If you own an older Fujitsu ScanSnap, you may have discovered that it’s no longer supported by El Capitan. My ScanSnap S300 falls into that category. The quickest way to check out the El Capitan compatibility of your ScanSnap is by heading over to the DocumentSnap website, which has summarized the El Cap compatibility of many ScanSnap scanners. If your scanner is no longer supported, don’t give up hope.
UPDATE (2015-10-25) – I neglected to mention that my problems started with a clean install of El Capitan on my MacBook Pro. I did an in-place upgrade to El Capitan on my iMac, and the ScanSnap S300 continued to work without any changes on my part. If you’ve done a clean install, though, the tip below may help.
I struck out with the official software for the S300, as my Mac couldn’t even see the scanner. I then remembered how in the past I had gotten the S300 working on the Mac by hacking the drivers. The S300 was a Windows-branded scanner that was identical in every respect to the Mac’s S300M, except for the color of the plastic. The hack involved using the S1500M drivers, and making one small change to the S1500M drivers to remove a “kill pill” Fujitsu had inserted to Mac prevent users from using one of its “Windows” scanners. That hack later became unnecessary, when Fujitsu’s updated Mac drivers did away with that artificial distinction. Would those S1500M drivers save me again?
I tried out the software for the S1500M earlier today, and, lo and behold, it worked with no modifications. Specifically, I downloaded and installed ScanSnap Manager for Mac V3.2L31. I had previously installed the ABBYY FineReader software, so I don’t know whether the S1500M installer will get you that or not.
I’ll be in the market for another ScanSnap soon, but it’s nice to know I don’t need to thrown a perfectly good scanner onto the trash heap.
capgajahduduk says:
I have an even older Scan Snap, model fi-5110EOXM. Experience so far with El Capitan has been frustrating. Driver version V22L15 has worked, but rarely and inconsistently. When it does not work, it just bounces in the dock and has to be force quit. This is even with gatekeeper turned off. I’ve tried installing V3.2L31, with the same results – eternal bouncing in the dock. I’ve uninstalled all, and then re-installed V22L11 and then V22L15 on top of that and had it work once. (Incidentally, to even attempt this you have to mess with “pkgutil” in terminal to eradicate the instalelr receipt from the newer version, otherwise the V221L11 installer won’t run: ‘sudo pkgutil –forget jp.co.pfu.ScanSnap.V10L10’) But not again after a system restart. The frustrating thing is that I know it CAN work, so why can’t it work all the time? I doubt Fujitsu will be of any help.
November 13, 2015 — 1:56 am
Evan Kline says:
I think you’re right. Although I guess they have to cut off support at some point, although it’s frustrating to have a perfectly good piece of hardware stop working because of a driver issue.
November 16, 2015 — 5:28 pm
htmlmel says:
Thanks for sharing – I also have a S300, and tried real hard to get the S300M drivers to work without success. However your solution worked beautifully! Thanks for making my day.
December 24, 2015 — 7:53 pm
David Kim says:
Thank you! Another success with the S300M on El Capitan (10.11.x)!
January 4, 2016 — 11:08 pm
Chris Davies says:
I also had success downloading the ScanSnap Manager for Mac V3.2L31 linked to above. It overwrote the old version of ScanSnap Manager I had and now my S300M is working perfectly. Many thanks for your brilliant tip!
April 13, 2016 — 12:25 pm
Don S says:
Your solution worked for my S510M. It doesn’t pick up the scan folder from preferences, but it does remember the last folder used.
April 23, 2016 — 2:48 pm
☕ J. B. Rainsberger (@jbrains) says:
Just another “thanks for helping” comment!
May 25, 2016 — 10:53 am
Evan Kline says:
Glad it helped!
May 25, 2016 — 8:58 pm
Len says:
Evan, Thanks, this worked perfectly for me!
June 14, 2016 — 7:16 pm
Rick says:
Thanks for your helpful article. It worked perfectly! Setting up a clean install of OS X El Capitan on a 2012 MacBook Pro with a new SSD and 16GB RAM. Downloaded from the link which gave me a slightly upgraded version “ScanSnap Manager for Mac (V3.2L80) Setup Program”. Installed it and connected an old ScanSnap S510 and it recognized it and went to work. Awesome!
January 14, 2017 — 3:12 pm
DW says:
This has really made my day. I bought the s500m in 2007 and it’s been sitting on a shelf for a couple of years. I’ve been needing to use it for a while and have finally dug it out. If it wasn’t for your post here I would not have been able to still use this hefty priced scanner. Thanks!
February 22, 2017 — 3:02 pm
BL says:
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! V3.2L80 works on a 2007 s500m on OS Sierra on 2013 MacBook Air
April 22, 2017 — 12:51 pm
Guest 47 says:
You are a life saver! Thanks! Really sick of these annual Mac OS X upgrades. They offer absolutely no “features” that benefit or interest me. I held off for as long as I could, but when a quarter of my software no longer work on a 3-year old OS, it’s time to upgrade. Then I find out my hardware no longer works! Planned obsolesce is going to force me to go back to Windows. I really hope they don’t follow Apple’s footsteps. It’s so unethical, that M$ might just do it. Both companies are just as bad as each other.
October 21, 2017 — 11:57 pm
Andy says:
Just got ScanSnap manager (V3.2L80) working after a clean install of High Sierra 10.13.2 on my MacBook Air mid-2012 with my good ol’ S300 (Windows model).
Thanks for saving me a few hundred dollars as I don’t need to buy the S1300i.
January 11, 2018 — 12:24 am
Evan Kline says:
You’re welcome, Andy. I’m glad it worked for you.
January 11, 2018 — 6:43 am
Gary says:
Update? I followed the advise above and downloaded V3.2L31. I installed it in my BU White 2009 MB, running Mountain Lion. STILL no joy! The next thing to check is the USB Cable that goes to the Mac. I replaced the cable, presto! Everything works as it should with my S300M. It is now along with my White MB my travel scanner. So, the moral of the story, before you go checking all these different versions of the Scan Manager (Still a good idea) check the viability of your USB Cable early on.
July 11, 2018 — 2:36 pm