to uninstall the older Scansnap Manager software before installing this new version? Neither the installation instructions nor the Readme file mention this.
Any other requirements? I assume that you should “quit” Scansnap Manager if it is already running.
Worked for me, thanks! I was using an old Mac mini just for scanning, now I need to figure out a new purpose for it (other than keeping it for scanning once scansnap doesn’t work on Big Sur!).
I can also confirm this seems to work great with my ix500. I’ve got it hooked to my Mac mini which is still running Mojave, but it’s 64-bit so assuming that I do eventually “upgrade” this mini to Catalina, it will still work.
Amazing move, and solves the license issue for using ix500 and earlier on more than one computer. But at least for me, I’m liking the new software much better than the old since they’ve gotten the bugs out of it and I’ve figured out how to configure it.
Downloaded the installler on my Mac mini running Catalina and on my 16” MBP running Big Sur. My ScanSnap S1500M is workng just fine.
Thank you @VictorGav
I installed it this morning on the newer of my two MacMini’s. My S510M is now running and saving directly into DEVONThink Pro again on that newer Mini rather than having to work on my older 2009 Mini and then sync through Devonthink Pro. Thanks for posting the info.
Was finally able to update to Catalina today. Was resigned to moving over to SS Home, especially after reading the horror stories here. Sure enough I received a warning that SS Manager was out of date before the install started proper. Once finished, I went to Fujitsu’s site but was surprised that the Catalina page had links to both SS Home and SS Manager. Downloaded Manager and tested. It worked fine so came straight here to see if this was well known and found this thread.
So, not news, but if anyone is interested, I can confirm that the new SS Manager works on Catalina with a S1300i.
Oops, sorry Arthur, I haven’t been able to visit the forum in a while. I didn’t uninstall anything—the “Update” alert just popped onto my screen and I obediently clicked the buttons that the software presented to me.
A few days ago I installed the Big Sur Developer Beta onto my MacBook Pro, onto which I had installed ScanSnap 7.0, connected my ScanSnap S500M, and successfully scanned a test document!
