Saturday, July 13, 2024

End of software support for the Fujitsu (Ricoh, PFU) ix500 document scanner

Many years ago I bought a (then) Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500 document scanner. The hardware has been superb but the MacOS desktop software was always ugly and awkward. Infamously there's no API for a third party to use and no standards support. The current version of the desktop software allows only one active WiFi desktop client to protect revenue on their business line.

In contrast to the desktop app the simple iOS app, ScanSnap.app [ScanSnap Connect Application], worked well for me. It was even multi-user -- anyone could scan from their iPhone.

As of 7/2024 the ix500 still works with a single macOS device by cable or WiFi using the current desktop app. The iOS app is end of life however. A year ago it dropped Google Drive support. A few days ago OneDrive auto-upload started to crash the app following upload (it freezes, needs force quit, the document is lost).

The replacement for [ScanSnap Connect Application] is ScanSnap Home. That app does not support the ix500; it will not connect via WiFi. There is also an end-of-life ScanSnap Cloud app that uses PFU's crazy (failed?) cloud document routing service. I did not test that app.

For now we will probably switch our ix500 to a wired machine connection; I have a de facto home server that will work for that.

I'm playing around with iOS ScanSnap.app to see what still works after disabling OneDrive Auto Upload:

  1. If you preview a PDF doc it can be sent to OneDrive from preview without a crash.
  2. If you tap on the ellipsis next to a File you can AirDrop or otherwise move it about in iOS Files. 
  3. If you use the ScanSnap Edit function, select documents, then choose "Save to the Files app" the documents in <On My iPhone / ScanSnap / ScanSnap / .Files> [1] are copied to <On My iPhone / ScanSnap / ScanSnap> and from there can be manipulated using Files.
I'll update if a learn more. ScanSnap Connect Application was last updated 2m ago but I'm pretty sure it worked until 2w ago. I'm guessing something changed in OneDrive recently. Perhaps it will start working again someday -- like Apple Aperture's peculiar and transient Ventura M1 resurrection.

PS. I have never had Apple's scripting/automation software be useful for anything I really needed it for. It would be nice if there was a way to use it to move things from .Files to somewhere useful but I'd be shocked if that were possible.

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