New Scansnap IXI500 October 12th

Hardware
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If my S1500M becomes a brick, seriously considering an Epson WorkForce –
https://epson.com/For-Work/Scanners/Document-Scanners/Epson-DS-575W-Wireless-Color-Document-Scanner/p/B11B228202
Epson has the following note on its website: Epson will provide macOS 10.14 Mojave drivers and software for Epson products on an on-going basis.

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I have recently realized I need to scan a lot more documents daily and have a backlog to work through, so I am looking for a document scanner. I’m new to bulk scanning, as previously an HP All-In-One did the job well enough for the one-off documents I needed to scan, but it’s quite terrible at bulk jobs. Therefore I have checked out a few scanners and am hoping others might have some suggestions on the ones below or if you have one you prefer:

I’ve found a lot of reviews on each (other than the ix1500 clearly), so I’m just hoping to get honest feedback from people who are likeminded to myself (at least in the sense you are all Mac Power Users).

Thank you for your feedback and time.

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It was mentioned in another thread but not here that the iX500 uses the new ScanSnap Home software (same as the iX1500) in Mojave. I think it is a cleaner design (ScanSnap Manager always seemed a bit weird) and has a nice feature where it will decide the type of the scan apparently based on the document dimensions which could be very useful in my workflow. But I haven’t spent much time with it as running Mojave is just experimental here for now.

I’d certainly look at the competition before buying an iX1500 (or iX500 on clearance?) even though the iX500 has been great over the years. I bought it in February 2013. I’m just more savvy now – at the time I relied solely on David Spark’s recommendation and “Paperless” didn’t mention much about competitive products. There seems to be much more now.

Maybe MPU needs to revisit this topic?

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<Fujitsu have a track record of bricking perfectly functioning ‘older’ models by withdrawing software support.>

Reprehensible arrogance. We can hope that at least the ix500 will operate with 64bit code provided (ScanSnap Home? Is it already out and working for people on Mojave?).

I now have an expensive doorstop that used to be an S1300. I will be looking for more responsible vendors who don’t build in obsolescence in this way in future, especially since I wasted many hours a few years ago isolating my laptop’s refusal to sleep to the Fujitsu auto-update software that was installed without my permission (I selected notification, not automatic update, but it still installed itself to run on startup and then seize energy management in such a way that sleep could not occur). I had to hack into the ~/Library area and manually remove the update code to fix the issue. And of course every time I updated the Fujitsu software it came back until about 6 months later they finally shipped a version without the bug. Not cool.

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I have been using a Fujitsu S1300, but wanted to upgrade to a larger document scanner. I purchased the Brother ADS-2700W and received it today. I’ve scanned hundreds and hundreds of pages without ANY issue. It’s a workhorse, and the software isn’t bad at all. It’s actually a little more intuitive to use than the Scansnap software. The Brother was much cheaper than the iX500 or iX1500.

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The ix500 works fine on ScanSnap Home, which is 64 bit. Also supports 5 other Scanners (at the moment).

The interface is cleaner but I am not sure I will use all the bells and whistles as I find Hazel Rules are more reliable for detecting document type, dates, names etc.59%20pm

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So I used the iX500 with Hazel. Scan to document which is then automatically added to Evernote with tags, etc… It looks like Home is trying to keep this all “in house”. Will the news software still allow a scan to be saved as a file? Sounds to me like the answer is “yes” from what I have read, but nervous about the upgrade.

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I just installed ScanSnap Home and did a test scan with the scanner connected to my Mac via USB. It placed the file in Documents/ScanSnapHome. I have not delved deeper into saving and naming options.

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You can specify where you want the files to go. Home is basically the same as ScanSnap Manager but:

  • No window showing progress while scanning (at least I couldn’t find one).
  • New Auto mode that attempts to separate receipts, business cards, photos, and documents with separate processing rules for each.
  • It scans receipts to extract vendor, date, and amount. It can then optionally add that information to the file name. For a document scan it will do the OCRed PDF as before but will also do the file renaming (I think).
  • Document manager window can be ignored but seems to pop up even if you don’t want it.

So it looks like it should just drop right into whatever previous workflow you have but with some additional options. All the old scanner functionality seems to still be present, but you will have to set up your scanning profiles from scratch as it doesn’t import them from ScanSnap Manager. The program is obviously a version 1. Perhaps they will listen to feedback on feature problems.

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I just bought a ScanSnap ix500 from Amazon last week for $419. Today I noticed that the price fell to $374 and the new ix1500 is available for pre order for $475. My return window is open until 11/10. I might buy the new ix1500 when it releases on 10/24 and if I like it, return the ix500.

I use the ix500 for cloud scanning only to a Dropbox shared folder.

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Those Amazon $374 for the ix500 pop up and must only last a few hours, I have yet been able to catch one. I have one ix500 and would love to pick up another/

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Hi JaxGirl. For what it’s worth, I’ve had two Epson WorkForce scanners at work over the past six years. I don’t find them nearly as reliable as my ScanSnap iX500 at home, and getting the first Epson serviced for a minor detail was so problematic eventually our IT department just bought a new scanner as it wasn’t worth their time to argue with Epson any more. Very limited experience, I know, but perhaps a helpful data point.

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You are right. I just checked and don’t see the $374 deal anymore.

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Thanks for the personal experience. I’m just hoping my S1500M doesn’t get bricked. I just had to replace a printer last week and don’t want to buy a scanner too in the coming year.

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So, the thing that skeeves me out about Scansnap Cloud is that it retains your document for up to 14 days, even if you immediately have it forwarded to Dropbox or another cloud service. Does anyone know if you can choose to not retain the document in Scansnap’s cloud storage at all, or shorten the 14-day window?

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I couldn’t find any way for them not to retain documents in the cloud. I usually go and erase them manually on my iPad in their cloud app.

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Thank you for posting these observations about the new ScanSnap software cloud storage. I’m not averse to cloud storage … but I want to choose which cloud storage. I trust Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive and Backblaze, but I know nothing about Fujitsu’s cloud service. I don’t want to store documents in yet another cloud storage service that is unvetted and of unknown security status. And I don’t want set up and maintain yet another log-in credential for the cloud service - and more importantly, license credentials for “user-licensed” software just to run a peripheral device. Life is already too complicated …

This settles it for me - I will not “upgrade” to the new ScanSnap software or buy a new ScanSnap iX500 or iX1500 to replace my ScanSnap S1500M purchased in 2012. For now I am running the S1500M using Fujitsu’s software for the i1300 on a 2010 MacBook Air and software for the iX500 on a late 2014 Retina iMac under macOS High Sierra. When Fujitsu’s software finally “breaks” (again), I’ll look into an Epson or Brother document scanner.

User-Licensed and user-limited software and mandatory cloud storage … just to run a (very expensive) scanner? Seriously, Fujitsu??

I’ll mention again David and Katie’s continued ads for Fujitsu - If they want to sell ads, fine. But to maintain credibility with the “Mac Power User” crowd I would suggest that disclaimers be made regarding the Fujitsu issues discussed in this forum.

This makes me wonder if Fujitsu is taking lessons from the airline industry. Once you could buy a ticket that included a seat assignment, checked bags and a meal on longer flights … at least on the more expensive airlines. Now there is a “gotcha” at every turn. You would think that an expensive scanner marketed to small businesses and power users would operate without onerous restrictions and rapid obsolescence. Now it appears not.

//end rant. I feel better now. :relieved:

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Calm down. You don’t have to use their cloud storage if you scan to your computer. The license is for four computers so is unlikely to be limiting except as a shared resource in a business. And the new software seems to work without any mention of a license for the iX500 and might work for your S1500M.

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@tomalmy - Thank you; this is the type of information I need to mitigate one of my two main concerns. I can forget the cloud storage concern for the moment.

The other concern remains - why must the software be limited to four computers … and how does that work? I will certainly need to use a newly-purchased scanner on more than four computers over the lifetime of the scanner. I now have 3 Macs in my home - two iMacs (for my wife and me) and a shared MacBook Air. My current S1500M scanner is, at various times, connected to any of these computers, depending on the task at hand. I have simply downloaded and installed the ScanSnap software on each of these computers. Before my elderly mother passed away last year, I frequently traveled to her home, taking the ScanSnap S1500M to connect to either my MacBook or a locally-available computer to scan her documents - various bills, financial statements, etc. Over a period of 5 years I scanned hundreds, maybe thousands of documents for her. Having these documents available to me was essential in handling her affairs as trustee and administrator for her estate. Over the years I may have used 5 or 6 different computers to scan all of these documents with the ScanSnap S1500M.

To carry this use case further - at some point I would replace some, and probably all, of the computers that were initially “licensed” to the scanner software. Can the license be transferred from the initial four computers to other computers? If so, how is this done? And how does this work if I want to sell the scanner or give it to a family member? Do I really even “own” the scanner, in the traditional sense? If not, that is not made clear in Fujitsu’s advertising.

It seems to me that scanner driver software should be simply available to the scanner, wherever I want to use it (within the advertised parameters - e.g., Windows, macOS), without a “hassle” factor. I don’t consider my use for the scanner to be an “edge” case - I’m simply the family-designated record-keeper who happens to own the only sheet-fed document scanner available. I paid a high price for the scanner (or would pay a high price for a new scanner) and don’t want to be unreasonably restricted in using it for what I consider “normal” use for this type of scanner.

Thanks again for you comments.

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I expect we will know more about the licensing of the software for the IX1500 when someone gets one and reviews it. Meanwhile it would appear that the licenses are associated with the IX1500, not the computers. Note the comment “Five computers per license can be connected to one ScanSnap unit” in these instructions https://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/imaging/downloads/manual/ss_webhelp/en/help/webhelp/topic/fu_env_01.html
It all looks confusing to me!